Chloé C.’s webcomic Headless Bliss reveals what happens to the stories we make up after we forget about them. It starts when a figure born of the human realm encounters a curious young princess, the child of two cruel and monstrous demons. The comic is by turns funny and sad, but it’s also just plain gorgeous.
Annùn is a demon child, a little princess with a death-headed father and a mother who would be at home in an HP Lovecraft story. She is a curious and spritely creature, one obsessed with stories. But she was also raised to possess the unthinking cruelty of a demon. Her world is one of horrors that she innocently accepts.
One day, Annùn has a little adventure and meets Sinaj, a horned wanderer with mystical powers. Sinaj is like no one Annùn has met, more human than demon, but she’s delighted by the time she experiences with the mysterious Sinaj. And when Annùn insists on bringing her new friend home, Sinaj finds herself on a much darker and more dangerous journey than she intended.
Some fantasy webcomics can get bogged down in their mythology, but Chloé C. wisely keeps her to the background, focusing primarily on Annùn and the beings around her. Plus, while Headless Bliss does have a dark, melancholy feel to it, it’s also funny. Different characters have very different senses of humor, and whether it’s Sinaj cracking the jokes or Annùn’s horrifying mother, that humor makes the comic both richer and more fun to read. On top of all that, Chloé C. has great fun visually building her world, with great, rough lines that make it feel like we have stepped into a completely alien dimension and we’re all lucky not to be in Sinaj’s position.