Lorelei

(Starwarp, 1993)
™ and © Starwarp

Originally published in 1993, this collection tells the story of how a sexy photographer named Laurel O’Hara becomes Lorelei, a succubus who steals the souls of child abusers and other lowlifes. The small paperback collects Lorelei #0-5, as well as a new prologue. The basic story revolves around Laurel and her encounter with Arioch (whose origin is unclear, although he seems to be a long-lived supernatural being who creates succubae out of nubile young women). The latest is Marlene, a stripper who is the subject of many of Laurel’s photographs. While we are introduced to the main characters in the six chapters included here—and it’s obvious where the story is headed—Lorelei herself doesn’t appear.

That’s just one of the faults of this collection, which, unfortunately, didn’t age well. Steven Roman has gone on to write a number of mainstream comics since self-publishing Lorelei, and, while the writing here is passable, the story moves much too slowly and is overly reliant on sophomoric innuendo and gratuitous nudity. David Matthews and Kevin Tuma’s art improves as the chapters progress, though the earlier pages are amateurish.

— Timothy J. Wood

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