Lenore: The Time War HC Review
Writer, Artist, Colorist & Letterer: Roman Dirge
Cover Artists: Roman Dirge & Kit Wallis
Editor: David Leach
Designer: Matt Bookman
Publisher: Titan Comics
Price: $24.99
Release Date: July 22, 2025
Lenore and her friends live in the town of Nevermore. Ragamuffin is a vampire trapped in a stuffed doll. Pooty is a bucket-headed demon with a pitchfork who decided he liked living with Lenore better than inhabiting his native realm. Yet strange things happen in Nevermore. When Lenore’s Pickle Hat becomes self-aware, it tries to kill the undead girl and her friends.
Like a medieval lord, knights, and villagers trapped in a castle, the situation grows steadily worse as the siege continues year after year. Weakened and irritable due to lack of food, can Lenore and her friends escape the psychotic Pickle Hat and get something to eat? And how might their actions affect Humanity? Let’s slip on our time rings, leap into Lenore: The Time War HC, and see!
Story
When events reach their lowest ebb, Time Goats teleport into Lenore’s home. They take her side and urge Pooty not to kill the Pickle Hat. Sadly, hunger overwhelms Lenore. Although they could rescue her, she kills the Time Goats and shares the roasted meat with her friends. Yet as they eat, the three friends teleport to distant locales in Lenore: The Time War HC. Pooty makes a new life in ancient Rome. Ragamuffin adapts to life in the Cretaceous Period. Lenore appears in space and joins a cosmic choir.
At first, the friends fare well apart from each other. Pooty may miss Lenore and Ragamuffin. Yet the demon enjoys wealth and acclaim as a gladiator. Ragamuffin finds a new family when he joins a band of Velociraptors. Still, the vampire-doll yearns for more. Ironically, Lenore finds fulfillment with her new friends. Like someone suddenly discovering the all-encompassing power of religion, Lenore never grows bored, hungry, or yearns to kill anyone as she sings with space aliens.
Lenore may have lived for a century. Still, she is a child. And after six years, the undead girl wonders why the choir sings. As curiosity often provokes change, Lenore goes on an adventure across space and time. But when Lenore and her friends reunite, the Time Goat society that monitors the stability of the time stream triangulates their position in Lenore: The Time War HC.
Art
Lenore’s mansion seems filled with the mysterious power that resurrected her. After vanishing from her stately home, Lenore hangs out with tooth-shaped aliens wearing robes. In Rome, Pooty uses his pitchfork to slay Human gladiators wearing golden helmets with red plumes. After each bout, women in robes and sashes crave his bucket-head body. Ragamuffin races with Velociraptors through grasslands to leap upon unsuspecting prey. Each evening, the stuffed doll scratches its back with a crab on a stick. Then, Ragamuffin sleeps in the skull of a Tyrannosaurus beneath a starry blue sky.
Flashback Squirrel, who introduces the story, watches his family clash before his statue in Lenore: The Time War HC. Taxidermy, an Egyptian god with an insect head, protects the friends against the vengeful Time Goats. A character shaped like a crescent moon with a narwhal-worthy nose offers his help, but may not be as powerful as he claims. And then there are cats. Lenore adores them, even if she doesn’t know how to care for them.
Roman Dirge enhances the richly colored cinematic scenes with generously sized words in balloons, colored boxes, and backgrounds. Lenore: The Time War HC includes detailed panels, flash pages, and enormous double-page spreads. Sound effects help us hear roaring monster babies, shouting aliens, and a remark that makes an elder god cry. The beautifully produced hardcover seems durable, securely bound, and like Pooty's pitchfork, excellently balanced. The volume also boasts a gallery of cover art. Thanks to Titan Comics for providing a physical review copy.
Final Thoughts
Lenore: The Time War HC is a celebration of friendship, a guide to surviving interesting times, and a reminder to have fun regardless of what life throws our way.
Rating 9.8/10
To look inside see my preview of Lenore: The Time War #1.
For more, see my interview with Roman Dirge.
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