Review by Frank Plowright

Soul: No Saint’s Day is very much the graphic novel by committee. Three writers are credited for the story, with another added to the scripting credits, and no less than eleven artists are named for layouts and pencils. The art is coloured over the pencil work, and another seven people contributed to that, most prominently Tamra Bonvillain who’s forged a successful career since.

It’s not a recipe for success. Different artists draw the same character differently, yet there are even more basic errors. We’re barely a few pages in when one policeman hands a cup off coffee to another, but is seen drinking from it in the following panel before the second policeman then walks off with it. Panels are repeated and the story is interrupted by pages of facts about the 1960s, or faked ads. It eventually becomes apparent that No Saint’s Day is an experiment with form and observation, but the likelihood is that few readers will reach that realisation as most will have quit in frustration beforehand.

This is a 1960s with ghouls on the loose. There’s an unexplained connection with The Night of the Living Dead movie, but instead of Ben’s character dying he keeps being reborn in the same shack in a Groundhog Day scenario. Events replay again and again, the circumstances changing slightly with each replay until Ben considers a satisfactory resolution has been reached, at which point we reach the end and the characters go wandering off.

The phrase “don’t run before you can walk” could have been coined for No Saint’s Day. There’s an ambition to do something different from primary writer Michael Coast, but not the techniques to ensure confusion is avoided. Sure, a little is intended, but not to the level that manifests. Neither is Coast helped by artwork often falling short of desirable standards. Co-writer Julian Rowe lays out much of the story, and Ricardo Sanchez is the most heavily featured artist. As individual pages aren’t identified it’s hard to be certain, but his seems to be the stiff action style.

No Saint’s Day ties in with a number of other books in a shared world launch, but none made it beyond the single graphic novel.