Karmen comes upon Catalina as she’s cutting herself and takes her on a journey in order to rethink how she is living her life.

Trigger warning for self harm, suicide, and rape.

Karmen, clearly a spirit of some kind, reminds me of Death from the Sandman comics in a way. The difference here is whatever Karmen is, there’s a bunch of them and there’s in implication she’s taking too ling with shepherding Catalina’s soul to wherever she’s supposed to go. I wonder what is so special about Catalina, or perhaps what’s so special about Karmen, that will keep this story going. It’s trippy and cool with some amazing art. I am very curious to see what happens next. 4 out of 5.

A stunningly gorgeous book about life, death, and flying around naked. I loved the lush backdrops. I'm definitely curious about where these characters will go next.

This is about our main character Catalina, a woman who committed suicide from because of a heartbreak. After she dies, she becomes a ghost and is led through the afterlife by Karmen.

I loved the artwork, it was absolutely beautiful. Although I was very confused at the beginning, I ended up really intrigued and can't wait for the next volume. Also, I liked the discussion about how suicide affects others and why it's important to reach out. However, there were some problems for me: it was at times confusing, why is she naked throughout almost the whole thing, is there a point? and I don't understand the obsession with farts.
Overall, a cool concept and would 100% read the next installment.

a really interesting concept, Karmen being some kind of creature that poses as a incarnation of Karma, that appears after someone dies and somewhat guides them to their next life.
it is quickpaced, and at times it seems a bit shallow but i think the concept is worth more in depth discovery.

can no longer give feedback due to it being archived and now unavailable for me to read via Netgalley

This is an excellent graphic novel, the art is eye-catching and well done, and the story is intriguing. Trigger warnings for death, suicide, and afterlife. Karmen is about what happens after death, and what, if anything, can change.

I read this book as a pre-release e-book obtained through NetGalley, provided by the publisher.

This book contains some discussion of sexual topics, has suicide as a central topic, and some of the artwork depicts nudity. May not be suitable for some potential readers.

Graphic novel, which describes a heartbroken teenager who slits her wrist in the bathtub, and encounters a very-different sort of Death personified - who it is revealed has a set of "work politics" of her own. She learns the "pros and cons" about being dead, considers her choices in life, considers what was important in life, and how much she hurt others... and how she'll do it different "next incarnation". Our departed heroine interacts with another dead person, and that might not be for the best.

I only gave it 4 stars because although the story is well written, I'm outside its demographic, and my taste is not for graphic novels.

Quick read.

3.5/5 stars

This was not at all what I expected, in the best way possible.
The art was really interesting and well done and the story is dark but really thought provoking. I hope to read the next installment of this as I didn't realize there was another part!

Catalina is in love with her childhood friend, Xisco, but he's in a serious relationship with someone else. Something shifts in Catalina's life and she decides to end her own life, as no one cares about her anyway.
Then enters Karmen, what can only be described as a grim reaper, but she decides to give Catalina time to see why she chose wrong and what the world is like with her not in it anymore.

When I first read that this discussed suicide and death, I was quite iffy as it's a relatively tough subject.
This story was sometimes funny and it tried to bring a light to the hard facts of death/suicide. It touched on why it's important to reach out and to see that you are never truly alone.

I ended up enjoying this quite a bit and would recommend it to those that are not upset by death or semi graphic content.

Note to those that need it: There is nudity throughout the book (the main character goes around nude), there is death/suicide talk, some blood and death scenes.

The art in this was absolutely gorgeous. That was the true stand-out. Candy coloured and cute mixed with a bit of the macabre.
We got to see a bit of the world and the politics that Karmen was in, near the end of the book and I found that bit really intriguing. I wish this first volume had more of that.
I found the concept a bit hard to grasp and often found myself wondering where this story was supposed to be going. I don't think it gave enough information to make me want to read more.

* Trigger warning: self harm, suicide, nudity, explicit death scenes.

3.5/5
This is the story of Catalina, a woman who tried to commit suicide and now she’s in what I’d like to call "the in-between". Karmen, an angel of death (or something of sorts) meets her and guides her through several places.

Page by page we get to know Cata and what drove her to take that mortal decision instead of talking her problems away with the people involved. Karmen, on the other hand, it’s the portrayal of a pretty cynical yet accurate way of seeing death, and what it means to be alive without a real purpose. Ultimately, from the way I perceived it, this graphic novel acts like a wake-up call to the people that ever thought about committing suicide.

It brings important questions to the table such as what are you currently doing with your life, and if it’s good enough. What are you doing to make yourself happy, content? And of course, we get a glimpse of what would be the reaction of the people we’re leaving behind when we are dead. It makes us think about our mortality and how everybody is unsure of their own future –so we better make most of our time while we can.

Whilst the ambience feels pretty whimsical yet detailed, the story might come off as something only mature people can handle. In addition, Cata is nude for the most part of the volume, so please be aware of that.

I would totally recommend you to give this one a try. I really hope I can read the second volume as soon as it gets published.

Beautifully illustrated, this high end graphic novel is unique. Catalina commits suicide and dies, although she doesn’t know this, Karmen arrives to guide her on her way. The book depicts suicide and contains nudity, but the latter is kept tasteful. I quite liked this book. I’d read the volume 2 when it’s released.

This comic follows the intertwining story of Karmen and Catalina. Karmen is far from your typical angel of death. She rocks short pink hair and looks like she’s wearing a skeletal bodysuit with silhouette heels. She barges into the bathroom of her next assignment and finds a bloody body. Catalina committed suicide due to a broken heart. The reader learns that she is self-absorbed and maintained rocky relationships with her friends and family. Karmen aims to use her powerful empathy to guide Catalina into self-examining herself and hopes for a chance at redemption.

We also learn more about the business affairs of this reality’s afterlife towards the end, when we meet another angel of death coming to collect her charge and who seems like Karmen’s higher up. Karmen is doing things against convention and the others are noticing with disapproval.

Karmen by Guillem March makes for a great read and explores an intriguing concept of the afterlife mixed with an all-too familiar conflict that tears at Catalina and the reader’s hearts.

Content warning: suicide, explicit nudity, poor representation of mental illness, cheating
This is dark and philosophical. Death is karma coming to show you to your reincarnation. The story and art are deep and haunting. I loved how death/karma was drawn.
The nudity didn’t bother me but I found it distracting from the story,
I’m not sure if I recommend this but please be in a good state of mind before you read it. You are loved, always remember that.
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Karmen is an adult graphic novel which illustrates the unknown part of death: What happens. It touches the subject of suicide directly and has a depressive mood. It pushes a person to think what happens after we die but it is not a religious read.

Ideas in the novel are very classic, they are not something we have not read it or seen before but <b>Karmen is smart and idealistic character and makes journey fun</b>. The drawings are very captivating. It also pushes right buttons and you wanna see more of it. I really want to.

* I received a free copy of this book via the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review *

Content Warning — or Helpful to Those Who Need It — The plot hinges entirely on a suicide. For some that might be a deterrent. For me, it was a new way to explore my grief in a way that’s pretty as well as philosophical.

I think the setting is Spain, but I think the thematic content is universal.

If you like the Death comics and all things DC Vertigo, this one is for you. In both writing and Art, it has thematic and stylistic elements in common with Sandman and Death and Lucifer, as well as Kid Eternity and Shade: The Changing Man.

In this volume, the intermediary between life and what comes after is Karmen, who is walking Cata through the waiting period between her suicide and her next incarnation. If Death being a cheerful goth girl made you feel less trepidation about death, then you will probably like Karmen, too. She’s got pink hair and wears a skeleton unitard and had a cute little freckled nose. She is blunt and honest and the writer shows us the empathy she holds for humans, who she also finds to be, as a whole, pretty unappreciative of being alive.

I look forward to the next chapter in this series.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book in return for an honest review.

WARNINGS:
- Death
- Suicide/Self Harm
- Blood
- Catalina is naked throughout a huge majority of this graphic novel

Karmen Volume 1 is a graphic novel that takes a whole new light on death. Karmen is pretty much an angel of death who tries to lead the dead people to redemption. In this volume, it focuses on Catalina who killed herself. The graphic novel heavily focuses on characters and their growth.

I really liked this graphic novel with the art and colours as well as the story. The only issue I had whilst reading this was the fact I struggled with the font on some pages, it needed to be a little bit bigger for me so I had to zoom in.

I look forward to reading volume 2 to carry on with the story and see how it is fully fleshed out.

Rating- 4⭐

I would read this again because I feel like I may get more from it during a second reading and I also really enjoyed the story.

Would I recommend it:
Yes but people, PLEASE read the warnings because there is potentially triggering content.

A beautiful graphic memoir that is informative and necessary for all people to be aware of. I highly recommend this title.

2.5/5

I'm not sure how to feel about it, it was entertaining yet boring. i love the idea and the premise how dark and nightmarish it was, but it still fell flat.

Humorous and at times reflective, "Karmen" wasn't quite what I expected in terms of both the story and the message. We follow Catalina who is shepherded by a mysterious spirit-like being Karmen. They explore the new in-between state Catalina resides in and discuss the purpose of life, death, and regrets. The story touched on several big philosophical concepts regarding life's meaning, our purpose, and what we can do about regret, which was interesting and thought-provoking. I do wish we had the chance to explore Catalina's life before the now instead of spending panels watching her fly through the city. Overall an interesting, well-balanced graphic novel that gets you reflecting on your own life.

Overall I did enjoy reading this book. It contains beautiful drawings which are very pleasing to look at while tackling heavy subjects like suicide, self harm, grief. I liked the magical aspects of this book and the surrealism of it all. I did want to know more about what Karmen’s job and life were. I personally didn’t connect to kat but I could relate to her denial.

Even though I enjoyed reading this book, I think you will either love or hate it. Since this is a quick read I do recommend you pick it up.

I hope there will be more volumes which focus more of Karmen because she’s such a interesting and unique character.