The God Machine is an adult fairly tale along the lines of a twisted tale envisioned by Tim Burton.  Written and illustrated by Chandra Free the story focuses on Guy Salvatore who is struggling after the death of his girlfriend Sith.  It’s a tale of loss and gain with weird gods and a weirder style.

Stricken with grief from the death of his girlfriend, Sith, Guy Salvatore struggles to make sense of his world.  Enter a strange old man who share with Guy a story of two Gods who govern all of existence; two Gods who took Sith away, and left her to wander aimlessly in and out of the dimensional planes known as the “Dream Worlds.”

Join Guy as he begins to unravel the truth about the world he lives in, and learns what really happened to Sith!

The art and story reminds me a bit of a certain comic creator with a Homicidal bent, but mix that with a Alice in Wonderland through the looking glass sort of mix and you have this story.  It’s a love story for the goth/Hot Topics set.

I definitely will be the first to admit I didn’t quite get all of it, but for what the story lacks, the art makes up for it by the dozens.  The character design, page layout, color choice, everything about it visually is top notch.  It’s a beautiful book to look at, and that’s what drove me through it.

This is clearly just the first chapter as there’s no resolution at all to the story.  This is all set up, but it’s a hell of a spiral.  The hardback book is a bit pricey, but its visuals and unique story make it worth it.

Plot: Free puts together a tale of love lost.  This is one of those magical tales I’d love to see on the big screen as a stop motion animated movie by Tim Burton.  It’s twisted and beautiful at the same time.  There’s definitely some story telling issues, as I didn’t pick up on some of what the synopsis describes and the lack of any resolution in this first arc, doesn’t quite help, but it’s entertaining, unique, and perfect for the goth set.  Rating: 7.75

Art: Chandra Free’s art is the draw for this.  It’s beyond beautiful and disturbing at the same time.  I love the character designs and the page layouts are amazing at times.  They fit the madness the characters are going through and add to the story.  There’s nothing else on the market (that I can think of) that has this style and I’m not sure how to even describe it other than the previous work by the comic creator hinted at above.  Between the story and the art, the art is the bigger draw of the two.  Rating: 9

Overall: This is an adult fairy tale of love lost.  It’s just beautiful to look at and beyond unique and stands out for its sense of style.  The story is definitely entertaining and the two of those together make this a recommended buy.  Out of all of the books on your shelf this one will stand out for the style alone.  Rating: 8.25

Recommendation:Buy

Page count: 144 pages    Price: $24.99    Release Date: Out Now

Archaia provided Graphic Policy with an advance copy of this issue for FREE for review.