Review: 1140 Rue Royale by Serena Valentino & Crab Scrambly

This Book Is About

My Thoughts On This Book

This haunted house story is one of the few horror tales I own, since my tastes are usually lighter. I never watch horror movies or read horror novels but, for some reason, I’m drawn (no pun intended) to graphic novels with stories of supernatural horror. Go figure.

The Setup

1140 Rue Royale is a haunted house story set in New Orleans in the late 1700s/early 1800s. The book opens with the main character and her aged aunt moving into the old LaLaurie house.

No date is given anywhere in the book, but the main character’s elderly aunt Victoria was one of the casket girls who came over from France to marry local men when the city was part of the French Territories in the early 1700s and she looks about 70 or 80 in the artwork. So, by my estimation, the story is set around either the late 1700s or early 1800s.

This particular historical fiction graphic novel is interesting in that it’s based off actual events, BUT takes place LONG AFTER the events that inspired it.

Oh, and evil nuns. They feel kind of thrown in, frankly. They are decently tied to the plot, though, (and creepy as all hell) but I just don’t see what they have to do with the story as a whole. I have this suspicion they’re just there to stretch the story to fit the page count requirement for the Nightmares & Fairy Tales anthology series.

Of course, nuns with sacks full of infant skeletons liven up any story, so who am I to complain?

The Assessment

The writing for Rue Royal is good, and there’s a nice twist in the plot.

The illustrations are in a clean cartoon style (notice ‘cartoon’ and NOT ‘cartoony’) and the scenes aren’t gory or grotesque. They manage to be chilling, but in that sneakily understated way that makes you’re brain bring the gooey details.

Of course, that’s the primary advantage of cartoon style art; it lets us more comfortably look at the unappealing. Which you’ll have noticed already if you’ve read Mause.

What I love about the artwork for Rue Royale, though, is the way the artist, Crab Scrambly, plays with the frames and paper color. For instance, most of the time the paper of the graphic novel is white, but it becomes black when the story gets darker. There are decorative border on some frames, and facing pages may have totally different dramatic layouts. It’s overall very artistic but not in a way that you consciously notice while reading the comic.

Overall, I really enjoy 1140 Rue Royale. In fact, I found myself reading it again when I was trying to just flip through to find panels to scan for this review.

If you like gothic tales, ghost stories, or are a horror buff than you’re bound to dig this graphic novel of historical horror.

A Basis In Fact

The true events that the author of Rue Royale drew from for her graphic novel is the real abuse and supposed torture of slaves by Dr. Louis LaLaurie & Madame LaLaurie. Accounts vary, as do their veracity, as to the severity of the abuse that they inflicted (from starvation, beatings, and forced confinement to Halloween haunted house levels of torture & degradation). The author, though, is drawing from among the more horrendous of the claims about the couple for this book.

The real LaLauries fled New Orleans but Rue Royale, which takes place about 16 or so years later, gives their victims a posthumous chance at peace and a kind of revenge.

Nightmares & Fairy Tales

This volume is part of SLG’s Nightmares & Fairy Tales graphic novel anthology series where each book is a single, separate, stand alone tale. Which makes the FULL title of this novella Nightmares & Fairy Tales Vol. 3: 1140 Rue Royale.

All of the volumes of this series are tied together by the presence of a weird, goth doll. Kind of like how the Shadow and Tales From the Crypt comics were separate stories tied together only by a narrator who existed outside the tale. Only, in the case of this series it’s up to the author what role, and how much of one, that the doll tie-in character takes.

In the case of 1140 Rue Royale, the continuity doll is already there in the house, laying discarded on a chair, when Rebecca and her aunt Victoria move in. Rebecca makes it her doll and it becomes possessed by one of the ghosts, who uses it as a vehicle to follow her out of the house. So, I’d say the author and the illustrator both did a good job of integrating the connecting factor into their story.

Shadetastic or Blank-city: How Well Is This B&W Comic Shaded

Black and white illustrations can be very hard to follow sometimes for some people, including myself. The lack of color means that if there’s no shading, or too many lines, or way too few lines than nothing stands out immediately as important to the reader.

Rue Royale is well inked, with the sort of line-hatch shading reminiscent of old engraving prints. Also, the frames are composed well so that the reader can quickly identify what’s important in a frame and easily follow action.

Rating & Levels For This Book

I Give This Book 4 Vikings out of five	Violence Level 3 Burning Huts out of five	Romance Level 0 Hearts out of five
# of actual vikings in book: 0 What do these levels mean? ”	Humor Level 0 Smiles out of five	Lust Level 0 Kisses out of five

Author and Publishing Information For This Book

Author & Book Details Title: Nightmares & Fairy Tales Vol. 3: 1140 Rue Royale Author(s): Serena Valentino (author) & Crab Scrambly (illustrator) ISBN#: 9781593620653 Genre(s): Historical horror fiction Edition Reviewed: 1st Illustrations: B & W Page Count: 176 Part of a Series: Not really. See above for explanation.

Publishing & Copyright Details Publisher(s): Slave Labor Graphics (SLG) Copyright: 2007 In Print: Yes Original Language: English Published in Other Languages: No Find a Local Comic Shop ” Find a Local Book Store ”

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3 Responses to “Review: 1140 Rue Royale by Serena Valentino & Crab Scrambly”

1. Judith Loue says:

   May 21, 2010 at 11:16 pm

   Love your review! I have the first 2 volumes of NIGHTMARES & FAIRY TALES….and thank god for SLAVE LABOR GRAPHICS (especially LENORE)

   JUDE
2. Tea says:

   May 18, 2010 at 11:58 am

   I would love this one from the way you describe it in the review. Plus, I love to read about New Orleans. I also love Graphic Novels. Thanks for the review.
3. E.J. Stevens says:

   May 18, 2010 at 9:35 am

   Oooh, I want this book! That is one gorgeous cover. Love it!

   xx,
   E.J.