Out past the edge of town, there exists a strip club called Heaven that only some can find. Some say it’s a mirage. Others say you can’t miss the giant neon heels lighting up the desert night skies.

Dolly can’t find a place to belong. After losing her identity as a gymnast and?navigating family turbulence, she’s adrift from school and friends. When a mysterious presence beckons her to Heaven, she wonders if she may just have found her place — but just what does it want in return?

Katie Skelly’s first graphic novel since her acclaimed Maids in 2020, Heaven finds out what happens when the artist’s quintessential cool girl characters let their guards down and let the world in. With a supernatural strip club backdrop and an eye-popping sense of color that would make Dario Argento proud, Heaven reinforces Skelly’s place as one of the most distinctive voices working in contemporary comics today.

Before the story gets going, the opening panels of the comic make you wonder, “what exactly is HEAVEN?” (Click images to enlarge).

Then the story jumps to the true beginning.

Dolores (aka Dolly) just turned eighteen and is struggling with life and school. One day a group of friends spots her walking home from school and they invite her to IHOP for a meal. When they find out Dolly is 18, they decide to talk about their “pet project” of investigating the strip club HEAVEN, which seems to appear only to some of the people looking for it, and to others, they can’t find it at all. Those who have been to it rate it five stars and call it an amazing experience, and the girls are looking for it to find something cool in their rundown town.

They talk Dolly into going on the hunt for HEAVEN, and to everyone’s surprise, the find the strip club in the middle of nowhere (like a hilly desert).

The girls push Dolly to go inside, where she is asked if she would like to audition. Dolly plays along and things are going well until the director sees that Dolly has braces, and the door slams shut. Dolly retreats to her girlfriends, and they all head home…

Where Dolly takes a set of tools and removes her braces herself.

They make another trip out to HEAVEN and this time Dolly is determined to get an audition, despite never having danced before and not having any sexy clothing. The director/owner, Lover, hires Dolly on the spot and asks her to start tomorrow. But it’s not dancing for Dolly. She’s sort of like an apprentice to Lover, and all of her time after school is spent working at HEAVEN and trying to balance that job with school. Meanwhile, her friends can’t get into the club and they have no idea what’s going on, but they see how burnt out Dolly is and try to get her to quit.

Except that’s not going to be so easy…

I’m not going to elaborate more on the plot, but this is a fun, weird little comic with some eldritch horror and sacrificial murder mixed in with the desire to belong somewhere. There’s apparently a darkness within Dolly that appeals to Lover and that’s why HEAVEN accepted her with open arms. But things aren’t what they seem.

The artwork for this comic is really unique. I can’t compare it to any kind of style I’ve ever seen, so I can only say this must be uniquely Skelly. The use of color is brilliant, with bright vivid shades throughout. It’s a comic that catches your attention and doesn’t let you go.

While I personally would’ve loved to have seen this comic get even darker, I think that might actually detract from Dolly and her journey. So, I think the story works out well. I’m giving this four stars for a fun experience and recommend this to anyone who has some darkness or weirdness inside of them.

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HEAVEN will be available July 7. You can purchase it from Fantagraphics directly or anywhere books are sold online.