This article needs additional citations for verification .(April 2010) |
Aria is a comic book metaseries published by Image Comics (initially through Avalon Studios), written by Brian Holguin and drawn by Jay Anacleto.
Its protagonist is Kildare, a faerie who has chosen to live amongs the mortals.
There have been several Aria miniseries written over the course of 1999–2003, which have been collected in trade paperbacks.
The story opens in a New York bookshop, specializing in the esoteric. The shop owner, a sardonic young woman named Kildare, over the course of a day deals with a woman who found a sword in her flat, two goths who want to drink absinthe, and a man looking for a bargain-basement love potion. After work, she goes back to her flat, where she is greeted by a talking mirror and a fish tank full of tiny merpeople.
She goes to a club which caters to an unusual clientele, where it becomes apparent that the woman is a Fae noble. She meets a man named Pug, later revealed to be a dwarf, and the bartender Dion, who is none other than the Greek god Dionysus. On the way home, she is attacked by a group of shadowy creatures.
Meanwhile, in an elven pub in Cottingly, a group of Fae are killed by further shadowy creatures.
In New York, Pug has rescued Kildare, and they are both looking for some answers. We are also introduced to Childe Roland, a half-elf street artist.
The death of the drinkers means that all of the Fae must return to their realm, temporarily for the funeral. 'Mad Ginny', the heroine's cousin, a touch insane, is the ultimate cause of the Cottingly Fairies fiasco. She, too, is being stalked by the shadowy creatures.
Eventually, the villain becomes apparent: a dark spiritual creature, who fought the Fae in ages past, and survived up to the present day as a shrub. After gathering strength for many years, his spirit is able to directly touch the physical world, and influence it, causing such disasters as the Great Fire of London in 1666. Finally he is able to take the shape of a human, he finds Mad Ginny, rapes her, and sires a son, through which he can act against the world at any time. The son is gathering the forces of the father.
In a final confrontation Kildare, Pug and a mortal wizard battle the son in a shadow realm. He is conducting a ceremony to transfer his soul to that of a human in our world which will allow him to act against mankind. The three defeat the son but not before he transfers his soul back to earth and the waiting recipient. Childe is waiting for him and quickly binds the man with magic.
On the final page we see that Ginny has moved to New York to live with Kildaire, the two of them work in Kildaire's antique and magic shop where the two of them watch over an urn that houses the soul of the dark one they trapped.
This mini-series is a two issue crossover where Kildare meets Angela, the angel who appeared in Spawn. In London at the end of the 19th century, Kildare encounters a freak show exhibiting Angela and must rescue her. Because of copyright issues around the Angela character, this story was remade in 2021 as Heavenly Creatures.
In this six issue mini-series, Kildare battles Goodfellow, otherwise known as Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream , who is involved in an underground market where human souls are traded.
In this two issue mini-series, Kildare encounters a lost love, True Thomas, in 1960s London. In January 2002, Aria: A Midwinter's Dream was also published, which consisted of four illustrated text stories about Aria characters (Kildare, Pug, Ondine, and Lord Zephon).
In this four issue mini-series, Kildare investigates the Kingdom of Enchantment, an abandoned theme park from the 1950s, which contains a true hidden magical kingdom.
This double-length one-shot is an almost panel-for-panel remake of 2000's Aria/Angela, but replacing Angela with an as-yet-unnamed similar character. This is due to Image Comics having lost the rights to use the Angela character in a 2012 court decision.
The series has been collected into a number of trade paperbacks:
Guy Davis is an American creature designer, concept artist, illustrator and storyboard artist who has worked on film, television, comic book and video game projects. He is known for his collaborations with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, including the television series The Strain (2014–17) and the films Pacific Rim (2013), Crimson Peak (2015) and The Shape of Water (2017). Beforehand, Davis was the regular artist for the Hellboy spinoff comic B.P.R.D. (2003–2010), as well as the artist behind his own creator-owned comic The Marquis (2009).
Joe's Comics is an American comic book imprint of Image Comics run by J. Michael Straczynski's Studio JMS and was originally published as an imprint of Top Cow Productions. As of 2014, key titles in the current line include Dream Police, The Book of Lost Souls, Ten Grand, Protectors Inc, and Sidekick.
The Darkness is a superhero created by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis, and David Wohl, who first appeared in Witchblade #10, published by Top Cow Productions. Jackie Estacado is a New York mafioso who, after turning 21, inherits the curse of the Darkness.
Black Widow is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer George Kapitan and artist Harry Sahle, the character first appeared in Mystic Comics #4, published by Marvel predecessor Timely Comics. Claire Voyant is an anti-hero who kills evildoers to deliver their souls to her master, Satan.
Michael Avon Oeming is an American comic book creator, both as an artist and writer.
Lazarus Churchyard is a fictional character in a British comics series, created in 1991 by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Matt Brooker under the pseudonym D'Israeli. The stories are cyberpunk in theme, although Ellis himself does not consider it so and prefers to call it "decadent SF".
Scott Morse is an American animator, filmmaker, and comic book artist/writer.
Stanley and His Monster is an American comic-book humor feature and later series from DC Comics, about a boy who has a monster as his companion instead of a dog. Created by writer Arnold Drake and artist Winslow Mortimer as a backup feature in the talking animal comic The Fox and the Crow #95, it went to its own 1960s title and a 1990s revival limited series.
City of Silence is a three-issue comic book limited series written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Gary Erskine.
Brian Haberlin is an American comic book artist, writer, editor and producer. He is best known as the co-creator of the Witchblade franchise and for his digital art style.
Brian Holguin is an American comic book writer.
Crestwood Publications, also known as Feature Publications, was a magazine publisher that also published comic books from the 1940s through the 1960s. Its title Prize Comics contained what is considered the first ongoing horror comic-book feature, Dick Briefer's "Frankenstein". Crestwood is best known for its Prize Group imprint, published in the late 1940s to mid-1950s through packagers Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who created such historically prominent titles as the horror comic Black Magic, the creator-owned superhero satire Fighting American, and the first romance comic title, Young Romance.
Loaded Bible is a series of one-shot comic books written by Tim Seeley, with art by Nate Bellegarde, the first of which, Jesus vs. Vampires, was published in February 2006 by Image Comics.
Jamie McKelvie is a British cartoonist and illustrator, known for his both work on books such as Phonogram, Young Avengers and The Wicked + The Divine, and his approach to comic character design.
Proof is an American comic book series, published by Image Comics and created by writer Alex Grecian and artist Riley Rossmo. The story concerns John "Proof" Prufrock, a sasquatch, who works for a secret government organization. He hunts cryptids with his partner, Ginger Brown, and seeks clues to his past. The book was influenced by The X-Files and Tarzan.
Supergirl is the name of seven comic book series published by DC Comics, featuring various characters of the same name. The majority of the titles feature Superman's cousin Kara Zor-El.
X-Infernus is a four-issue comic book mini-series that started in December 2008. Written by C. B. Cebulski, with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli, it was a sequel to "Inferno". It sees the return of the character Magik searching Limbo for her soul.
The Masters of the Universe media franchise has appeared in several comic book series. Most were small publications, which were included as bonuses with action figures. Standalone comic-book series were also published by DC, Marvel Comics, London Edition Magazines and Image Comics.
Little Red Hot is an American comic book series created, written and drawn by film concept artist Dawn Brown. The book is published by Image Comics. The series currently consists of two mini-series: Chane of Fools, published in 1999, and Bound, published in 2001.