Serenity Rose
Serenity Rose is a comic created by Aaron Alexovich (credited as "Aaron A." until the second volume) and published by Slave Labor Graphics. The story follows the life of Serenity Rose, as told by her through diary entries. All three volumes of Serenity Rose were published online first, starting in 2008, before being made available in print. In 2013, Alexovich started a Kickstarter to publish all volumes in a complete set, which reached full funding in November 2013.[1] The comics in full are still available online.
Story[edit]
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Serenity Rose is the story of a young witch named Serenity Rose, also known as Sera. In the lore of the comic, Sera is one of five existing American witches and one of fifty-seven throughout the world. Sera describes the powers of witches in her world, including flight, producing ectoplasmic beings, changing form.[2] The comic follows Sera as a young adult, attempting to find peace in the town of Crestfallen, a town filled with oddities and bizarre creatures, whose residents are drawn to her abilities. Book One, "Working Through the Negativity" begins with Sera explaining her therapist told her to keep her thoughts in a diary, but she thinks diaries are stupid, so she decided to make a comic book instead. The first book introduces most of the main characters, including Sera's family, best friends Contessa and Kelton, and her idol, Vicious Whisper. It also delves into her past, repeatedly addressing a traumatic incident in which Sera totaled a bus with her powers in a nervous breakdown. While trying to avoid the company of others, Sera writes a comic called "Welcome to Statickland" which she publishes under a pseudonym (though most seem to know it is her). While attending a club in Crestfallen, Sera witnesses clubgoers acting paranormally and responds, causing the destruction of the club. "Working Through the Negativity" ends with Serenity meeting Vicious Whisper, a British witch and performer as well as Sera's idol. Vicious offers to teach her how to use her powers, and Serenity accepts.
The second series, "Goodbye, Crestfallen!" begins where the last left off, with Sera experiencing strange dreams and believing she is producing ectoplasm in her sleep. She finds out a witch called Stiletta has been stealing her dreams and using them to conjure monstrosities. One attacks the city of Crestfallen and seriously injures her friend Contessa. Later she is confronted by Stiletta and her controller, a witch called Valentine, who tells Sera Stiletta had been raised in a mine by her grandmother, completely locked away from society, and was behind the events at the club that Sera destroyed. In Stiletta's attempt to kill Sera, Kelton and Contessa intercede, until Sera finds the will to fight and takes Stiletta to the cave where her dream ectoplasm is held. In the end Stiletta takes her own life, and the mysterious witch who brought her to Sera explains that there are always fifty-seven witches on earth, so the next child born will be a witch to take Stiletta's place. Sera tells him to leave Crestfallen. To accommodate her, Vicious floats her home to Crestfallen so she can train Sera there. The art style in the second volume is noticeably different from the first, giving character more realistic proportions and using a sharper black and white style than the first.
The third volume, "Break Your Stupid Heart" opens at a Vicious Whisper concert in Crestfallen, where Sera participated and Vicious used some of her creations from the previous volume in the show. It is the most optimistic opening in the series. While in town, Vicious opens a new restaurant based on a "water pagoda" created by a witch long passed. After an argument with Contessa, she reveals to Serenity that many magical elements have "unlocked" in Crestfallen and magical creatures in the town are behaving differently. Serenity is met with a childhood friend, Madeline Price. It's discovered that Serenity's nervous break down which caused her to destroy a schoolbus was caused by Madeline yelling at her for not protecting her from bullies. Madeline's family left Crestfallen afterwards, and she describes her life traveling the world and meeting other witches in her reunion with Sera, and how her hand was seriously injured when a bomb exploded in a witch temple, called a Califia. They explored some of the witch-made architecture in Crestfallen, including areas they are not allowed into, including the cave which contains Sera's dream ectoplasm. Madeline reveals that Sera had dreamed up an ectoplasm version of her, that had existed since they were in school together. Madeline followed the ectoplasm copy to the cave, and would come there regularly. The two have an intimate moment until Sera finds out Madeline had been photographing Sera's creations, to benefit a teacher who was injured in the Califia, but was not aided by any of the witches there. This explains Madeline's general distrust of witches aside from Serenity. Sera decides she owes her, and allows her to take the pictures. Trying to tell V what happened, Sera finds out V had hired her assistant, Crawlsie, specifically to try and play matchmaker with the two of them, but before she has a breakdown, Crawlsie convinced her it's not worth staying angry about, and Sera asks her on a date.
Vicious Whispers[edit]
Vicious Whispers was a side comic conceived by Aaron A. where Vicious Whisper would offer advice to reader mail in the form of a regular web comic. The comics were done in two sets, one in 2006, consisting of 22 total comics, and another in 2010, consisting of 27 comics. The comics are done in character, but do not canonically effect or have much to do with the main story.
Future issues[edit]
Following the Kickstarter, Aaron Alexovich stated in a 2013 interview that he was working on "Heartshaped Skull 2.0"[3] though he did not release any details on the project nor a timeframe.
Awards and recognition[edit]
In 2014, the Kickstarter collection of the three original volumes was nominated for a Ghastly Award for Best Archival Collection.[4]
List of published volumes[edit]
- Alexovich, Aaron (May 2005). Serenity Rose Vol. 1: "Working Through the Negativity". SLG Publishing. ISBN 978-1-59362-011-0. Search this book on
- Alexovich, Aaron (December 2009). Serenity Rose Vol. 2: "Goodbye, Crestfallen!". SLG Publishing. ISBN 978-1-59362-181-0. Search this book on
- Alexovich, Aaron (July 2014). Serenity Rose: 10 Awkward Years. SLG Publishing. ISBN 978-0991303700. Search this book on
References[edit]
- ↑ Alexovich, Aaron, SERENITY ROSE: 10 Awkward Years Kickstarter, retrieved 17 June 2015
- ↑ Aaron Alexovich (a). "Serenity Rose" Working Through the Negativity 1 (28 May 2009), Slave Labor Graphics
- ↑ Parkin, JK (16 November 2013). "Aaron Alexovich on 'Serenity Rose: 10 Awkward Years' and burying his Kickstarter goal". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
- ↑ Thompson, Zac (2 February 2015). "The 2014 Ghastly Award Nominees". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
External links[edit]
- heartshapedskull.com, Aaron Alexovich's website, including the "Goodbye Crestfallen" webcomic.
- Sequential Tart review (February 2004)
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