17/10/2003
Small news. Interlunium issues 1 e 2 have been officially out of print since a while. And issue #3 is due to come out soon. *^*

We have been waiting for it. And at last, on time for Lucca Comics, the new incarnation of Rigel: Interlunium. Paper and print quality is not less than before, price a bit higher, but it should be easier to find in shops. Anyway, copies brought to Lucca Comics Panini stand were sold out in early Saturady afternoon: if Panini, as explicitly said on page 1, wants readers to give them a sign, I'd say there's definitely hope we see other mini-series soon.

Ok, now to the comic itself. That Ombra can draw, we've been knowing it for a couple of years now, some pages are perfect in details, and we have the same (no, better) expressiveness, IMHO the most important trait in comic art.

Anyway it was the script the part I was really eager to see. Even in old Rigel 1, with that "not original" art style, I never complained about drawings. It was the script to really show, IMHO, lack of experience from the author. Then came Fabrizio's help, and Luna (more than Rigel 3 or Tinebra) already showed not-bad story and scripting. Anyway it did get better as I hoped; apart from some word choosing (which I would have done a different way), this time the reader is really caught and brought inside the story, with the needed bit of suspence and taking time to breath while showing things. Rythm of balloons and panels was improved too, so that we no more have long illustrated text but an equal flow of text and pictures.

So, waiting for this new series was really worth it IMHO. I liked the old version too, but this one is really satisfactory. We're not at the stage of masterpieces yet, but the curve is still going up and results match promises.

I'm thinking of waiting at least till the end of this 4 issues to write a full review; we have met few characters yet. (not surprisingly, in just 96 pages). Anyway I feel I can start recommending it now, especially to all dark and goth lovers, and to vampire-stories lovers. Those "already-seen fantasy" elements are gone, (not the vampire themes, of course); And this, as Elena herself said, is really an improvement.

The main character is Rigel, an unusual vampire. She despises her current state, and most of all she despises vampires who are happy with it. She's tied to Artemius, a very ancient vampire (she herself is almost eight centuries old), and he calls her to an extraordinary reunion, as an ancient, powerful menace seems to be awakening again. Together with Tinebra, mysterious cat-woman without a past, with whom she has established a somewhat weird friendship...

Before receiving an offer from Panini, Elena De' Grimani had self-published some issues with Rigel stories (which, as said above, featured several characters we find in the new Interlunium again). But these stories (which were difficult to find even back then, because self-published comics get an _awful_ distribution), though they cannot be cancelled, have no contact or continuity to current Rigel; that is, Elena decided to make a new beginning, partly because of the drastically improved visibility offered by Panini publishings, and partly, or should I say mostly, because in the meantime she drastically improved both in art drawing and in plot planning, also thanks to Fabrizio Palmieri who became the script-writer. So after this improving, those first, "naive" stories were no more felt as a good grounding; too many "errors", too many elements mixed to those which after a while seemed to be the only necessary and right ones. Hence the reasons to start over again, which sounded, though a bit difficult, the right thing to do: and now, as I have read this new comic, I cannot but agree with her.

Rigel on the net
Elena's own blog (Italian)	It's a blog, of course ^^^
New Rigel's official page (Italian)	A bit slow since they decided do make it all in flash, but beautiful. It was good, but now seems gone (forever? who knows, it's quite a bit the link doesn't work)
Official Rigel fanlisting (Italian)	As the webmistress says: "Register and make all other fans you know register too!". Well, what are you waiting for?