Chiaroscuro 1

Short Review: Interesting, and pretty.

Goldstein does DaVinci! Well, no; not quite. The new expose of Leonardo's life thought up by Chas Truog (and two writers asking an artist for story ideas strikes me as fundamentally strange) attempts to be as close to fact as possible, as well as having that added angle that gets them a position in Vertigo. Since this is the first Vertigo series without even a hint of magic (so far), it's an interesting matter of debate whether its inclusion is a matter of one or more of the creators being a friend of Karen Berger's, or whether Vertigo was the only large enough imprint eager to print a ten part series that starts by alleging/revealing the homosexuality of one of the greatest minds of the Renaissance.

The research behind the story is claimed to be exhaustive, although they are quick to point out that many of the facts in biographies are ultimately from the same source, and so you shouldn't trust them. For themselves, all they promise is that you can't tell the difference between what they've read, what they supposed, and what they've made up. story from the point of view of Salai, Leonardo's young companion and, the art suggests, lover. Salai's story starts as a street urchin, who is bought from his abusive parents by Leonardo for his beautiful looks. His impressions of the rest of Leonardo's entourage, all of them better educated than him, is low, as is his impression of the Maestro. The art is nice throughout, resembling to some extent Dave Cooper's work.