Titan Comics 2018
Written by Ryan O’Sullivan
Illustrated by Anton Kokarev
Lettered by Simon Bowland
Cover by Pablo Fernandez Angulo
Can we just talk about this cover for a moment? I mean in the words of Harry Carey “Holy Cow” this is utterly entrancing, mesmerising and a masterpiece of art. I mean Art art the kind you find in museums art it is so eye catching, enveloping in it’s attention to detail the way the linework and the colours just pop is amazing to me. When we talk about computer generated artwork this is what I now expect to see someone who can just master the techniques and bring us something of this level of quality. Plus if you look at Gwyn you think of that moment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy where we see the possessed King and it’s so eerie it’s wonderful.
While I don’t play video games that might change in the not too distant future because when books like this come out and are this good it makes me want to experience the game itself. I like that this is like a prequel though it does come with a disclaimer that the story and world-view depicted here is created sole for the comic and may differ from those in the original video game. So while there may be some discrepancies I am still left with the desire to find out how much fun the game is. Also I feel like the soundtrack to this is either dark dramatic classic work (which most comes across as look at Bugs Bunny) or a mixture of things Metallica and Godsmack, this is what I hear in my head.
I like the way that this book is being structured. Ryan really puts together a great story here and how it flows is pretty amazing. His writing in aspect to structure and plot/story development here reminds of the original Dragonlance novels that were astounding in how they captured you. Here what we see has this believability to it that even with Gods, Dragons and such and set in a kind of D&D setting. The way the story just is is the way it should be and it feels right, natural and real and that is incredibly hard to do. You get swept up in the fantasy of it and want nay need to be a part of it it’s that good.
The story is wonderfully crafted and as it travels throughout the realm and characters are introduced and the setup is being done we can almost see what is to happen. I like these introductions and I like seeing the background with Arkon and how it gives the character more depth and reasons why he’s like he is. There is a lot more going on with him than we’re seeing and I loo forward to having that explored more.
The interiors from Anton are also in a league of it’s own, possibly only the Sejic’s can match this level of detail and atmosphere we see here. The sheer amount of work that we see here is utterly gorgeous and it takes the breath away. From the way metal shines in the light and how that light is seen all over along with the intricacy of some the finer details is just wow. The way page layouts are utilised and how we see the angles and perspective showcase an amazing eye for storytelling. Backgrounds and how they manipulated oh my stars is it perfectly done.
This rivals any kind of books in the realm of the Gods (Greek, Egyptian, Norse, etc) or the original Dragonlance work. The story the characterisation and the cohesion plus the way that everything here is done is stunning to me.