TODAY'S 'MAIN FEATURE':

I recently received the above comic book from publisher Martin T. Pierro of Cosmic Times for a possible mention or review....

If you have been around in comics for a while like me, you would think I've heard that name before... Cosmic Times... and yes, back in 1984 Cosmic Times was a fledgling comics news fanzine.

However, last year, 2009, they were reborn as an independent publishing house.  Their first title was “Arthur: The Legend Continues”, an ongoing epic adventure that will be followed by the anthology series “Decisions” along with several other titles currently in various stages of production.

I hadn't yet heard of their rebirth or the fact that 'Arthur: The Legend Continues" had been started, even though they were at the 2009 Mega Con in Orlando, Florida.

Martin became aware of this Blog during the Indy Comics Book Week series I was blogging here in December, and sent the comic book in for a possible mention.

So what is the comic book about?  Here's the press release info:

Written and Illustrated by Martin T. Pierro & Cristhian Zamora

Standard Comic
Black & White
Page Count: 48
POD - $3.50 cover price

On an ancient battlefield King Arthur gives his final order - Excalibur is to be returned to the Lady of the Lake. As the last shadows fall on Camelot Arthur is carried off to Avalon where he will wait until his people need him once more. On a post-apocalyptic battlefield a mystical sword appears - is this the return of the once and future king? Can the prophecy finally be fulfilled before all hope is lost? Faith and courage are put to the ultimate test in this self-contained “pilot” issue of “Arthur: The Legend Continues”.

With the world as we know it gone, mankind is on the verge of extinction yet still struggling to find purpose and hope. From the ancient past a glimmer of light shines and a legend returns to claim his throne. Facing challenges never imagined in his time, King Arthur shall rise again and bring the mighty Excalibur to the throats of all who wish to do harm to his people.

Arthur: The Legend Continues TM and © Martin T. Pierro. All rights reserved.

So I read this comic book and found the following:

The comic book is illustrated with black and white interior pages.  This after a great color front cover by Artula Siriwardane, whose works I see a lot online as Artula and I are Facebook Friends. His works never disappoint me.

The black and white interior pages illustrated by Cristhian 'Crizam' Zamora fits the tone of this storyline, and I didn't miss it not being in color.  The facial expressions were vivid in the illustrations, and the backgrounds were good enough to make me believe that the scenes were truly happening in both the early period of the comic book and the future years.  There was no skimping on backgrounds in this issue.

The storyline by Martin T Pierro was an interesting read. Yes as most others, I was familar with the original story of Arthur, but this "continuation" is set in the far future of mankind.  

Yeah, there are a lot of stories out there that are set in post-apocalyptic environments. And after a while that scenario can be kind of tiring as more comics / graphic novels / books are published in this vein...

Yet here in this storyline I found myself continuing to read page after page.  Why?  Well, in this story, hundreds of years after the apocalypse, mankind has rebuilt its' civilization. And after the intro pages of the earlier Medieval Era with King Arthur, it now appears that mankind is now going through what could be called a Second Medieval Period.

It appears that history is repeating itself. So although this is a 'double-sized' issue, the intro and the bringing the reader into the future is done pretty smoothly in the still limited amount of pages.

That's because about a quarter of the comic's pages are used to familiarize readers with the end story of the 'Legend of Arthur', then a short recap of how mankind's civilization ended, and then the remaining pages is about the aftermath... and the return of Arthur. 

I believe that this comic book would fare well with readers of this genre of story. My only semi-negative thought about this comic book issue is the 'readability' of it.

That is, I realize that great care was taken in the early pages of the comic book to be authentic, what with the language used, but the text font is something I believe would keep this comic from not being read by more people.

I'm not blaming the letterer on this.  The placing of the word balloons, etc., is well placed.  It's just that the font is hard to read, and in my opinion could make those that are just picking this comic up at their LCBS possibly place it back on the rack, because of that 'readability' factor.

So even though the artwork, the storyline, the dialogue, and the characterization appears to be very authentic, I believe that to become more of a periodical with 'mass appeal', that the font should be looked at closer for a possible change.

Other than that possible 'issue', this comic book was a good read and should be checked out by those that enjoy this genre of literature.  

The web site for this comic book is at:

http://www.CosmicTimes.net  

There you can read more and also see the places either at LCBS or online that you can buy or order this comic book for reading.

My thanks to Martin for sending in this publication for possible review.  I do appreciate that, and wish you well for 2010, as well as a good showing at the upcoming Mega Con in Orlando.