Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl

Lenore, The Cute Little Dead Girl is a black comedy comic series created by Roman Dirge, inspired by the poem "Lenore" by Edgar Allan Poe. Lenore has appeared in several comic books by Dirge. From 1998 to 2007, she featured in her own series published by Slave Labor Graphics. 26 flash animated shorts were also produced for Sony's ScreenBlast website in 2002. In July 2009 a new comic series started, now published by Titan Books and called Lenore Volume II. Previous issues were made into colored edition trade paperback called Lenore Volume I which is separated into 3 books.

On 31 July 2013, Lenore Volume II #8 was released marking the start of a plot line that would continue for 6 issues.

Plot outline
The comic tells of the unlife and adventures of the titular character and her similarly odd (if not odder) friends. The story takes place in a small town called Nevermore (taking its name from the same poem as Lenore's namesake "The Raven") and the surrounding wilderness where Lenore's mansion and a nearby graveyard is situated.

The primary focus of the graphic novel is dark humor, with many of the stories having twist endings. Common themes are the reinvention of children's songs, games, and nursery rhymes to something more macabre, and subverting all sorts of pop culture icons and cultural figures in to topics of dark comedy. In one story, for instance, Lenore accidentally kills the Easter Bunny.

While Lenore's actions often result in the death or injury to those around her, and in various forms of chaos, she is not a malicious character, and often thinks she is doing good - although in recent issues, the character has shown a change in personality.

The comic also featured various onetime side stories (One of these stories, Samurai Sloth, is set to star in his own series) and occasionally guest strips from other artists (with Jhonen Vasquez being the most frequent ). A recurring comic strip called "Things Involving Me" tells about the author's life and experience in an exaggerated, semi-autobiographical manner.

Animated shorts
A series of 2-4 minute shorts were created for Sony's website ScreenBlast. Any other website distributing these is doing so without Sony's permission, although Dirge has given permission for people to distribute them as they see fit.

All films begin with a line from Edgar Allan Poe's Lenore: "A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young". "Dirge" also happens to be the pseudonymous surname of Lenore's creator.

Movie plans
There were plans for the making of a Lenore feature film by Sony Family Entertainment. A script was written but it was not approved by Dirge. The contract has expired.

At his panel at the 2011 Comic Con Roman Dirge announced that Neil Gaiman has agreed to serve as an executive producer on a CGI film adaptation.

Lenore Volume I
Lenore Volume I consists of three hardcover graphic novels that include 12 issues of the original Lenore Series originally published by Slave Labor Graphics but in full color: Noogies (Issues 1-4), Wedgies (Issues 5-8) and Cooties (Issues 9-12). These three volumes were previously available as trade paperbacks published by Slave Labor Graphics with illustrations in black & white.

Lenore Volume II
Titan Magazines released a new line of Lenore comics in full color that started with a new #1 in 2009 and continues to be published up to the present. They also continue with their hardcover graphic novels line: "Swirlies" (which includes the extremely rare Vol.1 #13 from the original series, also in full color, plus Vol.2 issues #1-3) and "Purple Nurples" (Vol.2 issues #4-7).

Lenore Lynchfast
Lenore is a 10-year-old undead girl who lives in a mansion with her other creepy friends. She died of pneumonia at the beginning of the 20th century, issue #14 had more of her origin revealed.

Her character has developed from being a somewhat malicious character in the early comics, hurting people out of spite or revenge, to a well-meaning but dim character that kills people by "accident", stemming from the fact that Lenore is generally unaware of her surroundings as well as the fact that she is dead. Lenore says she loves animals (especially cats), but she constantly kills all her pets.

Later she reverts to her old self and starts hurting those around her with full intentions on what she's doing, as it can be seen in issue #9, when she insults Ragamuffin and calls him all kinds of names and in issue #13 where she declares that her dream is to take over the world. Sometimes, she appears to enjoy others' misfortune, since she smiles when she hurts or kills them and is often depicted as quite violent, especially when she is unhappy about something or when she is angry.

Lenore usually does and says things that do not have sense most of the time, resulting in the annoyance of her level-headed companion, Ragamuffin, who considers her a dimwit, calling her "special in the head". However, despite all that, it's unclear whether she's really dense or she acts stupidly on purpose, just to torment Ragamuffin for fun, because at times she is shown to be quite intelligent-such as in Vol 2 issue #2, when she verbosely presents Mr.Gosh with various examples of "things she loves more than him" which are quite revolting but quite witty nonetheless.

After she is taken by Death to Underworld, she escapes from there and returns to the living world, with Ragamuffin's help, who unburies her. She has two big, black wings, gained after her return from Hell. Apparently, she can let others see her wings only if she desires to.

In issue #9, she tries to tell Ragamuffin that he is her best friend, but she is interrupted by him, when he sprays a substance on her face to kill the worm that eats from her forehead.

Lenore gives Ragamuffin a Valentine's Day gift in the bonus comic from Vol 2 issue #2, where he accepts it until he realizes what she has given him as a Valentine's Day card is, in fact, a 'nard'.

In the later issues, it is revealed that Lenore's last name is Lynchfast.

Ragamuffin
Ragamuffin can at first sight look like a rag doll with worms for hair and polyester filling, but he has a very interesting background story and personality. Ragamuffin was a 400 year old (as mentioned in issue #13) immortal vampire who fed upon the flesh of the living. One night he attacked a young woman and ate her, but unfortunately, her sister, who happened to be a powerful witch, witnessed the scene. The witch cursed him and transformed him into a doll. A drop of Lenore's blood eventually returned him to consciousness, but since her blood was mixed with embalming fluid the curse was only partially lifted: he will never cease to be a doll. (He was briefly transformed back into his body at the end of issue #11, but returned to his rag doll form in the last frame of issue #12).

Ragamuffin is a little unsure of some of Lenore's crazier ideas and is oddly enough the occasional voice of reason in the comic. Still, as shown in the later comics, Ragamuffin is loyal to Lenore, often joining her plans in the computer animated cartoons. He is often infuriated by her dimwitted behavior, but he goes along with her in the end. One example is in issue #13, when Lenore says that he is her little kid (or "baby", as she calls him) and, after many protests, he gives up and lets her put a baby bottle into his mouth. In contrast to the brutal, savage nature in his original vampire form, he seems quite interested in somewhat more human-like activities as a ragged doll, though he does not admit it (he persistently denies it and tries to change the topic when Lenore accuses him of break-dancing in parachute pants in Vol 2 issue #1).

Ragamuffin becomes very protective of Lenore and, in issue #12, when he is turned into a vampire again, he remains by her side and tries to defend her from the dead Nazi zombies that ascended from Hell. In the same issue, Ragamuffin threatens Mr.Gosh, when he disturbs Lenore, and makes him eat his own bowels. Also in Vol 2 issue #1, Ragamuffin brutally murders Mortimer Fledge, who tries to get revenge on Lenore for quite unintentionally ruining his life. Ragamuffin seems worried when Lenore gets sick, takes her to a doctor and he is really devastated when she dies for the second time in Lenore's last (Part 2). These actions imply the fact that he views himself as her parental figure, or at least as her guardian. The supposition is validated by Pooty Applewater's letter, in issue #13, in which he tells Lenore that he cannot leave her with the Puff-Puff Midget, who calls himself Ragamuffin, to protect her. In issue #9, when Lenore falls briefly for Mr.Gosh (when his mask is removed) and shoves Ragamuffin away, he seems hurt and tells her he has feelings.

A new game based on Ragamuffin has been made, in which he plays the role of Lenore's rescuer. However the game had been pulled from the app store as it was found to have a lot of glitches.

In the original, animated series, he is voiced by Roman Dirge, the titular author of the comics. Dirge hopes to continue as the voice of Ragamuffin in the Lenore movie.

Mr. Gosh
Mr. Gosh appears to be a human-size sock puppet man with buttons as eyes, but he is a dead person with a bag over his head. He is madly and obsessively in love with Lenore. Even after being killed several times by Lenore, he keeps returning from the grave — often saying that he forgives her for killing him, as he supposed she always does it by "accident". He is also unpopular among some of Lenore's friends, especially Ragamuffin, who threatened to feed Mr. Gosh his own bowels if he bothered Lenore again in issue 12. The threat was carried out in the next panel. Lenore's repeated murders of Mr. Gosh include the "Lawnmower Incident", in which she ran him over repeatedly (according to Mr. Gosh himself, 164 times) with a lawnmower, after he proposed to her. Some of his other injuries include: being poisoned, being set on fire, bashed with a shovel, stabbed in the head 6 times, and having his head explode, yet he still loves Lenore with all his heart. Lenore actually falls for him briefly when his hood is removed by Pooty. When Lenore realizes who he is, well, more than his heart is broken. Beneath his hood his head is rotten and causes all who look upon it to vomit, except Lenore; she finds Mr. Gosh much more attractive without his hood. This could be his 'true form' or it could be due to the 'lawnmower incident'. It is revealed in volume 2, issue 2 that he inherited a cupcake castle, which he use to live in before he moved to be closer to Lenore.

Taxidermy
Taxidermy is Lenore's odd-looking neighbor, who claims that his strange appearance is a 'medical condition'. As his name suggests, his very first appearance in the comics had him looking like a tall, emaciated, suit-wearing deer with a stitched-up head, and he even had hooves for hands. He later (and currently) takes on the appearance of a human with a rotting, taxidermied deer head. The latter design was also adopted for the flash cartoon. Despite his rather ghastly appearance, Taxidermy is a mostly benevolent character and very much an intellectual. He has a little pet named Malakai, confirmed to be a taxidermy form by Roman Dirge on the SpookyLand forums. Taxidermy also leads a horde of taxidermied animals. The horde appears occasionally to assist Lenore and her friends against their enemies. Taxidermy was set to have his own full color 32-page comic, but Roman Dirge gave up on it after 9 pages. According to him, it is sitting in a box just waiting to be finished.

From Volume II #8, Taxidermy's back story and history is revealed dating back to Ancient Egypt. Taxidermy, named Taxen Ra, punished parents who inflicted abuse on their offspring and their demise depended on whatever form of abuse took place. Taxidermy was imprisoned as a result for taking on the Egyptian gods but was later discovered by an archaeologist who accidentally released him. Taxidermy was dubbed as 'The Orphanage' by the press, for the many killings of children's parents. He left gifts and notes for every child he assisted and was never captured.

He lives in in a cabin just behind Lenore's house and assists her when needed.

Dirge also has a life size 7 ft Taxidermy in his living room that he along with a friend built in 2004 on a mannequin. During his Comic Con 2011 panel, Dirge told of how the head of the Taxidermy has become less stiff over time as the head is removable for the statue to be moved around. This resulted in the head turning unexpectedly during a video game session and scaring him and a friend. Comic Con '04 also resulted in Taxidermy's head almost being stolen by a passer-by when Dirge had placed it on the table after the signing had finished. Luckily a member of staff had seen this and got the head back.

Pooty
Pooty Applewater made his first appearance in issue #9 as a bounty hunter sent to bring Lenore back to the underworld. Lenore convinced him to let her stay and he became one of her friends, playing a part in the battles that followed. He has a small, odd bucket-like head (with another bucket underneath) and carries a trident. In #13 Pooty suddenly vanished leaving a note that informed Lenore and Ragamuffin that his ex-wife wanted child support and that he would be fleeing to Norway or Mexico.

Muffin Monster
The Muffin Monster is a dark green coloured creature who made his first appearance in issue #5 at Lenore's tea-party. Not much is known about him except that he likes muffins which seem to give him gas. He also dies in the issue, The Creepig Creeping. This is before the tea party, so he seems to come back for it, somehow.

Kitty
Lenore often carries a dead kitten with her. The kittens weren't dead when she got them, but she accidentally kills every kitty she takes care of. At one point, she is confronted by the spirit of "Kitty #12" about her cruel behaviour towards animals. She attempts to justify her actions by claiming that her victims were evil. In the process she accidentally kills a bunny in a fan claiming that it looked hot. She had planned to get the weasel, but it was "too fast".

Undead Nazis
Zombie versions of dead Nazi soldiers ascend from Hell after Ragamuffin accidentally releases them. Their mission on Earth is to bring back the escaped Lenore, which they nearly succeed in doing. They are, however thwarted by Ragamuffin, temporarily reverting to his original, vampire form, and Lenore's neighbors, including Taxidermy. This plotline progresses in issues #9 through #12.

Wicket Willowbean
Wicket was introduced in issue #13 and is claimed by Pooty to be his cousin. Despite first revealing himself to be a horrible demon monster, he then showed his real (supposedly more terrifying) form which is basically Pooty with a round helmet.

Ouchie Boo-Boo
First appearance in issue #10, Ouchie Boo-Boo is sent to capture Pooty and Lenore and return them to the underworld disguised as Lenore's sister. She turns out to be a skilled opponent, but Pooty kills her in issue #11.

Mortimer Fledge
Mortimer first appeared in #1 of Volume II seeking revenge on Lenore, after her unexpectedly coming back to life during him embalming her created a dramatic change to his life, losing his family and his business. Mortimer was sprayed with embalming fluid which caused him to become immortal, however he had re-built himself to finally take Lenore and finish his job of embalming her. His demise is met when Ragamuffin rescues Lenore.