Roman Dirge’s Lenore: Swirlies Review: Dead Kids and Hot Dogs

A hundred-year old embalmed girl with a lightly-toned acerbic wit and two oddly-shaped friends will have you inappropriately laughing out loud.

In volume 4 of Lenore, “Swirlies” Roman Dirge further creates a world where taking pictures of your friends is brought to a whole new level.

This “cute little dead girl” along with Ragamuffin, Wicket and Pooty begin their mayhem in “Birfday Party.” Impaled children and a hot dog that winds up in a very strange place resonates with that part of you that doesn’t care who’s looking when you laugh hysterically to the point where you ignore the tightening in your chest.

It only gets better from there, as each story looks into an “ordinary” day of Lenore. From stalkers with candy castles to entities seeking revenge it seems as if Dirge has tapped into that inner child who wants to have Halloween year round.

The artwork (also done by Dirge) will remind you of Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” But don’t mistake the large eyes and elongated limbs for a Burton recreation. Dirge is no copycat. Instead he has a unique sensibility of drawing distinctly his own, that doesn’t distract from his storytelling. You take in his tales of Lenore as a whole. To differentiate the art from the story would give you an incomplete picture of what is as cuddly as a porcupine who eats its own regurgitation.

Yet you’ll still love it and eagerly anticipated the next set of adventures.

And you’ll never look at a pig the same way again.