The Dark Gauntlet

    (Tarescent, 1994)
©1994 Tarescent Synductions

Most comics act as a sort of written movie, with the panels displaying the various scenes, and dialog supplied by word balloons. The four issues of this magazine-sized comic are more of an illustrated essay on the nature of being, with the art only vaguely related to the written portion of each panel.

The “story” is about a realm known as the Dark Gauntlet where certain Earth people have been transported. It’s a vaguely sword-and-sorcery milieu, although the primary quest is not to kill monsters or battle magicians. Instead, the inhabitants have to come to philosophical awareness of the purpose for their own existence. The accompanying text is a Thoreau-like essay on the struggle for meaning and self-knowledge. Adding to its strangeness, the creative team for Dark Gauntlet is completely anonymous, working under pseudonyms, and publishing at a P.O. box under the name Tarescent Synductions.
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