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Hexed: The Harlot and the Thief #1-4

Hexed: The Harlot & The Thief, Vol. 1

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Luci Jennifer Inacio Das Neves (most people just call her “Lucifer”) is a supernatural thief­ for­ hire, stealing wondrous objects from the dark denizens of the netherworld for her mentor/mother figure, Val Brisendine. But when Lucifer accidentally unleashes a terrible evil from one of the paintings hanging in Val’s art gallery, will any of the tricks up her sleeve be enough to stop it?

Hexed volume 1 marks the ongoing series debut for the character that launched PRETTY DEADLY Artist Emma Rios' career in 2008. Rios returns to provide the cover for this volume, while newcomer Dan Mora brings a lyrical and unique take to the artwork, paired with the script from one of comics' leading horror writers, Michael Alan Nelson (DAY MEN, 28 DAYS LATER, DINGO).

112 pages, Paperback

First published September 23, 2015

16 people are currently reading
292 people want to read

About the author

Michael Alan Nelson

250 books100 followers
Michael Alan Nelson grew up in a small Indiana farming community before moving to Los Angeles in 2002. He is the winner of the 2004 New Times 55 Fiction contest for his short-short "The Conspirators" and was awarded the 2011 Glyph Comics Award for Best Female Character for the character Selena from his series "28 Days Later." Michael is the author of the critically acclaimed comic series "Hexed," "Dingo," and "Fall of Cthulhu." His current ongoing titles include "Day Men" and the relaunch of the fan-favorite series "Hexed." His first prose novel, "Hexed: the Sisters of Witchdown" arrives May 5th, 2015. He lives in Los Angeles.

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5 stars
83 (26%)
4 stars
142 (45%)
3 stars
67 (21%)
2 stars
16 (5%)
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2 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
Profile Image for Chad.
10.2k reviews1,050 followers
September 15, 2020
Constantine meets Kate Daniels. Lucifer is a world renown art thief who actually steals dangerous magic items to keep them away from the public. She inadvertently lets a dangerous magician free and now must cleanup the fallout. The dialogue is snappy, the characters interesting, and the story intriguing. Dan Mora's art is fantastic. Can't wait for the next volume.
Profile Image for Dev.
2,462 reviews185 followers
June 6, 2018
I absolutely love this! Although I looks like I accidentally skipped a standalone volume that came out before this ...oh well, I don't feel like I was missing anything and I'll go back and read it now lol. Anyway, this was just great. I love the characters, the world-building with all the painting travel and magic, and the art is absolutely amazing! Definitely a new favorite.
Profile Image for Rebecca Dawkins.
497 reviews5 followers
May 21, 2017
Love love love this series. Feels like a hidden gem since I never heard anything about it before finding it on sale on comixology. It's the librarians meets Constantine and 100% amazing.
Profile Image for lili.darknight.
1,931 reviews54 followers
November 25, 2019
Toto sa mi prekvapivo dosť páčilo. Nečakala som od toho veľa, ale vo výsledku som bola nadšená nielen grafikou, ale aj obstojným príbehom. Síce si autor nepotrpí na vysvetľovanie, ale všetko potrebné som pochopila z príbehu. Nehovoriac o tom, že naozaj milujem postavy, ktoré sú ako Lucifer - záhadné a tak trochu na hrane medzi dobrom a zlom.
Profile Image for Amanda.
592 reviews252 followers
May 28, 2023
***2023***
This really is a great concept, awesome characters. It's a shame there isn't much content because I really do like it.


***2015***

This is a really excellent comic series, I wish more people would read it. I love the story, it's very original and captivating. Lucifer is a great main character. She's got a good heart and she's really inventive when ti comes to getting out of trouble. She's a really well rounded character and one of my favorite female protagonists from the comics I've read in 2015. Harlot is another character that is really interesting. I love the way she is drawn and I love that she's not a good guy or a bad guy. I'm really curious to learn more about her and how she hexed Lucifer and what exactly that means. I need volume 2 NOW!

The art is fantastic, A+, great. This is a re-boot of the series and the original artist, Emma Ríos who went on to do Pretty Deadly, Vol. 1: The Shrike, came back to do the issue covers which is great. I think the new artist Dan Mora did a great job updating the art and making it modern while still staying true to the feel of the series.
Profile Image for Leah.
626 reviews74 followers
November 8, 2016
I actually grabbed this because of the Emma Rios cover, but she didn't do the art itself, just the covers, which is weird? Anyway this was too urban fantasy for my taste: not enough exploration of the foundations of this world, too much leaping straight into the action and hurtling on through it, with a mawkish pinch of I-hate-you-but-I'm-gonna-save-you-oh-I-guess-we're-friends-now trope smeared on top. All three of the main women characters look like the same model with different superficial characteristics pasted on, and their relationships felt pretty tropey, too.

I was going to give this three stars but I'm deducting one for the ad in the back for the first novel based on this comic. The cover is my worst urban fantasy nightmare and I can just hear the SyFy-level dialogue from here. I suspect this series is heading in that direction. Pass.
Profile Image for James DeSantis.
Author 17 books1,201 followers
June 20, 2018
Stopped half way so I won't write a huge review. The art is solid, but the story is kind of blend. I couldn't really get behind any of the characters or become interested in any of the plotlines. This is a pretty book but very dull to read IMO.
Profile Image for Mike.
671 reviews40 followers
January 4, 2018
Solid supernatural adventure with some fantastic art by Dan Mora.
Profile Image for Jen-Jen.
338 reviews8 followers
April 8, 2021
4.5 stars

yo this was hella fun
Profile Image for Sean.
81 reviews2 followers
January 20, 2021
Excellent!

The original Hexed showed us that the witch thief Lucifer more than deserved her own series, and in this volume she returns with sorcery and swagger!

This is just great!
Profile Image for Skye Kilaen.
Author 18 books373 followers
May 7, 2016
I'll expand this review later, but for now, let me just say that I loved this. I'm a huge fan of the original hexed series, and it was lovely to return to these characters. Lucifer feels lighter, because she's not keeping the secrets she was in the first series. The art fits that mood. Very well done and I look forward to reading more.
Profile Image for Jockum.
145 reviews7 followers
August 8, 2016
Skojig, snabb och snygg. Härliga karaktärer, där handlingen är enkel och första volymen lämnar oss på en bra cliffhanger nivå. Humorn är bra mellan karaktärerna, handlingen är fylld av action och magi, och stilen är snygg, även om protagonisterna, i formgivningen, liknar varandra, och ibland finns det en actionruta, som kunde varit tydligare med rörelse.
Profile Image for Tristan.
1,416 reviews18 followers
December 24, 2020
This is the first collected volume of a reboot of the earlier Hexed miniseries, currently available on Kindle Unlimited.

What can I say? This feels more ... mainstream. More professional, more standardised. Less distinctive, less interesting. Our protagonist has become more of an in-your-face, wisecracking, confident superhero than an angry sneak thief gliding through the shadows. So the very thing that made the miniseries intriguing has been lost. This new incarnation is very well done, but bland. Just another superhero with an answer to everything. There’s no jeopardy anymore, only put downs. Yeah, that’s all fun, but ... run of the mill.

The groundwork of the miniseries helps maintain the character of the gallery owner and the two female antagonists, but the protagonist has been changed too much. The new sidekick is just lifted from any paranormal TV show. Very vanilla. Hopefully, she’ll develop. But this just shows that legacy aspects are better than the new stuff.

The story is bland too, with the new bad guy being a stereotypical “handsome devil” villain without a purpose other than world domination. That’s just too vague. There’s no backstory, nothing to ground him, no original quirks. The male antagonist of the miniseries was much more gritty and realistic as a paranormal mobster with less universal ambitions. This one is just a trope, and hence the story is less interesting. The plot is well put together, but ... it’s clinical. Skilled rather than inspired.

The art is very good, clear and crisp, with plenty of detail, but it’s much more within the usual aesthetic of superhero comics than the previous artist’s work. There too, it’s very good, but ... clinical. Cold. Deprived of the quirks that made the previous artist’s work so distinctive.

Nevertheless, this is a good read as the whole thing is very well done. You know, a high production values spectacular rather than a surprising indy show. So I’ll gladly read on, but I doubt I’ll revisit.
Profile Image for Elizabeth (Miss Eliza).
2,685 reviews171 followers
February 12, 2020
A re-read for me after finding out there were TWO volumes I hadn't read in the series and it's been almost four years since I read the other two. I still really like this series in that Lucifer is a kick ass heroine in the vein of Buffy and Mercy Thompson. Though the reviewer who said Lucifer was the best of Buffy and Faith got in my head a bit... is there really any good to Faith? Yes, she gets redeemed, but I still have issues. Perhaps more with the acting than the character. Plus the whole art angle and trapping people in paintings, a great fear of mine as a child after reading The Witches, is always a hook for me. I look forward to actually reading the WHOLE run and getting all the answers, though still feel that there is more I'm missing from the Cthulhu series as well as the prose book...
Profile Image for kaitlphere.
1,987 reviews40 followers
March 3, 2024
The endorsements and description of this book compared it to Buffy, but it felt more like Dresden Files to me. Lucifer knows the rules of the world, calls in favors, and the bad guys are mostly human.

I like the character of Lucifer, her mentee relationship with Val, the stuffed animal, and the way the first few pages of the comic come around to be relevant to the last few pages.

I can tell this is a book with a female protagonist that wasn't written by a woman though. There are male-gaze decisions in the clothing and poses, and the first few pages have Lucifer commenting semi-degradingly about the actions of another woman.
Profile Image for Brian.
835 reviews6 followers
October 22, 2017
This is the first volume in a series of three. I'm not ready to rate the story. But I have a serious problem with the art. This is Michael Nelson's latest Hexed series. The art for the first series was by Emma Rios. It was brilliantly stylized and illustrated Nelson's characters brilliantly. The new artist is Dan Mora. His art is good, but his style is total Barbie Doll. It totally fails to communicate the gritty edge of Lucifer, the main character. It is so devoid of the feeling of the first series that frankly, it ruins it. I'm very disappointed.
Profile Image for Brandon.
2,689 reviews41 followers
June 5, 2021
The first installment of Hexed was described as being like Buffy, but this volume certainly tends more towards Constantine. And that's great! Lucifer is certainly capable here, getting into more than she can handle but always having a plan to get out- even when that plan goes wrong, that's what improve and back-up plans are for. Dan Mora's art is gorgeous as well, from the spells to the famous paintings that act as settings and scenery. Hexed certainly has a more adventurous feel to it, and the sinister workings of the beings in the shadows are more menacing and dangerous than before.
Profile Image for Juniper.
174 reviews10 followers
August 5, 2017
I thought I got this for the art (same as Pretty Deadly), but it was an extremely interesting story, well executed! The cover doesn't draw you in, unfortunately- although I certainly do like the range of Emma Rios's style, from sharp-planed heroic beauty to grotesquely gorgeous, I don't think this image represents the tone well. Mostly female characters, magical art heists and necromancy- what's not to love?
Profile Image for Jayda.
392 reviews22 followers
February 27, 2020
Not until half way through reading did I find out it was a Hexed story before this one that came out in 2008-2009. This one is not confusing at all and can serve as an introduction to the world and it's characters. I have seen people compare it to Buffy and Constantine and I definitely get those vibes. It invites you to want to know more about the magic and secrets that surrounds Lucifer, The Harlot, and all the other characters.
Profile Image for Aethena Drake.
1,181 reviews3 followers
July 1, 2017
Kick butt and takes names thief, Lucifer, does what she is good at...

I adore the entire Hexed series. Great writing, wonderful art, and amazing coloring.

This trade is the reason I still read comics after so many decades. A fun, dark, serious, silly story. Just the right blend of mystery vs revelation.
Profile Image for Robb.
329 reviews1 follower
March 28, 2019
The story was ok. Not something I would continually read as an ongoing series. I do like that many of the characters were strong females, especially the lead character. The antagonists were sort of reductive and not something I haven't ever read before. Overall not bad but also not something I think I would stick with.
Profile Image for Tha BUBZ.
217 reviews
December 16, 2023
This was a re-re-re-read as Hexed is in my top ten favourite comic series. For anyone who loved Buffy or Supernatural or Charmed you will love this series. Nelson weaves super plots driven by interesting and funny characters that are easy to love and invest our time with. This sequel volume will leave you wanting more. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
Profile Image for Julia.
2,517 reviews71 followers
May 6, 2017
I liked the relationships between the women in this book, and when I slowed down long enough to look at the art (graphic novels are wasted on me, I zero in on the text), I really liked how the characters were recognizably different (sad that this is a plus) and the action was easy to follow.
Profile Image for Lauren.
496 reviews6 followers
August 30, 2018
3.5
I genuinely like the concepts in this series, a blend of arcana and mythology
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews

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