The Sinners is a one-shot with a cover date of June, 1989. It was published on April 22, 1989.
Synopsis for "The Sinners"
Born in a nameless country to a nameless family, a growing boy named Edouard struggles to handle the cruelties in his life: while his school peers and his older brother Thomas ostracize him for no apparent reason, his father is a military official whose long absences and heavy drinking constantly weigh on the household. Edouard finds his main solace during church services, when his peers are obliged to act friendly, and the instructor sings with a rapturous joy he knows nowhere else.
Eventually, career disappointments spur Edouard's father to quit his post and fall completely into alcoholic depression. One night at dinner, he begins disposing of his uniform honors, and beats his eldest—Edouard's fondest sibling—for questioning him. Impulsively, Edouard flings a dish in his father's face, then flees the house, only to be struck by a car.
For a time, Edouard sinks into a comatose dream, touring a fairy-tale kingdom as an ideally handsome, dignified version of himself. Found by the princess of this land, he visits her father's royal court, witnessing many strange wonders. However, the idyll collapses when the princess recites a mawkish poem that Edouard had once written for a girl who rejected him; she then presents Edouard with a severed head bearing his true face, and urges him to face the challenges and pains of his real life rather than fleeing to despair and self-pity.
Edouard rises from his dream to find his leg broken, Thomas shocked into muteness (for life), and his father leaving the household entirely. Though his leg heals, he returns to school more alienated and emotionally repressed than ever, and soon finds himself expelled when his attempt to help a mentally-challenged classmate against a bully causes a hostile teacher to blame him for the bullying instead.
Forced home with no prospects and an increasingly scornful mother, Edouard strikes out on his own, going from university studies to a string of different jobs around the country. Again and again, he fails to achieve any emotional connections or fulfillment, finding himself a constant outsider to his coworkers—and deeply paranoid in any potential romances. His correspondence home is irregular, and soon stops entirely.
After years of drifting, tedium and the "novelty" of making peace with his family drive Edouard to make a long, arduous journey home. However, he finds his house derelict, long-abandoned by his family—except his father, who now uses it as a brothel. Witnessing this sends Edouard into a complete psychotic break, and he flees, plunging into a disembodied space full of doors. One by one, each shows an opportunity or triumph he might have taken at some point in life, culminating in a solid black door promising his long-considered end.
Unable to resist, Edouard nearly falls through the black door, but is pulled back at the last moment. As lucidity returns, he finds himself on the town outskirts, two vagrants having narrowly saved him from jumping to his death. Stunned by their kindness, Edouard flees back to his house, only to find it burnt down—the last link to his family forever gone. Overcome with grief as never before, Edouard returns to the outskirts, where one of the vagrants cryptically voices a wish to preserve "what little goodness" remains in him. To Edouard's horror, the vagrant then burns himself alive.
The shock of these experiences break the last of Edouard's ennui, allowing emotion to grow anew. Thereafter, he resumes his drifter's life with an intense passion and love for the world, devoted to helping others and honoring God. Even as he grows old and subsists as a beggar, he lives in peace, content with his purpose at last.
Appearing in "The Sinners"
Featured Characters:
- Narrator ("Edouard Camille Mont-Pierre St. Auguste")
Supporting Characters:
- "Diana"
- "Papa"
Villains:
Other Characters:
- Thomas
- Madame De Loge
- Elisabeth
- Heinrich
Locations:
- "The State"
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- This was the first publication under DC's short-lived Piranha Press imprint.