Image Comics 2020
Written by Kieron Gillen & Jim Rosignol
Illustrated by Jeff Stokely
Coloured by Tamra Bonvillain
Lettered by Clayton Cowles
The Ludocrats! The aristocrats of ludicrous! A collision of the ornate fantasy of Dune and an M-rated Asterix & Obelix! Baron Otto Von Hades and Professor Hades Zero-K are here, and they're going to save us all and have a nice time.
I had no idea what I was getting myself into here. I am still not sure what I have gotten myself into either but I do know this, it is going to stay with me for a very long time to come. Also i want to see more of that swinging between his legs because if it’s that size limp oh lordy. This is like dropping a hit of acid while listening to Jefferson Starship’s White Rabbit and watching Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Your mind doesn’t know where to go to process what you are seeing and it doesn’t matter because it gives you the warm and fuzzies.
I do very much like the way that this is being told. How the story & plot development move forward through how we see the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is extremely nice to see. You follow things as they unfold, never quite sure about things and suddenly it’s like someone flipped a switch in your brain and you go oh okay I get it now. It is beyond perfectly done in my opinion and while that may not be saying much it thrilled me to no end. The character development is something else altogether and it’s interesting and the characters are indeed quirky and exuberant. The sheer mix of personalities that we are introduced to in this issue might make you want a scorecard but trust me you won’t need it. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages on this weird journey revealing the world these characters live in helps create the books ebb & flow that we see.
The more I read this more I understood things about the book which of course enhances the enjoyment you get from it. I am fascinated with the dynamics we see in place here already and by characters you may or may not expect to see. From the audacious opening to the thrilling final page what you are going to see is going to test your senses in ways that you’ll appreciate later.
The interiors here are crazy delightful. The linework that we see is big and bold then can turn soft and delicate on a dime. The sheer amount of creativity that is on display within these pages is sensational! I mean from the stained glass design to how the characters are created there is not one thing where the attention to detail isn’t magnificently rendered. The utilisation of the backgrounds to bring us a sense of depth perception, scale and that overall size and scope of the story are great when they are utilised so utilise them further than we see here. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such a talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is pretty solid. There are definitely some wonderful colour choices going on here and some nice utilisation of hues and tones within them.
When we see the Hyper-Pope’s guard’s enter the book I almost feel this whole Witchy Poo moment happening and it utterly, completely and totally fits right into the whole feel of this book in ways I couldn’t have imagined or predicted. This is a fun, irreverent and completely off the back burner, rockin’ with your cock out kind of fun.