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Simon Dark Volume 1: What Simon Does$16.99 add to cart

"Lurks in the shadows. Hides in the park. Simon. Simon. Simon Dark. If you're good he'll stay away. If you're bad he'll make you pay."

You can't help but singsong Niles' nursury rhyme in your head as you read this new offering from the creator of 30 Days of Night, Simon Dark.

Simon lives in Gotham City, home to that more famous--if only slightly saner--vigilante, Batman. The crime-riddled Gotham City of the superhero world has become so over-the-top that its hard at times to believe that anyone would actually live there. However, when Niles introduces Rachel, an adolescent who has moved to Gotham with her father, we get a glimpse of a city that finally, despite being filled with urban legends, cultists and strangeness, feels like a real place. In fact, the home of Batman (and now Simon) hasn't been conveyed this well since Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka's G.C.P.D., the comic that chronicled the days and nights of Gotham's overworked police force.

While Niles is best known for his vampire comic 30 Days of Night, he has been keeping horror comics alive and vital for years now. And while Simon Dark is set in the regular DC universe, not that of the company's Vertigo imprint, this is a great horror comic.

Scott Hampton's photo-realistic figures blend well with the minimalist and stark backgrounds to create an eerie and evocative backdrop for Niles' words. Simon has an Edward Scissorhands-like innocence, and there is no malice in his violence. After all, he came back to life when his head was sewn on to a patchwork Frankenstein's body, so its not like the criminals of Gotham need to fear him, right?