GloomCookie Series by Serena Valentino, Vincent Batignole, John Gebbia

(W) Serena Valentino (A) Various GloomCookie is Serena Valentino's cult-favorite, goth-infused, satirical soap opera graphic novel series, focusing on the star-crossed relationship between goth clubber Lex and her gargoylesque friend and lover Damion. Each volume collects a six-issue arc of the series; Volume 1 features are from Ted Naifeh, Jon Gebbia provides art for Volume 2, Breehn Burns works on Volume 3, Harley Sparx draws Volume 4, and Vincent Batignole provides art on Volume 5.

Gothic fairy tales with sharp characters and dialogue, and gorgeous art grace these vignettes of romance, humor, horror, and sorrow. Unrequited love, social treachery, bad goth poetry, and monsters under the bed lure you in with daring imagery and a rich, dark atmosphere.

The drama continues with GloomCookie's third collection. Lex & Damion are haunted by a terrible curse, Sebastian struggles to understand his increasing powers, and Chrys learns about her past.

GloomCookie features an ensemble cast of cursed beauties, living wax statues, bad goth poets, malevolent gargoyles, disturbed werewolves, and a boy struggling to come to terms with his enormous power. The Carnival Macabre goes to war against Marguerite and her evil shape shifting acolytes for their horrific misdeeds against Sebastian and his friends.

Wrapping up the long-running Gloom Cookie series, The Final Curtain brings us to a brief resting point for all of the characters as the goth soap opera brings everything to a boil, with plots, twists and turns in the relationships and the storylines.