Delphine

Delphine #1-4

by Richard Sala

A mysterious traveler gets off the train in a small village surrounded by a thick, sinister forest. He is searching for Delphine, who vanished with only a scrawled-out address on a scrap of paper as a trace. In his newest chiller, Richard Sala takes the tale of Snow White and stands it on its head, retelling it from Prince Charming's perspective (the unnamed traveler) in a contemporary setting. This twisted tale includes all the elements of terror from the original fairy tale, with none of the insipid saccharine coating of the Disney animated adaptation. Yes, there will be blood.

Originally serialized as part of the acclaimed international series, Delphine is executed in a rich and ominous duotone that shows off Sala's virtuosity just as much as last year's full-color post-apocalyptic horror fantasy The Hidden did; punctuated with stunning full-color chapter breaks.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Horror, Comics, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Gothic

128 pages, Hardcover

First published October 17, 2012

About the author

Richard Sala grew up with a fascination for musty old museums, dusty old libraries, cluttered antique shops, narrow alleyways, hidden truths, double meanings, sinister secrets and spooky old houses. He has written and drawn a number of unusual graphic novels which often combine elements of classic mystery and horror stories and which have been known to cause readers to emit chuckles as well as gasps. Although most of his books are written with teens and older readers in mind, his book, CAT BURGLAR BLACK, can be enjoyed by younger readers as well.

To view current art and activity, please visit: http://richardsala.tumblr.com

Note: I am new to GoodReads ~ and I am happy to have a place dedicated to sharing my love of books with other book lovers. Please be patient with me if I seem rather slow and clumsy! Thanks to all my readers over the years!

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young man goes in search of a special girl he met at school and ends up in a creepy, unending, sepia-toned nightmare,.

Are those people really witches and goblins or just innocent merchants and townsfolk?

Here are the deep, dark woods of fairy tales, peopled by an evil stepmother, a kind-hearted woodsman and a big, bad wolf.


This was a darkly enchanting read, filled with luscious but disturbing imagery. When I finished the book, I had that weird feeling you get after waking from a strange, half-remembered dream.

[Jan Philipzig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Darker and maybe more ambitious than your typical Sala book, though not necessarily better. The pacing felt a little off to me, and I am not sure it all really added up to much. Still, I doubt Sala is even capable of creating anything that isn't enjoyable in some crazy way at least...

[Michelle Morrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young man goes searching for a lost love and finds far more than he ever expected. Creepy, messed up, never trust those isolated little towns next to malevolent woods!

[Sam Quixote · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young man and woman fall in love while at university but her father’s poor health drives the girl, Delphine, back to her hometown to look after him. The two never meet again but later on the man (he remains nameless throughout) decides to reconnect with Delphine and heads to her isolated small town in the middle of nowhere to catch up and hopefully reconnect. But when he arrives and wanders the empty streets of the town he notices strange people - a ghastly looking man grinning and selling mouldy apples, a funeral attended by witches, an insane cabbie, a creepy man and his demented mother, and a horde of small, ugly men following a ghostly, beautiful woman. Somewhere in this nightmare is his beloved Delphine and he is determined to find her. But will he even escape this town let alone find her...?

This might be my favourite out of Richard Sala’s books. I’m a big fan of his work and, aside from (the incredibly hard to find at a reasonable price) “Maniac Killer Strikes Again!”, I’ve read them all and “Delphine” is his best, most solid effort to date. An exploration of fairy tales and their symbolism, this book has the best elements of horror and fairy tales mixed in with Sala’s own unique drawing style and strong storytelling sense. There’s pieces of Hitchcock, Angela Carter, Poe, Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, ETA Hoffmann, and Charles Addams throughout this book, returning the original fairy tales of Perrault and Grimm to their dark roots, infusing them with macabre moments of horror.

Sala’s choice of a sepia colour palette adds to the suffocating atmosphere of inescapable horror as our hero, ostensibly Prince Charming, goes from one nightmarish scenario to another, escaping a random beating by witches to a terrifying house in the dark forest inhabited by a woodsman with a terrible secret. And as day turns to night, the monsters come out to play and Sala really turns up the terror. Those familiar with fairy tales will recognise Sleeping Beauty, the wicked stepmother, the importance of apples, the dwarves, the woodsman, the frog, etc. and Sala has a wicked time playing with all of these elements to craft a wonderfully gothic horror story.

Sala’s work sometimes mixes horror and comedy to produce some entertaining books especially the ones featuring the heroines Judy Grood and Peculia, but in “Delphine” Sala ditches comedy and writes this as straight horror - and succeeds completely. There are so many panels that are genuinely scary, like the funeral during the day - somehow witches and fiends in the daytime is more scary than at night. But at night-time? The haunted mirror in the dark room - wow. That creeped me out big time!

“Delphine” is an amazing horror fairy tale written superbly and draw with impeccable skill by one of the most underrated comics creators out there. Fans of horror comics, and comics in general, need to pick up a Richard Sala book immediately - his work is too good not to. But read “Delphine” in particular as it’s a book which showcases his enormous talents at their finest. A remarkable achievement.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wtf just happened? That's all I could think after I read this. I picked this up from the library after skimming through some goodreads reviews that said it was like a dark, twisted Snow White story in graphic novel form. That sounded awesome. Sadly, this story had no resemblance to me to Snow White aside from a few symbolic images like a poisoned apple, an evil stepmother, and a beautiful girl who needs rescuing. I didn't really get the ending - it was very abrupt and weird and just bizarre. I did really like the artwork in this though, so that's why I gave it 3 stars instead of 2. The author also did a great job of creating a super creepy, ominous atmosphere with terrifying characters (the townspeople look more like monsters than humans and there are witches, so some shape-shifting and other supernatural stuff keeps things interesting). The overall story was just slow-going for me though and I couldn't connect with any of the characters. The main guy and girl were kind of boring and annoying. It's a super quick read though because there's barely any text. It's mostly just awesome creepy drawings, so it's good for a quick read when you're in a dark and broody mood and want to look at some disturbing pictures.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little too trippy for my taste. It would have been creepier if any of it had made sense to me.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairy tale in the true sense (rather than the Disney sense) with a grave sense of foreboding from start to finish and a dark gloomy atmosphere that sends shivers up your spine. Sala has taken the traditional fairy tale of the damsel in distress and turned the perspective around to follow the man in his quest while the woman is largely hidden from view, so much so that throughout the book it seems as though our 'damsel' does not need rescuing at all. This combined with the strange disturbing characters and subdued colour palette makes this a chilling and cautionary tale, particularly as our 'hero' reflects on his journey and all that could have been.

[Leew49 · Rating 2 out of 5]

A number of popular fairy tales (Sleeping Beauty might be the best example) are about an innocent young beauty held hostage who must be rescued by a courageous and noble prince. "Delphine" turns the legend upside down. The eponymous heroine is by her own admission far from innocent, and whether she is being held captive or has merely decided to vanish voluntarily is not made clear. Furthermore, her need to be rescued and even her desire for further contact with her former boyfriend (the "prince" in Sala's graphic novel) are debatable at best. Unanswered letters and a failed promise to "keep in touch" might simply mean that she has decided to end the relationship. Nevertheless the young man goes on a quest to find his lost Delphine.

He tracks her to a remote village where everything is threatening and illogical: a waking nightmare. A female figure, glimpsed from a distance, seems to be followed by a group of loving children. But when one of them looks back, we see that he is in fact an angry, threatening dwarf. A ride offered by a stranger turns into an endless journey without rhyme or reason, ending in a mysterious funeral. An offer of lodging for the night is equally dark and threatening. Nothing makes sense, and the young man is reminded of Delphine's own cynical take on the world: What if God is really a spider, and the world was made for the enjoyment of spiders? Humans might be just lumbering, meaningless creatures put here without meaning or purpose.

The young man (I hesitate to use the word "protagonist") continues his quest, which becomes stranger and more horrific. Along the way the line between dream and reality becomes even more blurred. Does he commit murder? Does he find Delphine, held captive by the predictable wicked stepmother? Does he lose an eye? A glimpse of himself in a mirror reveals a hulking monster.

In the penultimate scene we see the young man, wearing an eye patch, telling a friend that he was fortunate not to have pursued his relationship with Delphine, who is now married and has a child. She was crazy, he tells his friend, and she almost ruined my life. Finally we return to the mysterious village and once again glimpse the slender, anonymous female being followed by what appear to be evil deformed dwarves. Is this Delphine? Are they her children? if so, who is the father?

Sala loves to take traditional stories and give them his own dark interpretation. "Delphine" raises more questions than it answers, and leaves the reader with that vague, uneasy feeling that so often occurs in the first few moments of awakening from a nightmare.

[BeetleBlack · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art in this book is beautiful, and I loved the imagery. Everything else? Meh.
Basically, this guy has a new girlfriend in college, and when she finds out her father may be dying, she naturally wants to go see him. She indicates to our hero that while she likes him, it might be the end of their relationship and she may not be able to come back, especially if her father dies.
Through flashbacks through out the graphic novel, we learn that after she left, he lost all touch with her. There follows a monologue about how women never say what they mean, and what's a guy to do except get rejected forever, etc, etc. But years later(I think?), he is still thinking about her and her scent(??) and decides to kind of stalk her I guess, cause he's a romantic at heart or something.
So he finds out where she went, comes to this town, and there's a bunch of spooky goings-on there. Nothing's as it seems and no one seems to be able to get anywhere without making a detour to witch around in some woods or hang out at a funeral. Can't blame them there, really.
There follows a surreal kind of-plot wherein he wanders around getting into misadventures as random wrinkled people leer at him and an occasional small animal attacks him. He is very distressed and ends up bludgeoning an old lady to death.
Eventually he comes to a castle or a house, possibly, where he finds Delphine laying either dead or asleep on a table in nothing but a slip. Her evil stepmother comes in and admits, basically, to raping her. Depending on how you want to look at it, our hero either stays in town being one of the spoopy townpeople, or has gone back to the real world and told everyone he didn't want to get with Delphine anyway, she was totally nuts, bro. Either way, I felt pretty gross after I finished the book.
Again, great art! I would be way more into this book if the main guy and Delphine and the weird pointless rape thing?? were just not a part of it. A whole book about old witchy ladies partying in the graveyard and spooky werewolves would have been fine by me.

[~:The N:~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to love this piece, I really do. It's dark and creepy. But it left me with so many questions and I don't like to be left hanging.

2.5/5 ⭐

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

"...ich kann nicht glauben, daß in irgendeinem Märchen um irgendeine Frau mehr und verzweifelter gekämpft worden ist als um Dich in mir, seit dem Anfang und immer von neuem und vielleicht für immer."
(Franz Kafka an Felice Bauer)

Das Märchen, in dem Sala seinen namenlosen Protagonisten - nennen wir ihn doch S - um seine Geliebte Delphine kämpfen läßt, ist eine expressionistische Version von Schneewittchen, angereichert um murnausche Horrorelemente, golemsche Gassen und Räume, einer Natur ganz aus Schatten, Widerhaken und eklem Getier, um einen wilden Hund, Hexen, Zwerge und und und...

Nachdem S seine Jugendliebe nach der Schule für längere Zeit aus den Augen verloren hat, hat er sich auf die Suche gemacht, um sie nun in einer Kleinstadt zu finden, in der aller Spuk und Horror auf den warten, der sich seiner Sache nicht sicher ist.
Und wie kann ein junger Mann sich der Liebe sicher sein in Zeiten, die soviel komplexer sind als anno dunnemals bei Schneewittchen? Selbst wenn Delphine Schneewittchen wäre, wäre S damit nicht automatisch ihr Märchenprinz:

"Thank God I met you."
"Um - I wish you wouldn´t say things like that."
"Huh? What?"
"Like, "thank you, magical, invisible spirit, for giving me this girl to fuck."

Schwerer hatte es vielleicht nicht einmal Kafka.



DELPHINE ist ein anspielungsreiches düsteres Horrormärchen, dass sofort in den Bann zieht. Nach Lust und Laune kann man sich einfach nur gruseln oder Motive und Zitate aus Märchen und Fantastik suchen und finden oder sich gar an eine psychologische Deutung wagen.

An DELPHINE hat mich alles überzeugt: die Story und die Zeichnungen von Sala sowie der von Fantagraphics liebevoll gestaltete Hardcover-Band.

[Roxanna Muller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I see several reviews saying they're not sure they understood the ending. So I thought I'd mention how I interpreted it. (Spoilers) The way I understood the ending was that the male lead was killed and then became doomed to live forever there as one of the monster-ish townsfolk (like resident evil kind of.) Specifically it turns out that he becomes the creepy goblin school child that he sees when he first enters the town. This "child's" creepiness is the first solid indication that the town is evil. So as he enters the town he literally sees what will become of him if he stays.

It may be that folks who didn't pick up on that are less used to reading graphic novels? Graphic novels often do rely heavily on visuals to tell parts of the story. If you we're reading this, say the way you read a children's picture book, you might miss a lot of the story. The pictures don't just accompany the story, they are at minimum equal to the written words.

[Orrin Grey · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to really become a fan of Richard Sala, but at this point I am most definitely hooked. Delphine is one of his best and most solid works to date, and while the obvious parallels to draw are to the story's fairy tale structure and inspirations, I found that it also had a potent dollop of giallo weirdness and story structure.

[Alex E · Rating 3 out of 5]

A man goes to look for what he believes to be the love of his life, but gets tangled in a dark fairytale forest full of witches and goblins.

This is the first work by Richard Sala that I have read, and I found it to be highly entertaining and just this side of creepy. He manages to lull us into a safe space by keeping our protagonist upbeat and positive, all the while the situation he finds himself in just keeps getting weirder and creepier. His spirit is slowly broken until he accepts the inevitable and joins the locals in staying in this strange city by the forest.

You can read this book on two levels. Because it's about the fairytale and this guy looking for this girl he likes, but on a more metaphorical level, its about not accepting the truth, and searching for something that was - maybe not even was, but something he hoped for - and finding himself in a dark place because of it. Because as much as he liked this girl, it was pretty obvious she didn't really like him back. And the memory of her as this perfect being trapped, is just simply not true. But feeding into this delusion takes him further into denial until she becomes trapped and frozen into that false memory forever, and he becomes ugly and bitter at the end because of it.

It was a very interesting way of telling this kind of story, and the art really added that extra level of creepy into it. The art is a dark cartoony style that is similar to Tim Burton-ish animation. But here he takes it to darker levels by adding a lot of shadow and scratchy lines to the characters, the buildings, the forest, etc...

Ill definitely check out more books by Sala from here on out as he has an interesting perspective on presenting human emotions. Recommended for fans of dark fairytales with a metaphorical undertone.

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this book while browsing the library selection for something seasonal. Sure enough, this spooky fairy tale for adults fit the bill.
In bleak, slightly cartoonish monochromes, the author tells a tale of a man who, in search of a long-lost love, comes to a village that seems straight out of a Black Forrest, straight out of a classic fairy tale. Each local is stranger than the next, each interaction is creepier than the last one. And there ware witches. Or are there?
There’s a sort of peculiar hallucinogenic quality tot eh narrative, but it works quite effectively especially in that charmingly disturbing twist of an ending.
Sala, serving as both the artist and the storyteller, mostly shows instead of tells (except for one peculiarly overnarrated section), creating for a pleasing text to visuals ratio and making a book a very quick read. Spooky, eerie, atmospheric – yeah, this one is October perfect. Recommended.

[anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really didn't like the main character, at all. So if something terrible happened to him as I read the story, I didn't care. I didn't like this book a whole lot, I liked the art and the watercolors, but the story and characters were so bleck. I liked Delphine, but even she had flaws with the way she thought. I hated that they spoke about the difference of men and women, saying that men only think with /those/ three things. God it was just so stupid and I felt like the main character was this fedora-wearing asshole who only thought about himself. Selfish. Yes, he went to find her, but it was for himself. The ending and the police were also really unclear? I didn't really get it. Overall I didn't like the book. : [

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

creepy and atmospheric but also wildly confusing... i love the concept (snow white from the prince's perspective) and the sepia-toned art is wonderfully ominous, things just never came together for me

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

The transitions were so weird that the story barely made any sense.

[♡︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mahn this was trippy as fuck .

[Gabriel Infierno · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the illustrations, but the story you know you think is going somewhere and it doesn't, it feels really weak.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Happy Halloween! My graphic novel horror pick this year is Delphine, which takes some classic fairy tales and subverts them.

Once upon a time…there was a college student (who remains unnamed throughout the story) who falls in love with the mysterious Delphine. The two had been on the cusp of a new romance when she was called back to her hometown to care for her ailing father. While she had promised to stay in touch, she doesn’t, thus sending this substitute Prince Charming on a quest to find her. This young man finds excuses to explain what is happening at first but soon enough realizes these disturbing experiences are not normal. There is symbolism that is recognizable from fairy tales- a poisoned apple, a coven of witches, a group of dwarves, a kindly woodsman and a big bad wolf- but it is all jumbled together in a manner that can not be understood. All the while, his lost love Delphine remains out of reach.

The art is done in duotone, with browns dominating, giving it a moody shadowy vibe. The paneling structure is straightforward, often four to six panels per page. Only the chapter breaks give you full-page illustrations with additional color. Most of the town inhabitants are gaunt, with extreme features that are caricatures of villains you would see in fairy tales. While at first, the illustrations seemed lackluster, they grew on me and matched the ominous tone of the narrative.

Twisted tales are popular and often overused storytelling devices, but in this case, it really works. Elements of fairy tales and horror are braided together well, and you will wonder what you would do if you were dropped into a macabre village with no escape!

Review can also be found on my blog: https://graphicnovelty2.com/2022/10/3...

[Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had not been familiar with the work of Richard Sala before checking out this intricate dark fable in graphic form, but I will definitely be checking out more of his comics. Sala's drawing style is imminently suited to his creepy, brooding modern interpretation of such fairy tales as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, with all of the fraught metaphors for relationships, growing up, and sex that comes with the territory. "Delphine" follows a young man's visit to a decaying, rural town from which he hopes to rescue the college sweetheart he had lost contact with, but quickly finds himself drawn into a world of terror. My sister called it a "nightmare in ink" in her review, and that really describes the surreal horrors the boy finds in the town, both from without and within. Encountering hideous dwarves, witches, slavering hounds, rot, and filth, he also wrestles with regrets, selfishness, and self-doubt. Has he gone mad? The repetition of these folkloric themes are evident throughout, but nothing is spelled out and would reward deeper analysis.

[Brittney Christ · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 star

I really loved the art style, but I couldn’t connect with the story, and found it confusing and boring. There was also a sexual assault mentioned that felt unnecessary to the story. Delphine’s evil stepmother is uber-religious and is apparently on a mission from God to purify her step daughter by LITERALLY shoving crosses inside of her "sacred door fouled by the keys of so many men." Fucking GROSS DUDE. And what was the reason for this!?

This just didn’t make any sense, and I didn’t understand anything that happened, or why I was supposed to care. I also did not find it creepy or chilling, just cringe. This was not for me. I would recommend Emily Carroll’s Through the Woods if you’re looking for a creepy graphic novel that makes sense.

Weekendween - Monster Mash: https://youtu.be/ASmPVOFukBI

[Glen Farrelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really enjoying the artwork and elements of the story right up to the ending. Without exaggeration, it was one of the worst endings of any book or movie that I have ever encountered. It was like the writer got themselves stuck in corner with their series of creepy events and couldn't find a way to tie it together, so they just copped out on a crappy, easy ending.

[Sue Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book!!!!!!! Dark and twisted!

[Andria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick and unsettling read that immerses you in a hallucinatory world of creepy imagery and overwhelming dread, conjuring up the darkest of Grimm's black forests, as a young man searches for his lost love.

[FLAMES (Roberta Frontini) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opinião completa no blogue: http://flamesmr.blogspot.pt/2017/10/l...

[Just a Girl Fighting Censorship · Rating 5 out of 5]

This. Was. AWESOME!!!!!!

This dark fairy tale was perfect, absolutely brilliant! It was creepy, mysterious, and at times quite gruesome. The artwork added to the Gothic horror tone perfectly.



Oh and the ending!!!



I'm still thinking about it!

This is one to read over and over again! So suspenseful, a real page turner! It is amazing how the author makes the reader so invested in such a short amount of time.

Overall I highly recommend to fans of dark creepy fantasy horror stories!

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful and disturbing artwork, almost all muted tones of browns and black. A sort-of retelling of fairy tale from alternate, contemporary perspectives, all swirling around a story of unrequited love.

[Bryan Ball · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeply weird

This is a deeply weird, engrossing, dreamlike twisted fairy tale. I am a huge fan of Sala's work, and there is a lot going on here. A nightmarish take on modern love and dating through a dark remaining of the Snow White tale.