Larime Taylor’s A Voice in the Dark is a book that you should be investing in.
Let’s state our bias up-front. Since we first discovered the work and story of Larime Taylor, we’ve not only reviewed his stuff quite favourably, but we’ve also interviewed him several times. He’s even been a guest host on our podcast. Indeed, it’s fair to say he’s a friend of ours. None of this changes the fact that A Voice in the Dark, published by Image Comics for Top Cow, is a thrilling and tautly written book that contains strong female leads, an ethnically diverse cast and some inky black humour.
Did we also mention that Larime “writes, draws, tones, and letters the book himself with his mouth”? Larime is a disabled mouth artist born with Arthrogryposis and currently lives in Las Vegas. An impressive feat by itself, but that also doesn’t change the fact that Larime’s art is also gritty and real, drawing inspiration from life model photography to create a modern noir that combines with his clear love of Terry Moore and Dexter.
In the series, Taylor introduces us to Zoey, who has successfully managed to go 72 days without killing anybody. As she starts a new life at college in Cutter’s Circle, Zoey becomes the host of a late night college radio show, but with another killer running around town, she begins to wonder if she is also hosting a new playground for the sinister side of the town. The big name voice over artist in this trailer describes A Voice in the Dark as “the kind of book people complain on Tumblr and Twitter” never gets published. Yet as Taylor has recently conceded on his own Tumblr account, “the book is on lifesupport”.
“I have to admit,” Larime notes. ” I’m frustrated. Sales on the book continue to drop and there doesn’t seem to be much I can do to stop it. I’ve tried everything I can.” Beginning with September’s A Voice in the Dark: Get Your Gun, the second “season” of the series, Larime has switched to colour, a commercial decision that he hopes will boost the sales of the book.
Larime’s frustration is understandable: the book has received an average rating of 8.9 out of 10 for the first 7 issues, based on 59 reviews. That’s even better than Scott Snyder’s top-selling Batman! The quality of the book has never been called into question, and it continues to provide the kind of things that mainstream audience continue to claim are missing in comics. It’s had some major fans in Terry Moore, Gail Simone and Mark Silvestri, and national media coverage. Yet books, and more importantly their creators, live and die on pre-sales.
If you’ve ever stopped to ask yourself “Whatever happened to that book?”, it’s probably that people stopped buying it so it disappeared. This is why it is really important to pre-order single issues from your local comic book stores if you believe in the quality of the book. It’s very easy to argue that your download doesn’t hurt big studios when they are making billions of dollars, but there is a direct correlation between working artists, sales and how much they have to eat the next month. So in the words of Larime, here’s what you can do.
CALL or GO INTO your local comic shop and order the trade. The order number is APR140534. Don’t get it at Amazon, tell your comic book store there are readers. Monthlies aren’t sold on Amazon, and monthlies are how I make a living.
CALL or GO INTO your local comic shop and order the first two issues of the next volume. The order numbers are JUL140458, and AUG140691.
Put your money where your mouth is. Behind the Panels is a massive supporter of this book, and we’d hate to see Larime have to compromise his original vision. Being Australians, we see first hand the hard work of independent comic writers and artists and how much they rely on your direct dollar. Whether it is Paul Bedford’s The List, the Purcell brothers’ Winter City, Ryan K Lindsay’s Headspace, Craig Bruyn’s From Above or any of the output of Gestalt Comics, they rely on the reader.
Grant Morrison recently changed perceptions in his current work The Multiversity, putting the onus on the reader to demand a better quality of book and craft the landscape the way they want to see it. You quite literally have the power to do that by ordering books with strong messages.
You can order A Voice in the Dark from your local comic book store, or buy it online digitally (DRM free and downloadable immediately) at the Image Comics webstore.
