Lenore: The Time War

by | Sep 5, 2025

When last we left Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl, she and her friends were in dire circumstances. Well, as dire as they can be when you’re already dead and Hell has pretty much given up on reclaiming you.

Regardless, Pooty Applewater (the bucket-headed bounty hunter demon) accidentally awakened, killed, and resurrected a pickle hat, which turned into a murderous monster. Unfortunately, despite it wanting to kill Lenore, Pooty and their doll-friend Ragamuffin, Lenore forbid Pooty to kill the pickle hat. Again. Even though this left them trapped in their house and slowly starving to death. Or undeath. Or whatever.

Salvation seemed to arrive in the form of the Time Goats – a group of advanced goats from the future, who mastered the science of time travel. They came to stop Pooty from killing the pickle hat and bringing about the end of all reality. Or making sure he killed it, so the pickle hat didn’t destroy all reality. Instead, they became a meal for Lenore and her friends, which wound up scattering them across time.

Yeah. Eating cooked Time Goat makes you time travel. Who knew?!

Now Lenore and her friends are scattered across time and trying to make their way home. And this is where things start to get weird…

Those who are familiar with Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl and the comics of Roman Dirge will find more of the same wacky weirdness and oddball artwork in Lenore: The Time War. Those who are not familiar with Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl will soon grasp the core concept.

Despite picking up where the previous series ended, this book is fairly friendly to new readers thanks to Dirge satirizing comic book continuity with the character of Flashback Squirrel. This strange being happily explains everything at the start of each chapter, even as he fakes his own death to escape his secret families to indulge in sick, twisted activities.
Yes, even more sick and twisted than the events of Lenore: The Time War.

Regardless, while Roman Dirge’s work is sure to appeal to those who like Tim Burton movies and other cute, Gothic and twisted things, there is another angle to be appreciated here. The time-travel based storyline offers a lot of humor for sci-fi fans. I can particularly see the quirky humor appealing to Doctor Who fans, particularly when Lenore starts dealing with various gods and a frenemy who hasn’t met them yet, but they know all too well.

Titan Comics rated this volume as appropriate for readers 15 and up. This made me quirk my head a bit, because the last Lenore volume I looked at was rated 18+. I would put this one in the Adult Graphic Novels collection for consistency. Beyond several jokes about cannibalism, there are also references to Thai sex tourism, marital infidelity, murder, mayhem, child abuse, child neglect, animal abuse, butt-wiping, and repeated violations of the space-time continuum.

It’s all in the name of good fun, however, for a given value of good fun. Just be forewarned that it is not appropriate for children and sensitive souls.

Lenore: The Time War
By Roman Dirge
Titan, 2025
ISBN: 9781787745421

Company Age Rating: 15+

NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)

The Bloody Best of Lenore

by | Apr 8, 2025

I did not read any of the original Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl comics when they first came out in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This is astonishing for several reasons. Chief among them was my being a Goth and comic nerd who came of age around that time.

Alas, despite being exposed to Sandman and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac through Lucy; the cute Goth grrrll who worked at the local comic shop, I somehow never learned that Lenore was a comic and not an icon created to sell merchandise at Hot Topic until several years later. By that point, the original comics were out of print and hard to come by honestly. Or even dishonestly.
I didn’t think much about Lenore until earlier this year, when I was asked if I would review the current Lenore series published by Titan Comics. I said I would like to, but I had never actually read the earlier Lenore comics. Lo and behold, they offered to send me a copy of The Bloody Best of Lenore and told me to get to work. So I did. And oh my badness I am even more astonished I did not read this before!

There is not much of a plot to Lenore, nor much continuity between the individual chapters. At least, none that matters beyond introducing the various characters. Lenore is a zombie who was about 10 when she died over 100 years earlier. She lives in a scary mansion with her two friends: Ragamuffin and Pooty Applewater. Ragamuffin is a vampire who was cursed and trapped in the body of a rag doll. Pooty is a bounty hunter, with a bucket for a head, who was meant to take Lenore back to Hell, but decided not to because that would mean he’d have to return to Hell too and he really didn’t want to do that. Because of it being Hell.

The comics center around them goofing off, reenacting various children’s nursey rhymes in a dark fashion, and dealing with various supernatural menaces. These range from the creepy mad coroner who wants to finish embalming Lenore, to the Creepig; an undead pig that kills all creatures who eat leftover pork products after midnight.

The artwork by Roman Dirge is deceptively cute yet disturbing. Dirge’s own recollection of their past is that their art teacher told them they would never find success as an artist. This inspired him to become a stage magician, a musician and, most shamefully, a comic book magazine publisher, before several empty pages forced him to fill the space with something. That something became Lenore and thus did an international nightmare begin

Fans of Tim Burton and other dark yet cute things are the ones most likely to enjoy Lenore. It should be noted, however, that the darkness here is very dark and Titan Comics rated this volume M for audiences 18 and up for a reason. There are disturbing images. There are dead baby jokes. There are numerous references to various bad things happening to Ragamuffin while he sleeps up to and including sexual assault. You have been warned.

The Bloody Best of Lenore
By Roman Dirge
Titan, 2017
ISBN: 9781785863042

Company Age Rating: M (18+)

NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+)