The Webcomics Weekly is back in your life and ready for the holidays! We’re not still wishing it were Halloween still. No sirree. Snuggle up with your local eldritch horror and find out what Mel thought about “Gentlemen of Chaos” and their odd-couple dynamics.
Gentlemen of Chaos
Chapter 1-29
Updates Sundays
Created by VanillaIceCake
Reviewed by Mel Lake
It may be the season for cozy snuggles with warm drinks and festive lights, but I’m always in the mood for horror. This week I sifted through the free-to-read Tapas binge-able horror series to find “Gentlemen of Chaos,” which is like a cross between “Faust,” “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” and Venom. It features a wealthy protagonist who strikes a deal with an eldritch horror being to save his father and an appealing sketchy style.
Emile Johnson, the son of a wealthy sorcerer, makes a deal with the dark being Ahritakthaman to restore his father’s sanity. For ten years, he must work as a manservant to the monster, who disguises himself as a philanthropist named Everett Allen. The pair seem to be getting along nicely, with Emile finding face-stealing creatures to feed Ahritakthaman as well as making his tea. But when they visit the isolated island of Bournefolk, where dozens of residents and police officers have gone missing, they encounter a series of characters even stranger than a monster and his butler.
The color palette of this comic is full of muted sepia tones, which works well given its setting in the early 1900s. It has a sketchy style, which also fits the vaguely unsettling tone of the story. Sometimes characters don’t have faces or are the wrong color for a human being. It fits the weird world of Emile and Everett.
In terms of character designs, there’s strong work here, too. Emile and Everett are instantly recognizable and easy to tell apart. Emile has fluffy, unnaturally white hair and glasses; Everett has darker skin and glowing yellow eyes. I’m a sucker for contrasting character aesthetics and odd-couple dynamics. I also love an all-powerful entity walking around doing buddy-cop duo things like checking into a motel and investigating disappearances. Maybe I’m just still reeling from the series finale of “Loki” and missing Mobius M. Mobius with his pet god of mischief. (I am.)
I was able to read all the available episodes. When Emile is offered as a potential sacrifice to the worm creature that’s been eating the people of the island, it’s no surprise that Everett comes to his rescue. There seems to be a conflict coming between the two monsters of the void, but what it’ll entail and what the consequences may be are still to be determined. It seems like a comic that could go one of several ways. I’d be totally on board to read about the whacky misadventures of Ahritakthaman and his human servant Emile as they solve supernatural crimes in early 1900s Cleveland. Or, I might be slightly less interested in reading Ahritakthaman battling other void creatures. Either way, the old-fashioned vibes and character designs make this one worth checking out for light eldritch horror fans.
Thanks for reading y’all! We’ll see you in the new year for more webcomics goodness.
