Lenore: The Time War Review – Chaos, Corpse Dolls, and Time Travel Gone Delightfully Wrong

You ever read something so absurd, so over-the-top bizarre, that you start grinning halfway through and think, Yeah… this is exactly my kind of chaos? That’s Lenore: The Time War in a nutshell.

Lenore throws up green slime in a darkly humorous scene from Lenore: The Time War by Roman Dirge — When time travel hits you harder than expected — Lenore’s gothic humor never misses a beat.

Roman Dirge doesn’t just bend the rules of storytelling, he spins them into a whirlwind of skeletal puppets, dry humor, and time travel mechanics that make about as much sense as a dream you half-remember. And yet, it works.

This latest installment drops Lenore right into a full-blown temporal conflict, and she handles it the only way she knows how: with wide-eyed confusion, sharp quips, and total disregard for narrative norms. If you’re looking for clean structure or sensible arcs, you won’t find them here — but you will find a comic that’s completely at ease in its own quirky skin.

Visually, Dirge’s art is charmingly imperfect and full of character. His style straddles the line between gothic whimsy and expressive chaos, fitting for a comic where the emotional stakes are high, but the punchlines always come first. The layouts are fluid, the gags hit hard, and the book knows when to let the weirdness breathe.

Green zombie-like character panicking with raised hands in Lenore: The Time War comic by Roman Dirge — Even the undead have bad days — another delightfully deranged moment from Lenore: The Time War.

Bottom line?

Lenore: The Time War is what happens when a comic stops trying to follow the crowd and fully embraces its own flavor of weird. It’s witty, visually distinct, and packed with the kind of humor that sneaks up on you, equal parts spooky and strangely sweet.

Rating:
4.5 out of 5

LENORE: THE TIME WAR #1 (OF 3)

(W/A) Roman Dirge

COVER A: ROMAN DIRGE
COVER B: ROMAN DIRGE
COVER C: KIT WALLIS
COVER D: COLOR BLANK SKETCH ($4.99)

Publisher: Titan Comics

FC, 32pp, $3.99, On Sale January 29, 2025