Heavy Metal Comics 2020
Written by Stephanie Phillips
Illustrated by Christian Rosado
Coloured by Jessica Kholinne
Lettered by Marshall Dillon
Taarna's battles against the servants of Kako, the embodiment of multiversal chaos, are pushing her to the breaking point as she fights to protect her new ally, the mysterious girl named Shaan. This is the story of a millennia-old battle between godlike beings, with all sentient life caught in their path.
First of all can we talk about this amazing cover by Christian, this blew me the hell away with it’s simple beauty and eleganza! The image is incredibly striking and one of those stop you in your tracks kind of moment. I have no idea what it is about Taarna that has me so completely and utterly fascinated, I mean I’m a homosexual male who loves strong and apparently half-naked women and you’d think that wouldn’t make sense but for me it sure does. She is a badass pure and simple and she fights for those who have trouble defending themselves, with immense power and all that jazz after all. Plus she isn’t afraid to be as violent as she needs and or wants to be making her an unapologetic warrior.
I like the way that this is being told. How we see the story & plot development constantly moving forward thanks to how we see the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is extremely well presented. The character development is phenomenal and to see this servant of Kako taking down this gigantic snapping turtle well it makes you want to stop him from breathing ever again. Everyone we’ve seen and met has a very distinct personality to them that is fleshed out in some wonderful ways and whether you like them or not is precisely the way it should be. The pacing is superb as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story amid the twists & turns.
The way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow and thrive makes for some fascinating reading. Also being engaged in the story while seeing this zealot and using Kako’s name to do his own bidding for power and conquest well this showcases why zealots are so damn dangerous. I am enjoying seeing how well everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well.
The interiors here are bloody gorgeous! The creativity and imagination is phenomenal to see and in the creatures, see snapping turtle and the snake, the landscape and Iridia’s Fortress all of these contribute to creating this familiar yet foreign world. The linework that we see is exquisite and with the varying weights and techniques being utilised we see this amazingly high level and quality to the detail work. I like the trick of the eye where there could be backgrounds but aren’t because we still get this great depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work that we see here is extremely nice to see. How the various hues and tones within the colours are being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a great understanding of how colour works.
Honestly I think Taarna is everything that Red Sonja should have been. She is a woman of infinite possibilities who does whatever she feels she has to to get the job done. Relentless, unforgiving and full of her own charm, whit, verve and uniqueness that makes us all fall in love with her time and time again.