Sometimes stories stick with you because of a particularly well turned phrase. Sometimes it’s the characters. With Kissing Chaos, like a lot of the great noir films, it sticks with you because of the murky atmosphere and slowly built feeling of tension about to explode. Three teens get caught up in dangerous circumstances, and for much of tale you can’t tell who may be a perpetrator or victim. The story begins as if someone flicked on the TV when the movie started fifteen minutes ago, and despite the disorientation, it works well. Arthur Dela Cruz seems to know well how to time the story, how to release each revelation to set the reader off balance just a little more. On top of that, it’s hard to imagine any other artwork accompanying this story. The lush gray tones make it seem as if everything and everyone is slightly obscured, and the sketched quality of the lines accentuate the disjointed plot. The tale is a dark one, about desperate choices and consequences, but everything, believe me, is not as it seems.
Kissing Chaos, vol. 1
ISBN: 9781929998326
by Arthur Dela Cruz
Oni Press 2002
