Mood:
caffeinatedTopic: Comic Books - New
This graphic novel series... comes from Iberian Press. So far I have blogged about the first volume. Because the first volume was in a 'grayscale' format, and the second is in color, I intentionally blogged separately on these two volumes. Before I post my review, I'll post what the creators have laid out about the storyline synopsis for Volume 2: " Ardan and Keegan reach Castel, but tempers flare as they fight their way through low life thugs, a black market pirate, two bounty-hunting dwarves, and the Horde’s most vicious death machines, The Hunters. The Horde marches the planet towards a horrific future as their enigmatic mastermind is poised to unleash his cybernetic army. They’ll stop at nothing to capture Ardan, if only he knew why. The walls are slowly closing in as Ardan finds himself in the Bull’s Eye." In my earlier blog I stated that I had been around for a while and have read several Sci-Fi / Adventure / Fantasy epics before. Of course the main idea in a first volume is to get the reader 'hooked' into the characters and the storyline, so that they will want to continue to follow the rest of the series. As I stated the first volume did that for me... So I open up the second graphic novel, and am pleased to see a map of the world of Tyr right away. That is always great to have as a reference as to where the storylines are taking place. So I go on to reading page one, then turn the page over to pages two and three, and noticed right away that there was some color at the bottom of page three. That was a little different, because as I stated above, the first volume was really well done in grayscale. Here the color accentuates the blood and the fire at the last panel on the third page. Well... okay, that's an interesting use of color there... I continue to read on, and find more coloring creeping into the storyline, and then there is a change of location. Now the rest of the color comes in. Okay, if we are going to have color in this second volume, it was one way of bringing it about. Especially since there was a time period between the publishing of the two volumes. I already had made the realization that Ardan’s story was far bigger than even Ardan realized. Reading this volume I still didn't know how long this graphic novel series would continue as so far I hadn't seen any mention... I also have stated before in my blogs that 'manga' art is not one of my favorite stylings. Saying that, I found that Miguel Guerra's styling in the first volume using 'grayscale' was a more polished look and I liked it. The colored artwork in the second volume was more 'manga like' to me, because of the coloring. Not that this is bad, just that it is closer to manga which is not one of my favorite formats. However those that like manga-style would probably appreciate the coloring of the panels more... I had mentioned that the lettering in the first volume was the only thing that seemed a little strange at times to me. The person at the right of the panel could be speaking first, and then the person at the left speaking. But not always, only sometimes... This was probably a holdover from the manga format, but it was a little unsettling at times for me. I did not notice that process so much in the second volume, as it read better for me. I had also mentioned that the word balloons were not totally white in the first volume, and that they appeared to be 'super-imposed' over the artwork. At first it was a little distracting for me, but a few pages in I adapted to this word balloon format. Here in the second volume, there was a continuation of that ballooon format, until the color was introduced. Then the word balloons became the all white that would be considered 'standard'. I enjoyed this volume, even with the change in color format, and the change in word balloon format. What did kind of throw me off just a bit, was the increased usage of common lingo / slang in the speech of a few of the characters. Somehow I didn't feel that the characters would be talking like 'real Earth' people there on their own planet of Tyr. Maybe this was to 'popularize' the storyline for the mainstream reading public... that I'm not for sure, but I did see more of it in this second volume. Possibly it could be because the book was aimed at a 'Teen Plus' market per the rating at the back cover? And yeah, I'm definitely past my Teen Years, that's for sure! I previously stated that I was looking forward to finishing the second volume in this series. After reading this volume with its coloring changes, balloon changes, and what seemed to me to be a more defining of whom the series is aimed for, I still believe that this series is a worthwhile series to pursue. The biggest concern to me would be the increase of price from the first volume printed in grayscale at $13.95, to this volume printed in color at $25.99 cover price. From a little bit more research on this series, I found that Miguel was planning on this to run for a total seven graphic novel volumes. I know that both volumes were good reading for me, and that I have enjoyed the storyline so far. Best of luck to Miguel and Suzy in continuing this graphic novel series. Those interested in seeing this series continue should recommend it to their local libraries for possible purchase in their graphic novel sections! Samurai Elf (vol. 2): Bull's Eye For more info on the series and upcoming graphic novels, please see the Iberian Press web site at: http://www.IberianPress.com (Please Note: A complimentary item for this mention / review was provided by the publisher.) Here at Make It So Marketing's Blog, we post daily on comics and pop culture news and events. Check out our daily blog posts, new listings of comics, graphic novels, Comic Con exclusives and more pop culture items for sale including Isis Comics in our online Store! Thanks again to all of YOU reading our current and archived blog posts!! ~ Michael
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