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Violenzia and Other Deadly Amusements
“Let there be no mercy or forgiveness for they have shown none.” With these words, whispered into the wind, a mysterious young woman leaps into action with wild abandon, twin automatics blazing. Is she a brave and reckless heroine taking on a monstrous evil? Or is she a deranged angel of death? One thing is clear: whether she is dropping from a high window into a crowd of red-robed fanatical cultists, or facing down a horde of psychotic hillbillies, you don’t want to get in her way. Fast moving, Violenzia is a blast of pulpy fun, told in scenes of audacious action and splashes of rich watercolors. With elements of golden age comics and old movies mixed with Sala’s trademark humor and sense of the absurd, Violenzia is a bloody enigma masked as eye candy, a puzzle box riddled with bullet holes from comics’ master of the macabre.
136 pages, Paperback
First published December 2, 2015
2 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
About the author
Richard Sala
67 books142 followersRichard 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!
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!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
January 31, 2019
Richard Salad (I know his surname’s “Sala” but autocorrect changed it to “salad” and it made me laugh so I’m keeping it in!) makes macabre, spooky comics but this time he mixes in some cheesy action with his Violenzia stories.
The titular heroine is an unstoppable chick with guns who rarely speaks and effortlessly shoots the baddies, be they cultists, cartoon hillbillies, US Senators, etc. - she’s never harmed so there’s never any tension, the stories are tediously schlocky and instantly forgettable and unoriginal. She just shoots people!! Neither Violenzia or Violenzia Returns were remotely interesting.
In Forgotten, there’s a somewhat compelling Kafkaesque horror story buried amidst a lot of discontented rambling on modern life that’s never realised, though the ending is unusual and mysterious.
And that’s it for the comics in this book - just three short stories! The rest is made up of cool horror-themed pin-ups. And that’s what I like about the Salad man: his unique art style which goes some way to making up for the crummy writing. The cultist’s moon mask was a clever design and I love the highly stylized font of the writing.
Even if you’re a Salad fan like me I’m not sure Violenzia and Other Deadly Amusements is worth a look as it’s unfortunately a very dreary and unentertaining read. Maybe if I dipped it in some blue cheese dressing?
The titular heroine is an unstoppable chick with guns who rarely speaks and effortlessly shoots the baddies, be they cultists, cartoon hillbillies, US Senators, etc. - she’s never harmed so there’s never any tension, the stories are tediously schlocky and instantly forgettable and unoriginal. She just shoots people!! Neither Violenzia or Violenzia Returns were remotely interesting.
In Forgotten, there’s a somewhat compelling Kafkaesque horror story buried amidst a lot of discontented rambling on modern life that’s never realised, though the ending is unusual and mysterious.
And that’s it for the comics in this book - just three short stories! The rest is made up of cool horror-themed pin-ups. And that’s what I like about the Salad man: his unique art style which goes some way to making up for the crummy writing. The cultist’s moon mask was a clever design and I love the highly stylized font of the writing.
Even if you’re a Salad fan like me I’m not sure Violenzia and Other Deadly Amusements is worth a look as it’s unfortunately a very dreary and unentertaining read. Maybe if I dipped it in some blue cheese dressing?
July 12, 2022
I love this nonsense!
May 23, 2016
Disappointing. I generally have liked Richard Sala's artwork ever since his serialized work on the old-school MTV animation series "Liquid Television", but this just doesn't work for me. The main issue is that many of the scenes meant to portray action or quick motion are drawn lifelessly, with no sense of motion. The main character is apparently able to dodge bullets, but her speed and/or other abilities aren't portrayed at all; at one point, one of her enemies literally has to state that she's moving too fast to explain why she escapes a gun battle unscathed. The other side stories in the book are interesting at first, but Sala keeps overloading scenes with bizarre figures and out-of-placed oddities that the effect just gets old after a while.
May 10, 2016
I generally like Richard Sala, but I wasn't sure what to make of this book. It's a short story collection, containing four stories. Two stories featuring the title character bookend another couple of pieces, with one using illustrated text to follow a guy's adventures wandering around a city full of freaks and ghouls. The other one is more of a series of illustrations, one for each letter of the alphabet, and they're all stuff like "Gross Galloping Ghouls" (which isn't one of the pages; I was trying to remember them off the top of my head since I don't have the book in front of me), offering Sala a chance to draw a bunch of freaks and monsters. As for the two Violenzia stories, I was pretty mystified by them. The title character is a mute assassin who takes out groups of powerful people who make human sacrifices to unseen deities, but there's little in the way of interesting action; she just shows up and starts shooting until they're all dead. She's mysterious, and so is a strange bearded guy who apparently summons her, and who she shows up to kill at the end of the first story. The second story adds some slight explanation, but in a way that only makes thing more mysterious, positing that perhaps it's all part of an ancient Lovecraftian conspiracy. It ends up making it a bunch of goofy fun, with Violenzia being an unstoppable force of nature that powerful men can't possibly hope to outwit. To that end, I kind of liked it by the time I got to the finish, but I wasn't all that satisfied by the book as a whole. Sala might just not be for me, since I remember being kind of mystified by his book The Hidden as well. I might try out something else of his given the chance, but it might be better to just enjoy bits of his art when I see it and not expect too much more.
November 10, 2022
3.5🌟 The stories were ok and easy to get through. I did like the Violenzia stories, but everything just felt unfinished. I thought maybe I was missing another set of stories, but I couldn't find any other books in the series.
April 10, 2025
This was a fun read. A woman who kicks bad guy's asses! Love it. The alphabet collection was cool. I like the art style. But definitely suspend disbelief for it. It's just a silly cartoonish collection when you need something different to read.
January 14, 2021
3.7 stars
June 18, 2020
The news of Richard Sala's passing was a genuine shock to me. I had just read his blog, ironically titled Here Lies Richard Sala, where he announced a new project he was very excited about launching. And then...
For those not familiar with his work, he was a post-punk Charles Addams/Edward Gorey with a little bit of Gahan Wilson thrown in with equal measure. His horror designs were highly original and inspirational and largely drew upon 19th and early 20th Century horror novels, art and cinema (esp. German expressionism). The artwork in Violenzia is stunning, made more so with vivid coloring and printed gorgeously.
There are two stories in here starring Violenzia, a female version of The Shadow with strong Asian action hero moves, who fights off evil Satanic cults with dozens of beautiful nubile young demonesses. There's even a crooked politician who belongs to the cult who resembles more than a little like former VP Dick Cheney. Haha!
The other two features in the book are horror tales with slight political commentary, a new turn for him as he usually took a rather apolitical stance in his previous work. I don't know if this was his final work, probably not, but at any rate this would be good place for newbies to start and enter a wonderful world of surrealistic horror. RIP Richard Sala.
For those not familiar with his work, he was a post-punk Charles Addams/Edward Gorey with a little bit of Gahan Wilson thrown in with equal measure. His horror designs were highly original and inspirational and largely drew upon 19th and early 20th Century horror novels, art and cinema (esp. German expressionism). The artwork in Violenzia is stunning, made more so with vivid coloring and printed gorgeously.
There are two stories in here starring Violenzia, a female version of The Shadow with strong Asian action hero moves, who fights off evil Satanic cults with dozens of beautiful nubile young demonesses. There's even a crooked politician who belongs to the cult who resembles more than a little like former VP Dick Cheney. Haha!
The other two features in the book are horror tales with slight political commentary, a new turn for him as he usually took a rather apolitical stance in his previous work. I don't know if this was his final work, probably not, but at any rate this would be good place for newbies to start and enter a wonderful world of surrealistic horror. RIP Richard Sala.
August 5, 2017
Sala's one of the few comic book artists who's worth reading just for who he is alone. You know exactly what you're gonna get when you read one of his comics. His style extends to plot, character and dialogue; when I sit down to read one of Sala's books, I know what I'm gonna read, and I'm looking forward to it.
That said.
It's the miscellaneous nature of this comic that undermines it. Because there aren't enough Violenzia stories, I guess, they interspersed it with a bunch of other random stuff. That's fine, but Violenzia is the best iteration on his theme that he's come up with for a long time, and I want to read Violenzia. Having this other stuff interspersed in the middle is like interrupting dessert to go eat the mashed potatoes.
If there was a huge collection of just Violenzia, then I'd read the hell out of it. If there was a collection of the other stuff, then I'd get to it eventually. Trying to trick me into reading the other stuff -- when it has nothing to recommend it except that it doesn't even try to have a plot -- doesn't make me happy.
That said.
It's the miscellaneous nature of this comic that undermines it. Because there aren't enough Violenzia stories, I guess, they interspersed it with a bunch of other random stuff. That's fine, but Violenzia is the best iteration on his theme that he's come up with for a long time, and I want to read Violenzia. Having this other stuff interspersed in the middle is like interrupting dessert to go eat the mashed potatoes.
If there was a huge collection of just Violenzia, then I'd read the hell out of it. If there was a collection of the other stuff, then I'd get to it eventually. Trying to trick me into reading the other stuff -- when it has nothing to recommend it except that it doesn't even try to have a plot -- doesn't make me happy.
October 14, 2017
So, the title story(s) for Violenzia are pretty weird, even for Richard Sala, featuring a sort of pink-haired, mostly silent female John Wick figure who comes along and kills, well, just about everyone. There's something to them, and no mistake, but I wouldn't rank them among Sala's best work. That said, the two "stories" that they wrap around easily make this volume worth the cover price on their own. "Malevolent Reveries" is basically an alphabet book as only Sala could do, featuring entries like "Prowler on the Path" and "Killer with the Kaleidoscope Eyes."
"Forgotten," meanwhile, is an epic--and epically weird--black-and-white tale told basically in full-page panels and prose capturing the protagonist's interior monologue. It's some of Sala's best writing, and features sentences like this: "The world of your children will be viewed from the cast-iron minds of sociopaths, shielded from all caring and sincerity."
"Forgotten," meanwhile, is an epic--and epically weird--black-and-white tale told basically in full-page panels and prose capturing the protagonist's interior monologue. It's some of Sala's best writing, and features sentences like this: "The world of your children will be viewed from the cast-iron minds of sociopaths, shielded from all caring and sincerity."
January 16, 2016
I'm a big fan of Richard Sala and Violenzia is more of what I love: cute girls and hapless boys trying to survive in a deadly world of madmen and monsters.
As usual, Sala suggests a deeper story than what's on the page with lots of references to mysterious characters and plots that will never be explained. Violenzia herself is an unknowable riddle and that's just the way I like it. With Sala, it's all about the story I'm reading right now. The rest of it is for me to imagine.
As usual, Sala suggests a deeper story than what's on the page with lots of references to mysterious characters and plots that will never be explained. Violenzia herself is an unknowable riddle and that's just the way I like it. With Sala, it's all about the story I'm reading right now. The rest of it is for me to imagine.
April 3, 2017
This book contains 4 stories and the first is by far the best. Violenzia is a bad ass mysterious action hero carrying out revenge.
The second story made absolutely no sense and the second was an Edward Gorey inspired alphabetic listing that again made little sense and seem to have no real theme.
The last story brought us back to Violenzia, but unfortunately it was not as interesting as the first. Overall the character of Violenzia is spectacular but the stories are forgettable.
The second story made absolutely no sense and the second was an Edward Gorey inspired alphabetic listing that again made little sense and seem to have no real theme.
The last story brought us back to Violenzia, but unfortunately it was not as interesting as the first. Overall the character of Violenzia is spectacular but the stories are forgettable.
July 29, 2021
I just like this guy's whole deal so much. I can easily see myself revisiting his work much more often than I do with some other favorites, because it's so gorgeous and such a breeze. You whip through one of these in half an hour, but it feels like a whole world. Has the same minor thing I felt weird about with his other pastichey work, which is that its so gestural as to be almost empty, but it's also enigmatic and strange in a way I really admire. Beautiful artwork!
December 9, 2019
Quick, surreal, action-packed sci-fi Western. More aesthetic than narrative; very concise for four separate segments, all of which revolve around a centuries-old murderous cult, none of which have a very defined ending... or beginning.
January 31, 2016
monster masks from the Outer Limits & the Twilight Zone made me love this book :p
January 15, 2019
I had ordered this book and writer/author Richard Sala's other book "Cat Burglar Black" through my library. I read about 1/4 of Cat Burglar Black. The story rambled on and was boring. So, I was not expecting a lot when "Violenzia and Other Deadly Amusements" arrived. However, I was happily surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. The difference is the subject matter.
The stories about Violenzia is written in a very simple pulp meets b-movie fashion. They are quick enjoyable reads that do not require any extra thought. It reminds me of the old mystery action serials from the 1930s and 1940s.
The middle story is of someone examining his life through an existentialism approach. Much deeper than the Violenzia stories.
The highlight for me was the full page art work section that contains references from horror, mystery, and science fiction books and movies. These are delightful, especially the "Julietta's Jack-O-Lanterns" piece.
The art work for the Violenzia stories and full page art section is drawn in a very simplistic style with charming watercolor shading. The action scenes are not drawn with intensity and should have taken away from the story, however the appealing art style works.
The middle story is drawn with beautiful line work and sepia coloring that adds to that story.
Overall, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book. Sometimes simple stories are refreshing when I read to escape the real world.
The stories about Violenzia is written in a very simple pulp meets b-movie fashion. They are quick enjoyable reads that do not require any extra thought. It reminds me of the old mystery action serials from the 1930s and 1940s.
The middle story is of someone examining his life through an existentialism approach. Much deeper than the Violenzia stories.
The highlight for me was the full page art work section that contains references from horror, mystery, and science fiction books and movies. These are delightful, especially the "Julietta's Jack-O-Lanterns" piece.
The art work for the Violenzia stories and full page art section is drawn in a very simplistic style with charming watercolor shading. The action scenes are not drawn with intensity and should have taken away from the story, however the appealing art style works.
The middle story is drawn with beautiful line work and sepia coloring that adds to that story.
Overall, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book. Sometimes simple stories are refreshing when I read to escape the real world.
January 5, 2019
I liked this book far more than 'Cat Burglar Black', the other graphic novel I have read by Sala. Still though I find this has many of the same issues ; inconsistency in drawing of action sequences and dull composition and characters that come in and out of the story in the blink of an eye. That being said, I do think this is far more exciting and keeps its mystery far better than Cat Burglar Black which, for me was a struggle to get through, to be honest, and suffered for it's stagnancy. My dark side may be showing but I love the monster movie, cult ritual-y hammer film inspiration of Sala's work and think it works best when it is fleshed out, as in the main Violenzia story line in this book which, smartly, I think both begins and ends the collection of works. I also love the alphabet illustrations in the middle of this book ; a few of which such as 'C, cult of the cyclopean cat' and 'T the terrible thing in the tower' I would buy prints of and....would not mind reading a fully fleshed out story about!
July 9, 2022
Even for Richard Sala these stories are disjointed. Don't expect much meet here, but there is plenty of candy. The two Violenzia stories deal with a girl who runs around shooting everyone for obscure reasons. The third sotry, "Forgotten", is about a man who takes a walk to meet and ex-girlfriend and finds himself climbing deeper and deeper into a pit of abnormal absurdity. Last is "Malevolent Reveries" an alphabetical primer of nightmarish imageries. All of them are twisted, nightmarish, stream-of-consciousness types tales. Just sit back and let them run through your head.
June 13, 2019
The title story and the others included are not very in depth and fairly one note...however, I absolutely love Sala’s artwork/sense of humor that just made this extremely enjoyable to read, read again, and look at the illustrations again!
Speaking of illustrations, one of the entries is just an alliteration alphabet with a pinup for each letter that includes references to his other works and monsters from older horror/sci-fi movies and folklore/myth.
Speaking of illustrations, one of the entries is just an alliteration alphabet with a pinup for each letter that includes references to his other works and monsters from older horror/sci-fi movies and folklore/myth.
July 29, 2025
Book ended short stories of Violenza, this mysterious women who shows up and kills everyone in shadowy organizations. Deeper plots are alluded to but will never be fulfilled. She seems to be unkillable so there's never any tension. In between these two stories is an incomprehensible story and an Edward Gory type A-Z book of macabre pinups.
March 27, 2018
Picked it up on a whim at the library. The art is cute and I mean that in a good way. One story actually gave me a chill, so then I laughed at myself because it wasn't even very scary. Richard Sala seems like a cool dude.
December 22, 2017
With Violenzia, I felt like I was coming into the middle of the story. Reading made me want more information, some backstory or something, to help me catch up to where this particular story started.
January 27, 2020
The art work was nice, but everything else was not for me, I just didn't like it
November 21, 2021
Straight forward art, interesting quest, and nice use of the alphabet and manages to convey the horror of the situation. And now there are seven?
August 14, 2022
Not sure exactly when I first read this, but it's one of my favorites of the late, great Mr. Sala. Just love his style and storytelling.
June 18, 2024
Weird and gorgeous art, creepy tales, twists and turns, gruesome ghouls, comely cuties, the eccentric and the evil…Sala at his best!
July 26, 2024
Sala's aesthetic knows no match
January 21, 2021
Three shorts, unrelated... all a bit confusing. Some experimentation with form but honestly, all I really want to see from Sala is another "The Chuckling Whatsit" and everything (including this) I've read has been all art and real scant on story or mystery. The thing that sets "The Chuckling Whastsit" apart is the intertwined mysteries and that, in the end, there are no loose ends and it all makes sense. Almost everything else has just hinted at mystery, a vague whiff of mysterious aura... but there's not much plot or no plot, and certainly no answers.
There's a cute alphabetic alliteration a la Edward Gorey collection of pin-up art, also, at the end. Each letter gets a page illustration. They're nice, but I want MORE.
There's a cute alphabetic alliteration a la Edward Gorey collection of pin-up art, also, at the end. Each letter gets a page illustration. They're nice, but I want MORE.
October 6, 2016
Violenzia is a great addition to Sala's collection of female badasses.
Sala paints a world that's been taken over by agents of evil. But when someone speaks her name, Violenzia arrives on the scene to kick ass without saying a word. Hints of her origin are sprinkled throughout the two stories she appears in, and this mystery is part of her appeal.
The 'Deadly Amusements' section of this book includes a creepy short story of a man trying to run from the ghouls in his life. There is also a gallery of one-off scenes that run the course of the alphabet. Each scene is like a miniature Sala story. I could stare at one and imagine the story that might take place around it.
One of the best Sala books to come out in a while.
Sala paints a world that's been taken over by agents of evil. But when someone speaks her name, Violenzia arrives on the scene to kick ass without saying a word. Hints of her origin are sprinkled throughout the two stories she appears in, and this mystery is part of her appeal.
The 'Deadly Amusements' section of this book includes a creepy short story of a man trying to run from the ghouls in his life. There is also a gallery of one-off scenes that run the course of the alphabet. Each scene is like a miniature Sala story. I could stare at one and imagine the story that might take place around it.
One of the best Sala books to come out in a while.
May 5, 2022
Dozens of different humans yet only ONE black person...
Her hand cannons are packed lean with the fires of damnation- she needeth no magazines to exterminate stampedes of malevolent fiends!
Story and art seem a bit rushed besides section two.
1.) Violenzia part one: Excellent.
2.) Non-sequential b&w illustrated: Very well written and poignant story of a man's decent into the horrors his own psyche juxtaposed with the climate of today's "civilized" society.
3.) Gallery of over-troped scenes with snappy titles that were probably created for collector market supplementary income.
4.) Violenzia part two: Excellent but should've been extended within- he jumped forward without detailing the gaps between scenes too often.
Her hand cannons are packed lean with the fires of damnation- she needeth no magazines to exterminate stampedes of malevolent fiends!
Story and art seem a bit rushed besides section two.
1.) Violenzia part one: Excellent.
2.) Non-sequential b&w illustrated: Very well written and poignant story of a man's decent into the horrors his own psyche juxtaposed with the climate of today's "civilized" society.
3.) Gallery of over-troped scenes with snappy titles that were probably created for collector market supplementary income.
4.) Violenzia part two: Excellent but should've been extended within- he jumped forward without detailing the gaps between scenes too often.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews