Review by Ian Keogh
Clara’s a studious girl about to go to college. She loves reading and works in the local library where one day the Devil walks in and asks for a membership. He’s evasive about answering questions, but wants a library card anyway, and by the end of the visit she’s convinced he’s telling the truth when he claims to be the Devil.
Although the well-dressed Nick Scratch is a man of relatively few words, he’s somehow alluring and intriguing, but rather than seducing Clara directly he sets his sights on her friend Jonah. This is all leisurely unfolded by author Olivie Blake, telling her story via Clara’s thoughts in caption form and short conversations. These are expansively illustrated by digital painter Little Chmura, who due to the slow pace carries a great deal of Clara & the Devil. Her watercolour style of painting focuses on portraits, with close-ups on bodily parts frequent, most often the eyes, although it’s a stylistic device rather than the eyes conveying any great emotion. This isn’t the drawback it might otherwise be as there’s a distanced tone throughout, and the pictures tell the story well with minimal, but attractive background detail.
As might be assumed, Clara is fascinated by the Devil, actively engaging in sparring conversation with him, but it’s him who seeks her out by visiting the library when not engaged in seducing Jonah. Like the story itself, his impression on Clara is a slow burn. She’s still not had sex, but finds herself aroused by his presence and capabilities, with Blake and Chmura combining well to present her state of mind, which is primarily lustful. Eventually she begins to awaken.
Supplying an erotic graphic novel without any nudity, never mind sex, is a considerable achievement. It’s an alternate form of eroticism to that represented by vampires, also alluring and dangerous where submission must be absolute, yet more convincingly portrayed for lacking the silliness of fangs and associated trappings. Clara is certainly transformed, though.
There’s no certainty about the Devil’s motivations, again making him a better choice than a vampire, but this is only the opening volume, and a very different Clara stars in Vol. 2.
