Newsarama: For Queen & Comics: Darkchylde's Randy & Sarah Queen

For artist Randy Queen, comics have been a passion that has consumed his life for the past 14 years. He’s one of the few creators in mainstream comics to work almost exclusively on his own creator-owned characters, and his work has garnered a significant fanbase that follows his every release.

Queen burst onto the comics scene in 1996 with his series Darkchylde. Queen had done some small formulaic work at Top Cow up to that point, but Darkchylde was his first full-length comic and proved to be so popular that it’s been his calling card ever since. The series has been published in many different iterations, including a manga version at Dark Horse a couple years, and most recently re-appeared in a crossover with Top Cow’s the Darkness in a one-shot written & illustrated by Queen. In recent months, Queen has teased a new sci-fi project entitled Starfall, with several teaser comics being realized during conventions... but the big news as of late has been the release of test footage from a live action Darkchylde movie put together by famed special effects house Weta Workshop.

Read the full interview here.
Source: Newsarama

Broken Frontier Exclusive: The Darkness/Darkchylde SDCC Exclusive

Top Cow showed BF an Exclusive today of The Darkness/Darkchylde/Witchblade: Kingdom of Pain one-shot comic book Variant Cover for San Diego Comic-Con 2010.

Source: Broken Frontier

Jazma Online Interviews Randy Queen

Richard Vasseur from Jazma Online interviews Randy Queen. They talk shop about The Darkness Darkchylde crossover, Kingdom of Pain.

Check out the interveiw here.
Source: jazmaonline.com

Forever Geek: Darkchylde Returns

Reading last weeks team up has made me reconsider Ariel Chylde as a valid character, demonstrating elements of teenage vulnerability combined with a slightly battle-hardened view, she is still obviously in recovery in coming to terms with her role. The Darkness was an excellent choice to balance her with, allowing Randy Queen to highlight the contrasts in a manner not too pretentious, and following on the back of the Darkchylde/Witchblade crossover, it seems he may be establishing her in the Top Cow-er-verse. I wonder what happened to the promised movie deal?

Read the full review here.
Source: forevergeek.com

SciFi Pulse Reviews Darkness/Darkchylde: Kingdom of Pain #1

This is a book that I have been waiting for since I first learned about in late 2009. In the 90s I remember reading Darkchylde, loving every issue, and always felt that this title was an underappreciated series. So I was beyond ecstatic when I found out Randy Queen was going to brink her back.

Read the full review here.
Source: scifipulse.net

Broken Frontier Reviews Darkness/Darkchylde: Kingdom of Pain #1

The Darkness/Darkchylde: Kingdom Pain offers fans something we haven’t seen in a long time. I’m not sure if there’s an official term for it, but this comic mixes violence, horror, fantasy, and humor in just the right proportions. It’s very much like early Spawn or Darkness comics, before they started leaning heavily on the serious noir and graphic horror aspects of the characters. Randy Queen’s art and writing keep true to the mischievous nature of the characters, which makes for a dark but humorous story.

Read the full review here.
Source: brokenfrontier.com

Nfamous Gamers Reviews Darkness/Darkchylde

Like life for the current Darkness bearer Jackie Estacado couldn’t possibly get any weirder right? Uh-huh, suddenly he is drawn into a world where everything is just about as ass backwards as you can get. It is a sort of living dreamscape that has been created by the unconscious mind of Ariel Chylde, also known as the Darkchylde. So why has Jackie been drawn here? And why is Ariel unconscious to begin with? The Darkness/Darkchylde: Kingdom Pain one-shot answers those questions.

Read the full review here.
Source: nfamousgamers.com

SciFiPulse.net Reviews Darkness/Darkchylde: Kingdom of Pain

This is a book that I have been waiting for since I first learned about in late 2009. In the 90s I remember reading Darkchylde, loving every issue, and always felt that this title was an underappreciated series. So I was beyond ecstatic when I found out Randy Queen was going to brink her back.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Darkchylde, the series was first launched in 1996 and centers on Ariel Darkchylde, a teen cursed with the ability to transform in monsters, but once she becomes herself again, the monster is set free to wreck havoc. As the story progressed she battled other monsters, learned more about the nature of her powers, and struggled with her place in the world. But enough with the past.

Read the full review here.
Source: scifipulse.net

Broken Frontier Reviews Darkness/Darkchylde: Kingdom of Pain

Art-wise, the Queens make a great team. With Randy on pencils, and Sarah on inks, color, lettering, and design, the book comes together very well. The majority of this issue takes place in an icy nightmare world where it rains blood, and the reader is definitely made aware of this. The contrast between cold blue ice and flowing red blood is explored in depth both through color and design. The sky and the ground stand apart like fire and ice, as do the Darkness and Darkchylde’s costumes. Randy Queen is a master at designing details on monsters, and we see that throughout this issue.

Read the full review here.
Source: brokenfrontier.com

Hollywood Jesus Reviews Darkness/Darkchylde

I can see why Randy and Sara became such huge hits. The writing and artwork here is tremendous. They do a great job capturing the essence of the characters, even if you know nothing about them.

Two things that sticks out here: Ariel telling Jackie “This isn’t about what we want, it’s about the GOOD in us being able to prevent a BAD that is coming” and “Things get cracked and broken, it happens. But they can still be beautiful again.” I think those lines really sum up the story. No matter how dark the world is, there is always a light that shines brighter.

Read the full review here.
Source: live.hollywoodjesus.com

Player Affinity Reviews Darkness/Darkchylde

Darkchylde's mind is under attack by an alien parasite. Fortunately, a sliver of her psyche breaks off in the form of a smart mouth little girl named Miss Happy. She sends out a distress call to Sara Pezzini, the Witchblade. But the signal gets crossed and Jackie Estacado, the Darkness ends up helping instead.

Read the full review here.
Source: playeraffinity.com

Cosmic Book News Reviews Darkness/Darkchylde

Now we finally know what happened to Ariel Chylde after the last issue of Darkchylde: Redemption. As seen on the last page of the last issue of Darkchylde: Redemption, Kauldron was preparing to attack Ariel. Apparently he did attack and Ariel was left for dead. She has been unconscious in a coma unit of a small hospital for the past seven years. In Kingdom of Pain we see that in response to a new danger, a small part of Ariel’s consciousness awakens and in her dream calls out for help to Witchblade. Instead, she mistakenly contacts The Darkness who responds to her call for help and frees her from her coma just in time to face the danger.

Read the full review here.
Source: cosmicbooknews.com

Blogcritics Books Reviews Darkness/Darkchylde

The one-shot sees the return of Darkchylde after an eight year hiatus and the first artist, Queen, outside of Marc Silvestri drawing The Darkness since the character was first designed ten years ago. That alone will please fans of both characters, but some great dialogue and artwork really make this one-shot an enjoyable read.

Read more: http://blogcritics.org/books/article/comic-book-review-the-darknessdarkchylde-kingdom1/#ixzz0qDtFjIF8


Read the full review here.
Source: blogcritics.org

Comic Vine Reviews Darkness/Darkchylde

if you ever wanted to learn about The Darkness and Darkchylde and were always skeptical of where to begin reading, then you need to look no further. This book not only acts as a perfect springboard into the Top Cow Universe, but it introduces both Jackie Estacado as well Ariel Chylde to new readers while simultaneously providing an intriguing story for longtime fans of the characters to follow and enjoy.

Read the full review here.
Source: comicvine.com

Broken Frontier: Inside Look at Darkchylde/Darkness #1

Ariel Chylde has made her return to comics. The star of one of the most raved about books during the mid-Nineties 'bad girl' craze, Ms. Chylde has now moved to the same barn as Jackie 'The Darkness' Estacado: the Top Cow farm. Her story resumed in Darkchylde/The Darkness #1, a book that immediately generated buzz as if 13 years hadn't passed. So, BF invited creator Randy Queen over to discuss Ariel's return from the inside out.

Contributed by Randy Queen:

One of the things I try to do when writing is find a relatability with the subject matter and the audience. Why should we care about these people? How are our emotional touchstones the same? The cresendo of this particular story for me is not the climactic battle at the end, but when Jackie frees Ariel towards the middle. One of my favorite lines is when Miss Happy (a little splinter of Ariel's mind) tells Jackie "Absense doesn't always equate to apathy". There's no hidden meaning to that line. Just because a family member or someone you love isn't around, it doesn't mean they don't want to be, it doesn't mean they aren't thinking about you or missing you, or perhaps wishing they could be there or that things had gone differently. This line can be applied to many situations in one's life. Just becasue something isn't right in front of you, doesn't mean someone somewhere isn't wishing it were so. Absence doesn't always equate to apathy.

To see more, go here.
Source: Broken Frontier

Newsarama: From a Darkchylde to a STARFALL- RANDY QUEEN's New Book

Originally announced two years ago at New York Comic Con, Randy Queen's Starfall is finally touching down on comic shelves. Starfall is the story of a space-faring pirate who has the unenviable position of being the last surviving human of her kind after a virus wiped out her kind.. She survived by having her DNA spliced with that of a white dragon, a native creature of her homeworld that was the only species that survived.

After a limited edition preview book was put out last year at San Diego Comic Con, a second preview was seen in the recently released Darkness/Darkchylde one-shot put out by Top Cow last week. The Darkness/Darkchylde cross-over one shot was both a new Darkness story crossing over with a new character, but also an informal re-introduction to Randy Queen's artwork. Best known for his character of Darkchylde, Queen burst onto the comics scene in the late 90s at Top Cow before creating the character which he's become known for. Although relatively absent from the comics scene in the past few years, he's been working on Darkchylde projects both in and out of comics, as well as his new concept Starfall.

With the Starfall series tentatively set to debut later this year, Newsarama spoke with Randy Queen

Newsarama: In our previous interview, you gave us a little taste of Starfall – but this time we want the whole enchilada. Can you tell us about the lead character, Sierra Starfall?

Randy Queen: Sierra Starfall is a completely beautiful badass, bi-sexual 100 year old Space Pirate who is acknowledged as the Galaxy's Greatest Warrior. She's taken that title. She's infused with White Dragon DNA because they were the only creatures on her homeworld impervious to a devastating, planet-wide virus. When Sierra emerged from her splicing womb, her world was completely dead -- save for the white dragons. So she's this haunted, battle scarred character with a sad legacy. Her best friend is a robot who serves double duty as a digital diary for stored memories. Starfall, the story, is very thought out and well developed.

Read the full interview here.
Source: Newsarama

Comic Vine Reviews Darkness/Darkchylde

In my opinion, Top Cow has managed to create a very unique universe using elements of horror and the concept of light and darkness as themes to connect stories and characters. All this being said, if you ever wanted to learn about The Darkness and Darkchylde and were always skeptical of where to begin reading, then you need to look no further. This book not only acts as a perfect springboard into the Top Cow Universe, but it introduces both Jackie Estacado as well Ariel Chylde to new readers while simultaneously providing an intriguing story for longtime fans of the characters to follow and enjoy. The one-shot is a complete story that is interesting enough to keep you reading. The art, of course, is provocative (it is, afterall, Top Cow).

Read the full review here.

Source: Comic Vine

Graphic Policy Reviews Darkness/Darkchylde

The story is in a very interesting style coming from Ariel Chylde’s perspective and relying heavily on her narration. Darkchylde and the Darkness battle for half the comic and the ending is very interesting. The art is pretty impressive and that alone makes worth checking out the one shot.

Read the full review here.
Source: graphicpolicy.com

Playback:stl Previews Darkness/Darkchylde: Kingdom of Pain One Shot

A new armor for Jackie Estacado, the bearer of The Darkness, and a new beginning for Ariel Chylde, the girl who can become creatures from her nightmares! Jackie intercepts a physic plea for help, and frees Ariel from a self imposed, seven-year exile. But what happens when these fan favorite monster makers encounter a new threat that can create anything? Guest starring Witchblade!

Read the full article here.
Source: playbackstl.com

CBR Exclusive Preview: Select Pages from Darkness/Darkchylde: Kingdom of Pain

STORY BY: Randy Queen
ART BY: Randy Queen, Sarah Queen
COVER BY: Randy Queen, Sarah Queen
PUBLISHER: Top Cow Productions
COVER PRICE: $4.99
RELEASE DATE: Wed, May 26th, 2010

The Return of Randy Queen’s Darkchylde!

A new armor for Jackie Estacado, the bearer of The Darkness, and a new beginning for Ariel Chylde, the girl who can become creatures from her nightmares! Jackie intercepts a physic plea for help, and frees Ariel from a self imposed, seven-year exile. But what happens when these fan favorite monster makers encounter a new threat that can create anything? Guest starring Witchblade!

Also includes a bonus 8 page never-before-seen preview of Starfall, the highly anticipated sci-fi horror title from Randy and Sarah Queen!

See more preview pages here.

Source: CBR