The back cover repeats over and over that Limerence is a state of mind. We can go with that. It’s also a state of being madly in love without that madness returned. If that doesn’t describe the state of breaking into comics in 2025, I don’t know what does. Yet debut creator Andrew Rende has a legitimate shot with Limerence* #1, a strong start to a 4 issue mini-series.
Set in a vaguely futuristic San Francisco, Limerence* starts with a street battle. The armored and armed Sengo runs through a neighborhood, closely followed by thugs. He’s stolen money from these criminals, though it’s unclear if that really makes him the good guy. Maybe it’s drug money, and maybe Sengo deals as well. Purposely vague, it’s enough to know that so far no one is truly clean.
Sure, we’ve seen it before, right down to Sengo’s armor looking one part Punisher, one part Grifter, maybe a little of the Foot Clan, and so on. But Rende’s style does more than just wear its influences on its sleeve. There’s a gritty line work that evokes more than manga. The more I looked through these pages the more it felt like a throwback to underground comix of the ’70s, appropriate for a book set in a cybernetic San Francisco.
Then things get casually, thoroughly weird.
After pages of strong, assured fight choreography, Rende starts building a world stranger than the first glance allowed. Beyond a corner market where the clerk and a cat seem to have merged into one, it wouldn’t be right to spoil more. The plot anchors us in reasonable normality—Sengo is driven to rescue a family member from criminal clutches—but we get glimpses into much more. Once again, it feels like R. Crumb might pop up, and what we’ve taken as Marvel ninja wear may owe more to Vaughn Bodé.
Right now, Rende distributes hard copies solely through conventions and his Kickstarter campaign, because this really is a first effort. At L.A. Comic Con, he told me that Limerence* will be available in a couple of San Francisco Bay Area stores. It looks like you can also buy it digitally at GlobalComix. Give it a shot. This won’t be the last we hear from Andrew Rende, and hopefully his mad love for comics will be returned.
