Faust (Avatar Press)

Faust is the collective name of several series of comic books by Tim Vigil (art) and David Quinn (stories), published by Rebel Studios and Avatar Press. Writer David Quinn wrote that his work's tone and anti-hero main character may have been inspirations for Spawn.

The series are known for their strong graphic violence and sexual situations. The main series is known as Faust : Love of the Damned and started publishing in 1987, with new issues being published irregularly, roughly once a year, or sometimes every two years. David Quinn completed a script in 1996 (when writing the proposal to sell the film). The time gap between issues grew wider with time : issue 13 was published in 2005. It then took seven years for the authors to deliver the two last issues, 14 and 15, which concluded the story 25 years after the first issue

Story
In Act One of the comic, we meet Beef and Hapi, a couple of violent hitmen who work for a mysterious figure known as "M", out to eliminate a drug dealer and his girlfriend. This violence is detailed in the prose of Ron Balfour, a struggling, purple-prose journalist who tries to escape the insanity of the streets in a cafe, where he meets the beautiful Jade DeCamp, who slams his come on. She's got problems of her own: she's just been fired from Bellevue and she's furious over the accidental death of her patient and secret lover, John Jaspers. Jade recalls, in a flashback sequence, playing James Brown records for John Jaspers when they were lovers and telling him how much she loved James Brown's music when she was a child.

She knows she was foolish to return for Jasper's files, but she doesn't realize exactly how foolish until she and Balfour - who left the cafe as she did unintentionally - are assaulted by a gang she expects was sent personally for her. As the gang is about to inflict their worst, a brooding horn-masked figure appears muttering to himself that he doesn't know who is his or why he's drawn to this place. But he doesn't spend much time with this, as Jade's in danger. Instead, he laughs and sings while he slaughters the street punks - with a pair of "talons"(in each forearm gauntlet-housing spring forth two retractable blades, somewhat reminiscent of Wolverine's claws). The "Singing slasher" is singing a verse from James Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New bag" as he kills the thugs and as the masked man slices off the head of one of the punks, he shouts "Papa's got a brand new bag!" and Jade realizes in horror who this man really is.

Later on throughout the comic, John Jaspers is at odds with himself. He wonders if he's spilled too much blood, or not enough. He, apparently hallucinating, sees demons everywhere. And he loves Jade, though he holds against her the fact that she had a part in his "therapy." In Act Two, a new face appears. In Brooklyn Heights mansion we see a well-dressed businessman request that Libra, Radio Free Manhattan DJ, play "Are You Lonesome Tonight" repeatedly, "From M to the new kid in town." Personally, we see that M prefers classical music; he enjoys his Haydn while taking his sexual pleasure watching his wife Claire kill a backstabbing associate. Later on, we see that M had a hand in Jaspers' treatment. To a board of various criminals with their own niches in the city, we see that M's colleagues are anxious for him to unleash his secret "Project Assassin," to eliminate the chaos brought on by the maniac with the claws, completely unaware that that maniac is M's prized killer. While John is in the hospital, he remembers a moment from his life as an assassin for him. He sees M and one of the doctors giving him the "talons", as well as the rebellion that led to his supposed "death."

As M conducts a profane and empowering mass - the culmination of the violent acts committed by Claire and Beef and Hapi (who, in addition to the slaughter of the drug dealer, set a homeless man on fire) - John relives his own burial and claws and scratches out of his grave. While M and Claire kill off their followers, John confronts his life with new eyes. Soon, he is back to his perch above the city, possessing a dangerous new clarity. He's ready for anything. Except maybe for what comes next.

Film
The original comic-book was adapted for the big screen by Brian Yuzna in 2001, as Faust: Love of the Damned.

Series

 * Faust : Love of the Damned
 * Faust : 777 the Wrath - Darkness in Collision
 * Faust : Book of M
 * Faust : Singha's Talons
 * Faust : Claire's Lust