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The Top Cow team puts together three short tales inspired by the holidays and dedicated to the late Elena Salcedo.
Creative Team:
“The Bafana” – Marguerite Bennett (Writer), Giuseppe Cafaro (Line Art), Juan Fernandez (Colors), Troy Peteri (Letters)
“Twas The Night Before Darkness” – Marc Silvestri (Writer), Tina Valentino (Line Art), Ellie Wright and Fabio Mantovan (Colors), Troy Peteri (Letters)
“Twelve Days” – Matt Hawkins (Writer), Atilio Rojo (Illustrator), Troy Peteri (Letters)
TOP COW HOLIDAY SPECIAL Published by Image Comics / Top Cow Productions
THOUGHTS
I appreciate publishers that spend the time to put together holiday specials. While not all are smash hits, there’s always something nice about them.
Top Cow is an interesting publisher to have one of these with their cast of characters like Witchblade, Darkness, and Aphrodite, but they made one of the more enjoyable specials I’ve read in the last few years.
The first story is called “The Bafana” and written by Marguerite Bennett, linework by Giuseppe Cafaro, colors by Juan Fernandez, and letters by Troy Peteri.
Bennett, Cafaro, and Peteri are the regular team on Top Cow’s current Witchblade series (minus colorist Arif Prianto), so it made a lot of sense that they would put something together with Sara.
DON’T MISS THE TOP 10!
This story has Sara looking back on her childhood and her family, and more importantly her grandmother. The story of the Bafana is Sara’s grandmother’s favorite story which tells the tale of the Italian Christmas Witch. Her grandmother would dress up as the Bafana and give out gifts to the good children and onions and garlic to the bad ones. The story is a simple one of remembering family at the holidays, but left me with a good feeling of remembering my grandparents who are no longer with us anymore. This is a great story and beautifully drawn.
Moving into the next story, the Darklings change up the whole vibe of the special into something you can easily have fun and laugh along with. “Twas The Night Before Darkness” is written by Top Cow founder, Marc Silvestri, art by Tina Valentino, colors by Ellie Wright and Fabio Mantovan, and letters by Troy Peteri.
KNIGHTS VS. SAMURAI!
As the name of the story hopefully explains, this is a play on the Christmas story, “Twas the Night Before Christmas” with a bit of a twist thanks to it being told by one of the Darklings. Silvestri does a great job with this story and adds in the dark humor and violence that you should expect from these creatures. The art in this story is fabulous. It’s light hearted and fits the tone of what Silvestri is conveying.
The last story by writer Matt Hawkins, artist Atilio Rojo, and letterer Troy Peteri is a play on the Christmas classic “Twelve Days of Christmas” as Aphrodite must battle through twelve levels of danger to rescue a mysterious captive. Much like the previous story, Hawkins gives us the words that many of us are familiar with as Aphrodite moves through the levels in a cute way.
While all of that is happening, we get her narrating the story as well, and the two lines of thinking work well with one another. This story feels like the most work that needed to be done to tie in the two themes of a holiday themed story with a Top Cow character and it works very well. Rojo is a long time artist with Top Cow and does a great job with the art.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, this was a very fun special to read and look over. It doesn’t hurt that I’m a long time fan of each of these creators and these characters. This is a book that deserves your attention, and would make for an enjoyable addition to your reading list this week and month.
RATING:
8 out of 10
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