If you hit record stores in late May 1983 you might have seen a certain debut album with some interesting art. The cover shows a giant demon creature standing over a mountain side as a priest wrapped in chains struggles to stay afloat in the waters below. Welcome to heavy metal band Dio and their debut album Holy Diver.
The religious right had a fit. They argued that the artwork was satanic with a demon killing a man of the cloth. But Dio front-man Ronnie James Dio argued that things were from a different perspective. And that perhaps it wasn't a priest being killed but in fact a monster!
The cover was painted by Randy Berrett and has since become known as one of the most iconic album covers of all-time. The album cemented Ronnie James Dio as one of the preeminent heavy metal headliners after tenures with the bands Rainbow and an Ozzy-less Black Sabbath. But the question still persisted 'What's the story behind the album cover?'
Over the years, Ronnie James Dio and his wife Wendy would conduct charity work for exploited children; later for child sex victims of the Catholic church. In interviews, Dio would claim that his controversial album cover was coming true. Some would question if Dio himself was a victim of molestation, having been raised in the Catholic church. While Dio was not officially listed as having answered in the affirmative, the singer would continue to allude to his Holy Diver artwork as being something 'not as it seems.'
Ronnie James Dio passed away in May, 2010. While he never fully gave away all of his secrets, he left a backstory to the Holy Diver artwork. According to wife Wendy, Dio was okay with the story being revealed after he passed. She just needed to find the right voices to do it.
To mark the 10th anniversary of Ronnie James Dio's death, Dio's widow selected 30 Days of Night's Steve Niles to take the singer's notes and turn them into a cohesive story. Artist Scott Hampton (Black Widow) would illustrate. Together, readers were taken back in time to an age of magic and dragons.
On a secluded island, Father Emil seeks to convert it's pagan inhabitants to Christianity. The elders imprison the priest in hopes of teaching him a lesson in tolerance. But when it's revealed that the holy man has been poisoning the children with lessons on hate, the adults find that they make have to put an end to Father Emil.
The story was quite good. But I was really hoping for a foreword or even an afterword to delve more into the mind of Ronnie James Dio. The priest on the cover of the album is wearing modern vestments. I would have liked to known if setting the story in what I assume is medieval times was intentional or a game time decision in hopes of not offending the Church.
Scott Hampton's artwork was really chaotic. Some characters looked cartoonish while others looks amazingly lifelike. There's also a lot of nudity in this book (and why are they floating?!). With the druid-like village and excessive skin, this book felt a lot more like a prequel to The Wicker Man than a tell-all about what really happened between the demon, Murray, and the drowning priest.
This graphic novel clocks in at 124 pages. All story. No backstory. And backstory was why I bought this book! I guess I'll just never know the full ins-and-outs of the artwork to Holy Diver!
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.
Completing this review completes Task #22 (With a music or art theme) of the 2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.
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