Underwinter, Vol. 1: Symphony

Underwinter

by Ray Fawkes

When a fallen denizen of Heaven claws its way to Earth, four talented musicians are drawn into a web of perversion and violence in an attempt to stop it from bringing its curse to the entire living world.

A new horror series begins here, by award-winning creator Ray Fawkes, author of Gotham By Midnight, Batman: Eternal, and Intersect.

Collects issues 1-6.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Music, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

136 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 2017

About the author

Ray Fawkes is the critically-acclaimed author of the comics and graphic novels Underwinter, Intersect, One Soul, The People Inside, The Spectral Engine, Possessions, and Junction True, as well as Batman: Eternal, Constantine, Justice League Dark, and Gotham by Midnight (DC), Wolverines (Marvel), Black Hammer '45 (Dark Horse), Jackpot! (AfterShock) and more. He is an Eisner, Harvey, and Shuster award nominee and a YALSA award winner.

Ray has been making comics for over 20 years, starting with and continuing the tradition of DIY fiction as well as working for many major comics publishers in the U.S. and Canada.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 1 out of 5]

A quartet of musicians are hired to play blindfolded once a month. One of their blindfolds slips and he sees some kind of crane creature. The musicians begin to change as each issue unfolds.

Billed as some kind of horror story, I could barely find a story at all. The art didn't help. Fawkes uses abstract water colors, some of the pages were so vague they looked more like Rorschach ink blots. I had no idea what was supposed to be happening. The book reminded me of one of those early Vertigo books with weird art and flowery words but no real story to speak of. The one sentence synopsis from the publisher on Goodreads give more details than are found in the 6 issues of this book.

Received an advance copy from Image and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

[Dev · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

Apparently this is about some kind of demon trying to take over our world and it's great that the Goodreads summary told me that because if we're just going by the actual content of the book then I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON. The story is so vague and the art is this really fuzzy watercolor style where if the four main characters did not have distinctly different hair colors I wouldn't even be able to tell them apart. I guess it's supposed to make it like suspenseful and ethereal or something but it just makes it boring and confusing in my opinion. Awful.

[Tony Vacation · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insatiable volucrine diety with a taste for classical compositions. A quartet of passionate but easily compromised musicians. A watercolorist that approaches every page of his comic book like a fresh canvas in need of a nightmare. A rich experience for lovers of horror, graphic novels, beauty.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can see why this has such a large divide in reviews. It's really good but it's definitely a graphic novel that needs to be savored with each page.

The art is done so emotionally and it's the novels greatest strength in my opinion. Watercolors are generally usually used for really calming pictures so it's really interesting to see that medium used in such a dark way. The art style itself is really loose and you can tell the author was really letting the story flow through him. It's not for everyone because of that. There were panels where I admittedly had to wrap my head around to figure out what I was really looking at. It's still very gorgeous in it's horror.

The story I would liken to a myth of sorts. The band has to pretty much stop the end of days with their playing. When I read it I immediately got this vibe of David Lynch having a scary water color horror baby with Lovecraft's ghost. You get a juxtaposition of the horrors that each band member internally faces with an actually terrifying bird monster they're blindly trying to fight. Just like the art, the reader really has to take this one page at a time or they're going to be lost really quick. It's worth it though. It's a great balance of great art with aesthetic prose.

4 questionably ink bleeding body parts out of 5

[Fr. Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm always happy when a major comic book publishing house takes risks. Image does this more than others. This is a symphony of images and color and nightmarish beauty, centered around the concepts of art and beauty and mortality and the drive we each have saddled to our personal genius. It's hard to find much better than this.

[Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erich Zann. Eat your heart out.

[Maggie Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't really know what it is I just read with Underwinter. It's a beautifully illustrated madhouse of a book. It would most definitely be strengthened with a stronger editor, but even though the plot rushes ramshackle through its paces, there's something undeniably compelling about this strange little comic.

[Chuck Childers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've started tracking down Ray Fawkes' work based on his work on DC Comics' Batman titles, and I was lucky enough to get this via a Goodreads giveaway.

Underwinter, Vol 1: Symphony reminds me of psychological horror movies of the Seventies, as four musicians are invited to play at a mansion while blindfolded. Naturally the blindfold comes off for one of the players, and from that point on the story becomes less psychological horror and more mythological terror. The relationships of each of the musicians to each other and to their music changes and doesn't come to a gentle end.

Fawkes also provided the artwork, which had an effective muddy scratchiness to it that felt like some watercolors I've seen. Think Bill Sienkiewicz, but with a lighter color palette.

[Paul Allard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mysterious horror comic collection – artwork ruined it for me

This comic collection is about a string quartet asked to play for a lot of money for a “special” audience and the effect that this has on them. Scenes of substance abuse and sex abound and the whole thing is quite wordy and mysterious (never truly explained – or maybe I'm just thick!). The artwork is vague and unclear which bothered me. We'll see if Volume 2 is any better.

[Ya Boi Be Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could give a regular review going over the characters, art, pacing, etc. but there are many other reviewers that can do that for this book and better. Instead, this review is to get my opinions out and the thoughts on elements of the book I feel like reviewer's do not mention or are seen less in the review section.
One of the first things you'll notice is the art. I think in general I didn't mind it. The art was unique and usually didn't get in the way. At times the art really helped add to the story's uneasy vibe and focus on the topic of insanity. But at other times the art's lack of detail made it hard to know who I was looking at. Fawkes tries to go around this by having the two females have different hair colors and the two males have different skin tones and little details like glasses. But at the times the watercolors are still too broad and vague to really know who was talking.
I didn't mind the story's message. It's going for a story about how music/expression helps fight against insanity and how the human spirit and unity of others can help combat suffering.
I find it kind of neat how each issue was released monthly and as such each issue jumps forward a month. It's a neat concept which keeps the focus on the MC's main action which is performing for a fallen angel (which you only know by reading the individual issue descriptions on Image Comic's website and the volume's back which is weird) . It does make the story's focus on insanity difficult however. Its hard to track the slow changes as one spirals into insanity when we only see them at the end of each month making that incremental spiral far more extreme to the reader.
I still found the story interesting. I get the point and what it's trying to say (I think) but it doesn't feel like an impactful message. But the story itself is cool. We get to see four people spiral in insanity each in their own way. My favorite was probs the two girls. One girl spirals very slowly and ends up just... standing out in the freezing cold for a whole ass month. The other girl ends up going super crazy and keeping the blindfold one always and spilling ink and shit. .
The ending was okay. Honestly, I was expecting more. I don't think it ended badly but it didn't really have the oomph I think it was going for. I also know it's not really that important as its not the story's focus but what was the point of the music? I am assuming by the last issue it is since music can act as a way to communicate and link people and somehow that makes it so the angel connects to only the four people and as such his curse will only extend to them? But only for a limited time since the second volume states the curse has spread and the ending of volume one ends with each character presumedly dead or soon dead.
The story is a neat read. The characters and each of their spiraling through insanity journeys are defo the best part of the volume. The art is eyecatching as you don't see watercolor or purposeful use of lack of detail often in graphic novels. But the ending is just ok to me and I feel like this graphic novel wants to say something but it doesn't say it either very well, doesn't sell it / make it feel impactful what it is saying, or just doesn't have a super big thing to say to warrant the light story / has too light a story to get what it wants to say across with enough impact.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

🅡🅔🅥🅘🅔🅦

Underwinter
2017
Comics
Rating: 2.5/5

Underwinter is a bold, experimental comic that blends horror, surrealism, and fine art into a deeply unsettling yet strange experience. The story, revolving around a group of classical musicians hired for an unusual performance, slowly dissolves into psychological horror, blurring the lines between reality, art, and nightmare. Ray Fawkes, who handles both writing and artwork, uses watercolour visuals for a dreamlike atmosphere.

Sadly, this isn’t an easy read. The narrative is disjointed, and the lack of exposition or traditional structure will alienate anyone that prefers a clear story. Fawkes seems more interested in mood than plot mechanics, which can lead to confusion or frustration, especially in the early chapters. Characters are introduced with minimal backstory, and their development is cryptic at best.

If you’re willing to engage with its ambiguity, Underwinter offers an immersive experience. The fusion of classical music with body horror and surrealist imagery creates a haunting tone. Fawkes art, while unconventional, is unique, providing a fragile, almost decaying feel, which suits the story’s theme of transcendence.

Underwinter is a divisive work, visionary, but somewhat incoherent. It’s not a comic for anyone seeking conventional thrills or linear storytelling, but for those drawn to experimental horror, it’s a daring piece of graphic literature. Fawkes challenges the medium’s norms and invites you into a dark, poetic world.

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[Damian Herde · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story of the end of existence held at bay in a moment frozen in time.
Four struggling string musicians are offered a high paying job with the promise of repeat work, if they can follow a set of obscure conditions. Conditions such as wearing provided outfits and performing blindfolded. However, a blindfold slips and one member sees that they are not playing to a human audience, but something massive, like a humanoid ibis.

As the issues progressed, the musicians slowly unravel in different ways, time’s movement stops being consistent for them, and they keep returning and keep playing. Things are not exactly as they seem, and their music may be the only thing holding existence together.

I struggled to break into this story, and it was only the reveal of the god-like being at the end of part one that held me in the story at all, as I then needed to know what was happening. The art is both glorious and simultaneously a barrier to clear comprehension - but that’s also obviously the point, used to help visually convey the musician’s mental states. The story gives strong vibes of Lovecraft’s ‘The Music of Erich Zann’, with the insane music played out to an unearthly landscape to prevent the incursion of something unseen.

[Alex Sarll · Rating 5 out of 5]

The blurb for this gives far too much away. Better to go in as I did, knowing nothing, transfixed by the gorgeous art - like Bill Sienkiewicz at his lightest, at least initially. We meet a string quartet, hired to play a lucrative concert blindfold at a scandalous party for billionaires. Except one of the blindfolds slips, and they see something which is somehow even more horrific than Rupert Murdoch's arse. But the concerts continue each month, as the players slowly transform... it's about what's wrong with the world, and how only art can offer any defence against that, and in its own power it offers an example of its own promise. Excellent stuff.

(Edelweiss ARC)

[Dena Burnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a polarizing series....either you love it, or you hate it.
This is also Fawkes at his darkest and finest. This kind of story, and the twists and turns, are what you get when you give Ray full control.
The art is stunning. It's angry and erotic, and compliments this story. I honestly can't imagine this story told with a different art style.

I read this issue-by-issue, and that did hinder my ability to fully grasp the narrative. Being released monthly, I had to re-read the previous issue to put me in the mind state to read the newest. It would be beat read in trade form.

[Nathan Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting this book, I was prepared to give it 3 stars. I’d been drawn to it by the art of Ray Fawkes, which I had seen in standalone covers. I wasn’t sure about the narrative, how abstract or incoherent it was going to be based on the first few pages. But I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a rather simple tale in the end, and I think that works in its favor. The melding of the words and art in this book are a fine brew indeed. Fawkes uses splashy watercolor with firm technical ability laid underneath. Those with a taste for Lovecraft and highly expressionistic art should be right at home.

[L A L A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really like this surprisingly. I can see why some people wouldn't like it that much cause the art style isn't your typical comic book art style. Whats gets me is the plot and characters. Musicians really going through it. I also loved the water color. Only thing that is stops it from going full 5/5 is I felt like more wholes needed to be filled it, because we still don't know much about the bird half man thing or the information that is given about it is a little confusing. Defiantly looking forward to reading more of Ray Fawkes work though.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. This is very unnerving but hardly makes any sense until the last two issues which show us what is happening (to a degree) and how horrible it really is. But then there is a sense of the ethereal and maybe it's not as bad as it seems. An ambiguous ending leaves room for a second volume to come into play and I'll be reading that next. Gorgeous art, done with several media including watercolour and acrylic.

[Hugo · Rating 2 out of 5]

The germ of a good story here, obfuscated by some largely inexpressive and impenetrable art (some panels however are marvellous, and Fawkes's black and white pen work is very strong), and a lackadaisical approach to the importance of storytelling (when the blurb can contain the entire storyline, as well as fill in blanks left by the reading of the work, you know you're in trouble).

(Read as single issues.)

[Imogene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading the synopsis before I started would perhaps have been a good idea. Because I didn’t get ANY of that from reading the book.
Unfortunately, the artwork, while beautiful, did not suit storytelling for me, failing at carrying a narrative and unfortunately giving me a headache.

I finished. I wanted to see how the story ended. I dint think I’ll try vol 2

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this in one sitting. It was like having a strange, creepy dream, and it gave me some creepy dreams after reading it. The vague, watercolor art style fits with the story but at times was frustrating because it didn’t help understand the story and sometimes it was hard to tell which character was speaking. But overall it was cool!

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great creepy read. It reminded me of the feel (but not the content) of H. P. Lovecraft's work.

[Gene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very abstract, perhaps too much. I did enjoy the art.

[Pádraic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know what the hell this is but it's cracked and struggling and terrifying. For some reason I don't think of comics as a great medium for getting across horror but oh boy is this superb at it.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird artwork and story

[Sean · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know what the hell this was. Weird and uncomfortable.

[Fizzy123]

Yeah I can't get through this. Disappears up its own ass after 2 chapters and the art.....nah.

[The_J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Distinctive art, liked the musical bent to the piece, interesting idea, but the sum of these parts certainly is less than the potential, and brings not much joy to the experience

[Nick McLaren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bizarre mess. Literally and figuratively.

[Dan Prestwich · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is...fine, but more effective in service of this comic's vibe, which uses some very striking, watercolor-looking artwork to make something nightmarish and impressionistic.

B

[Johan · Rating 1 out of 5]

When a fallen denizen of Heaven claws its way to Earth, four talented musicians are drawn into a web of perversion and violence in an attempt to stop it from bringing its curse to the entire living world.

Without the description provided by Goodreads I would have had no idea what it was all about. The horrible artwork (water colors?) didn't really made it clear what was happening either. Avoid.