
Broken Icon 2015
Created & Written by Damian Wampler
Illustrated by Andre Siregar
Coloured by Anang Setyawan
A future so distant, it looks like our past…
A shapeshifting immortal awakens from a ten thousand year sleep to find that evil, long thought erased from the Earth, has returned.
Ya know what I kind of like this it’s different, interesting and a little bit out there. I’m pretty happy with the quality of the interior artwork here and the attention to detail that we see. The Death Head mask reminiscent of the Plague masks is a nice touch on the opening page. Not to mention that among the first seven pages we see how the world looks and the rocks, trees it’s all so very well portrayed along with the human inhabitants.
We see King or ruler of some denomination as we open and honestly he’s not a nice man you get that sense through his words and actions pretty darn quickly. They talk about a runaway and that she’s being hunted/chased as they speak. While we have no idea how she escaped we do see that this world is well I dunno how to describe, backwards where slaves have no names and the slaves dress like cavemen those that drive the workforce look like vikings and Lord Mitan well like English royalty. There’s a lot of melding happening here and it’s neat and well handled actually distinctly separating the classes.
Sevara’s introduction is done very well also as she comes to the runaway slaves rescue. It seems that she has been awoken because greed and hatred have slipped back into the world. Okay now that to me seems a bit much I mean both those qualities go hand in hand with how I see mankind and as long as we work and all people aren’t equal there will be greed and hatred, coveting something, someone with that the whole desire to be more I don’t see how that was suppressed for so long and this Lord Mitan seems to have been doing this for a while now.
It seems that Lord Mitan has captured a white haired woman after which his slave escaped and now there seems to be more unrest happening in his kingdom. Also it seems their religion is based upon a book and they follow so closely it’s unnerving. How can you follow a book that can’t feel, assess a situation and change with the times, whose words are used by those in power to mean what they want it to? Still all this works to make you think about what you are reading, drawing you into the story and becoming not only invested but so that you want to see how all this plays out.
There’s a lot of interesting things happening here that both make sense and leave you wondering what’s going on it’s a great dichotomy. The two page spread towards the end of the issue is not only a wonderful showcase of the interior artwork but of so much more and how the issue ends well that’s a little surprising.
Again this is fine example of why I love small-self/indie published books. If you’ve been with me a while these are the folks that brought us Grocery Assassin that I absolutely loved and once again they show us why to look for their titles. Great premise, strong writing and characterization and some above average interior artwork showcasing their love for what they do make this one of the most promising series of the year.