The Story So Far
Nell is a twenty-two-year-old student enrolled at Deus Mortem, a university for necromancy, who has been having a hard time staying awake in class. She has been overcome with sexual urges, which can barely be satiated by her own hand.
Nell learns that she is half succubus and that she needs to feed on sexual energy. With the assistance of her best friend April, they break into Ms. Flowers’ (the school’s nurse) office in the hopes of summing an imp that can be at Nell’s side to keep her focused. Instead, they summon a s’imp, a red, sexually charged imp named Hans that bonds immediately to Nell much to her chagrin.
Later during the night, a mysterious cloaked figure slips an envelope under April’s dorm door which contains a picture of Nell’s parents: a human father and a succubus mother.
Issue 03 Plot
After the next classroom session with Professor Reinhart, which was about the differences between krakens and leviathans, April gives to Nell the picture of her parents that was slipped under her door the night before. Hans the s’imp slaps the picture from Nell’s hands, claiming that it is a trap. And it is. When the picture hits the floor a horned purple wolf with a skeleton head manifests and begins chasing Nell, saying “om nom nom!” as it wants to eat her.
April uses her troll powers to stun the beast while Nell uses her succubus singing voice to charm it. Ms. Flowers arrives on scene and casts a spell that melts the wolf into a pile of pink cosmos.
Flowers agrees with the trio that someone is after Nell and that they need extra help. She sends Nell and company to the school’s crypt to begin learning from Frederick, the school’s necromancy instructor.
Arriving at the crypt, the three are surprised to find that it is a gym full of skeletons. April is immediately smitten with Frederick who is an extremely fit and swole Frankenstien-esque man. To get them started on learning the ways of necBROmancy, Frederick gives Nell, April, and Hans a protein shake that has been enhanced with necromancer ashes. Nell gives her succubus siren song another try and summons a mass of skeletons that begin to fondle her. She loses control of the skeletons, but April smacks her on her butt to snap her back into focus. The skeletons reform and combine into a giant skeleton golem, a skullem!
Commentary
Issue three of Death Nell has a lot going for it: deepening the mystery surrounding Nell, successfully introducing another new character (Frederick), maintaining 80s style sexploitation comedy and doing something “different” with the sex scenes in this issue when compared to issues one and two (throttling it back and placing it on April instead of Nell).
This issue introduces the new character of Frederick, a body builder character that, in a Monster High fashion, takes after Frankenstein. His first appearance make him look like a “gym bro”, but he turns out to be anything but. He has been the only adult character in the Deus Mortem University so far who has not either sexually advanced on the main characters, or been antagonistic toward them. Nurse Flowers has made advances to Nell, groundskeeper Edgar has audibly made comments toward Nell, Professor Reinhart has not done any advances toward Nell, but s’imp Hans proclaims something is off about him (this could be jealousy, though Hans has been correct about his other observations such as the cursed picture). Fredrick, instead, opens up to Nell, April, and Hans immediately, welcomes them to the gym, and gets right to work training them. No punishments or demands like from Reinhart, but right into being supportive. He is a good teacher and a positive character.
The appearance of Frederick takes the spotlight away from Nell’s sexual appetite and places it on April. There is only one sex scene (fantasy or otherwise) in Death Nell #3, and it does not involve Nell, but April. In fact, one of the series’ best jokes is in this issue. It is a meta joke from Nell directed to April when April begins to fantasize about Reinhard: “You better not be eating pizza in there, that’s my thing.” April has collage sexual fantasies just like her best friend Nell, but instead of pizza she goes the other Italian food route and eats spaghetti a’la Lady and the Tramp (1955). There are roughly three nested jokes in one sequence. It is great!
The comedy in Death Nell #3 continues with its so-bad-they’re-great Monster High-esque puns: necBROmancer, Skullem, etc. Professor Reinhard saying “get kraken” while giving a lecture on leviathans and krakens is the greatest pun ever. Other great instances of comedy in the issue includes a panel of April slapping Nell on her butt to snap her out of a trance, and it turns the phrase “slap dem cheeks!” into an onomatopoeia.
While the sex is throttled back, there is still 80s style sexploitation gags in Death Nell #3. When Ms. Flowers bends over in her office, her knickers and stockings become “accidentally” exposed, something akin to Linda Blair in Zapped Again!(1990) or Linnea Quigley in Night of the Demons (1988). All in all, this has been the funniest issue of Death Nell so far.
Covers and Swag Impressions
The third issue of Death Nell was successfully Kickstarted back in October of 2023, with physical fulfillment in January 2024. Those that contributed to the campaign received some nifty art-centric swag and trading cards to go with their chosen cover(s).
Death Nell #3 came in nine different covers, with nude and non-nude options available. The standard cover was done by Aleriia V that goes for a sinister approach to an otherwise comedic series. The Aleriia V cover shows Nell sitting on a blood-soaked couch or bed, tentacles wrapping around her legs, holding potion vials and beckoning the viewer to come forth with her finger. It looks like a gothic crackhead crime scene. Not Alerria V’s best cover, especially considering they did the best cover of Vanya #7 (see here).
The sexiest cover of issue three goes to Xong Bros (who focus on Nell’s masturbatory dilemma) while the whimsy-est goes to Mike Debalfo and Tarella Pablo’s cover which captures a more innocent and unassuming side of Nell.
The best cover, hands down, goes to Marissa Pope and Hedwin Zaldivar’s tiki cover. Death Nell has absolutely no exotica/tiki/mid-century elements present, but the artistic duo voodoo-tiki-ify Nell and it pull it off.* Co-artist Zaldivar also did the best cover for Vanya #9 (see here).
For Kickstarter swag, the Death Nell #3 campaign came with two art prints. One is a 6 x 9 crossover piece that has Nell paired up with June, the protagonist from Bad Bug’s erotic cyberpunk series Hypergeist. Nell is wearing June’s attire and June wearing Nell’s. This piece is done by Bruno Sousa who also did the crossover print of Nell and Bobby Jo that was a part of the Death Nell #2 campaign.
The second art print is a smaller 5×7 glossy print of the Zheanhmeart cover for Death Nell #3.
Finally, as with many Bad Bug campaigns, the Death Nell #3 Kickstarter had a handful of different trading/collectable cards.
First, there is a set of “Necro Sutra” trading cards done by Cari Salviejo (who has worked on other Bad Bug properties such as the aforementioned Hypergeist). These cards show skeletons engaging in a variety of sexual acts and are similar in theme to the sexy skeleton cards that were included with Death Nell #2.
Lastly there is the Tarot Card. Bad Bug has had a great run of making Rider–Waite Tarot Cards sporting their characters. This card is for the Wheel of Fortune and shows an extremely stylized Nell holding an urn of ashes on her head. She has possessed eyes and glowing arms in her palms, perhaps a nod to the Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth (2006). The artist is not credited, but it looks akin to the work of Zach Raw.
All in all, a zesty round up of great swag that backers got with their comic.
Conclusion
Death Nell #3 is fantastic. Frederick is a great addition to the series and he treats the main trio respectfully (hoping that issue four or five does not pull a Scooby Doo and turns him into a bad guy). The comedy in this issue is top notch with many humorous panels and puns. Issue three continues to dive deeper into the mystery around Nell (who she is and why others want her dead), while also exploring other characters more closely (such as April’s desires).
*Note: I am 100% bias toward this cover as I am really into tiki culture.
For more information on Death Nell and the comic’s creative team, check out the links below:
- Bad Bug Media Death Nell 03 Product Page
- Death Nell 03 Kickstarter Page
- Death Nell Trade Paperback Kickstarter Page
- Allen Dunford (Writer)
- Cammry Lapka (Artist)
- Bruna Costa (Colorist)
- Mike Tener (Creator/EIC of Bad Bug)
- Aleriia V (Cover Artist)
- Marissa Pope (Tiki Cover Variant Artist)
- Hedwin Zaldivar (Tiki Cover Variant Artist)
- Cari Salviejo (Trading Card Artist)
Also, consider checking out the reviews I’ve done of other titles published by Bad Bug:
Death Nell Reviews
Vanya Reviews