(click me)Convent of Hell is a masterpiece from the minds of artist Ignacio Noe and writer Ricardo Barreiro. Like much of the old school pinup/pulp fiction stuff, Convent has an endurance in both its art style and story line that keeps it feeling fresh, despite its age, and also gives the comic an appeal beyond just a chance at getting your rocks off. When all is said and done, beyond being affective porn, what really impresses me about convent is the palpable atmosphere and gripping drama.
The whole comic is built less like straight up porn and more like a piece of long-form literature. It maps out various highs and lows in both tension and dramatism without any extraneous focus on the actual porn. This isn’t to say that Convent doesn’t feature a lot of sex, or that it isn’t focused on being pornographic... it’s just that most everything is geared towards heightening that sense of drama within the porn, playing into the gothic horror aesthetic or setting a foundation for the next scene. At many points throughout the comic, Noe and Barreiro are able to rely on their storytelling and artistic skills to craft a piece of art that reaches past your dick and into your heart. For example:
The first panel is a gloomy establishing shot of the convent – a grey fortress, isolated by a sea of desolate-looking stone. Drama and pathos ooze out of every line and every shade. This first panel is a work of art on its own that draws you into the situation without any explicate promise of sexual content, but purely through creating a dramatic presentation. Also, the fact that this panel, and others like it that reappear throughout the comic, reinforce the tone of isolation and add a little more legitimacy to the idea of a convent being taken over by Satan overnight.
When the devil shit does start it’s often played-up to be as effective as possible: when Beelzebub appear's, he isn’t some ripped dude with horns and red skin. He’s a goat-man, kinda skinny, but also giant compared to the women. Beelzebub doesn’t look like something anyone would want to have sex with which helps sell, both his abilities at possession, the despair of the nuns and just how wrong it should feel when the nuns do end up fucking him.
Beyond all that, there’s also a lot of panels and shots that are really cinematic in their composition – like the ceremony on page 13, the head nuns dreaming face on page 12, the exploding lamp on page 8 etc, That all lend themselves to that sense of drama which underpins all the art direction and the story.
There’s also a lot to say when considering the narrative. Convent of Hell has somewhat of a slow burn (the actual porn – arguably – starts on page 15). While this can obviously become rather boring, those 14 pages actually do a lot in terms of tone and building anticipation for the eventual hell spawn reveal. The opening pages read much like a mystery story, or the first act to some thriller. They intorducing aspects of the characters, introduce an air of mystery through the reveal of the hidden door (which is extra spooky since a nun dies right before it’s revealed) and press on that mystery by establishing the nuns ignorance regarding the door or why it’s there. When Beelzebub does eventually show up – your mind is well lubricated by the characters and setting, therefore allowing for much more empathy on your part when Beelzebub penetrates reality, all the nuns and your mind.
I get the feeling that a lot of what makes Convent of Hell so visually striking and narratively gripping is, both its pulp art style – which naturally has a way with lighting, dramatic facial expressions and action – and the fact that it’s a product of the west. Convent of Hell often 'feels' like a movie - I think - directly as a result of Hollywood's impact on almost all forms of visual media this side of the pacific (especially when considering the time in which this was written and the differences in how classic Hollywood films were made and now) … but this is neither here nor there and I really don’t know enough about 60s movie making to really say anything about that. What I do know is that the marriage between the well-paced porn scenes, phenomenal artwork and great writing really makes the whole experience special and one I would recommend.
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