The Complete Darkness Volume 1

Huge crease on back cover corner.

Mine came in perfect condition i like the story of the darkness and I like that it includes the darkness 1-18 tales of the darkness 1-4 witchblade 10 18 19 it’s a good read i think you should get the hard cover i got the trade paperback but if you are afraid it might rip then get the hard cover

ordered direct from amazon, copy arrived with a razorblade cut through the first 20 or so pages, about an inch long in the middle right hand side. frustrating.

Nice art good story

Good read

Hi. I want to buy a comprehensive "The Darkness" compilation but I am confused between so many versions. If I want to have all the volumes in chronological order of the story, which of these books should I buy?(1) The Darkness Compendium (Vol. 1) by Ennis, Garth, Jenkins, Paul(December 25, 2006)(2) The Darkness 1 (January 1, 2008) ISBN-13 : 978-1582408019(3) The Complete Darkness, Volume 1 – March 2, 2021 ISBN-13 : 978-1534317949(4) The Darkness Compendium (Vol. 2) (July 10, 2012) ISBN-13 : 978-1607064039(5) The Darkness Rebirth – September 11, 2012 ISBN-13 : 978-1607065852(6) The Darkness Accursed – Illustrated, March 3, 2009 ISBN-13 : 978-1582409580(7) The Darkness Origins, August 22, 2017 ISBN-13 : 978-1607060970

Marc Silvestri was one of the superstar artists on Marvel’s ‘X Men’ franchise when in 1992 he joined other well-known artists in comics in forming Image, a creator-owned comic book line. The Image founders published their work under their own studios; Silvestri selected the name ‘Top Cow’ for his studio.More so than some of the other founders of Image, Silvestri had a good understanding of what was needed to properly manage a comic book imprint, and Top Cow came through the Great Comic Book Crash of 1993 in reasonably good shape. Top Cow’s marquee title was ‘Witchblade’, introduced in 1995, which featured a New York City policewoman who possesses a mystical gauntlet that confers superhuman powers upon its wielder.In December 1996 Top Cow launched ‘The Darkness’, featuring artwork by Silvestri and script by Garth Ennis. Much like Jack Kirby did with his title for DC, ‘The Demon’, in 1972, ‘Darkness’ is about a man who can switch to a demonic alter ego. In the case of ‘The Darkness’, our protagonist is Jackie Estacado, a Mafia hit man (and ladies’ man). Estacado inherits a hereditary curse that endows him with superpowers, and the ability to command a cohort of sadistic goblins. ‘The Darkness’ saw Estacado tangle with rival mobsters, secret societies eager to appropriate his powers for their own purposes, and hostile supernatural entities.’The Darkness’ ultimately ran for 64 issues (distributed among two Volumes), ending in November 2005. It was popular enough to lead to an eponymous video game, which was released in 2007 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. A sequel, ‘The Darkness II’, was published in 2012.‘The Complete Darkness: Volume One’ compiles ‘The Darkness’ issues 1 – 18 (December 1996 – November 1998) along with the four-issue series ‘Tales of the Darkness’, ‘Darkness: Prelude’ issue 1, and three Witchblade issues (10, 18, and 19) featuring a crossover storyline.‘The Darkness’ is the quintessential 1990’s Image superhero comic. Plotting is subordinate to the art, which features meticulous detail, lots of violence, and LOTS of cheesecake (such as Estacado’s archenemy the ‘Angelus’, which is comprised of pneumatic young women equipped with metallic bikinis and Bad Attitudes; or the Magdalena, an order of warrior nuns who are selectively recruited from the ranks of lingerie models).Readers looking for complex, semi-coherent (or incoherent) scripting aren’t going to find it in the pages of ‘The Darkness’, and instead are directed to any X-Men comic of the 1990s.There’s plenty of sarcastic humor throughout ‘The Darkness’, showing that Silvestri and Ennis weren’t taking themselves too seriously.One thing that holds up really well in this reprint compilation is the quality of the color separations. In their book ‘American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1990s’, Keith Dallas and Jason Sacks note that a major draw for the formation of Image comics was the ability to print its titles using the color print processes of Malibu Comics of Calabasas, California. Malibu’s color printing was leagues ahead of the methods used by DC and Marvel during the 1990s, and despite being a quarter-century old, the color schemes in these ‘Darkness’ comics have a modern, polished appearance.Summing up, in ‘The Complete Darkness: Volume One’ you get over 630 pages of entertaining comics for an affordable price. Pairing it with ‘The Complete Witchblade: Volume One’ will give you as good an overview of the ‘superhero and cheesecake’ genre of 1990s comics as anyone could hope to have.

So glad I managed to get a copy of this. I think it’ll be rarer than rocking horse poo in the not too distant future. Great story. Great price. Great art.

Never read the title back in the 90s. But good little read I knew of the character played the PS3 gamesGive it a chance not the best story ever...but different though and worth reading

This was my first read of the Top Cow series made popular in the 90s. Garth Ennis is one of the best writers in this medium and I don't think he's ever paired with a hot mainstream artist and Image founding father.He wrote the first six issues and came back as a secondary plotter for two more. The story was okay with predictable tropes such as Angelus bringing her lover to a fight which allows the protagonist to take her hostage and get away. The characters were better written with some trademark Ennis wit, but can't hold a candle to Hit-man, Hellblazer etc.One can expect a certain house art style from Top Cow. Surprisingly Silvestri is weakest artist in this collection as most of his pages are zoomed in on character faces and then a full figure floating on the panel. I think he was running late as there were delays between issues 2-4. Backgrounds are rare to none and for an urban setting, the buildings are uninspired. Reminded me of his Cyber-Force crossover with WildCATS where his work looked unfinished compared to Jim Lee.I bought this book strictly for Garth but there is some great art in the later chapters. The writing however gets worse. Probably won't read it again and will ponder upon why it's in my collection at all. The Darkness is only good when Garth Ennis writes it, so that's an odd 120 pages out of approx 630.Opinion: The Image founding fathers with the exception of Jim Lee, haven't produced consistently strong art since their time at Marvel/DC.