D&D comics history part 17 - Where Shadows Fall (K&C)

   It's in July 2003, 6 months after their last issue of Black & White, that Kenzer & Company will publish their 4th and -sadly- last mini-series, once again set in Greyhawk and sequel to In the Shadow of Dragons, under the name :

Where Shadows Fall

 

   As indicated on the covers, this will be a 5 issues story, but contrary to the other mini-series, the parts have no title :

#1 (July '03)

#2 (Sep. '03)

#3 (Dec. '03)

#4 (Feb. '04)

#5 (June '04)

   The story is written by the author of the prequel, Jay Donovan and as usual a bunch of artists will work on this :

Carlos Alberto S. Paul : Penciller of parts 1, 2, 4 & 5

Anderson Ricardo : Penciller of part 3

Ricardo Riamonde : Colorist of parts 1 & 2

Salvatore Aiala : Colorist of parts 3* to 5

Matt Haley : Cover pencils of parts 1 to 3, Cover colors of parts 1 & 2

David Hahn : Cover inks of parts 1 & 2

Scott Kester : Cover colors of part 3

Joe & Rob Sharp : Covers of parts 4 & 5

Marcos Schmidt : Lettering of all parts

*credited in part 5 erratum

 

 

 Part 1 - Art by Carlos Alberto, colors by Ricardo Riamonde

   

 Part 3 (left) - Art by A.Ricardo &  Part 5 (right) - Art by C.Alberto (both : colors by S.Aiala)

   We have a really more-than-decent art here. On both pencil & colors we find a series at its maturity. And when we have another penciller in charge of the middle issue, the coloring of S.Aiala do the trick in the transition. The light & shadow effects are very powerful in the first issues while the lines are getting sharper and the colors brighter in the last ones. Marcos Schmidt did a really nice lettering work here (but one nice fumble in last issue... cf pict below) and, doing all parts, gives us a textual coherence all along (which wasn't always the case in the precedent series).

When the great villain suffers of Palilalia... obvious hint of a developed dementia... :P

As well, it seems Jay Donovan took some confidence as he provides a far less boring (yeah, yeah, am a bit harsh here...) and kinda less classic story than he did before. The tone itself is lighter and he managed to get rid of the superfluous chitchat.

   This story takes place in the Phostwood Forest (more details on the 1998 Oerth Journal #8 - p.11 to 17), in the Duchy of Tenh and aside the Bandit Kingdoms, where our 3 heroes (Lucien Cathal, Roarn Stonehearth & Verena Mornbringer) from In the Shadow of Dragons are summoned by Aurric Whitewind to locate and return his daughter, Lumari. This one, in love with a drow named Cerin, and caught in their rendez-vous by her father some months ago ended under a temporal stasis spell to avoid her fleeing with her beloved again. But in order to avoid her to be moved, Cerin ordered his spellcaster (a certain Terannkis) to place a curse upon her. As a result, if she were taken away, all the dead throughout the Phoswoods would rise again within 2 weeks... Cerin having freed his beloved 3 days ago, our heroes (accompanied by the damsel-in-distress' bro, Caddal) have now 12 days left to save the elven people from an undead invasion... while on Cerin's side, his leader, the powerful Abehhan-Vrre is preparing his war against the Phostwood he's lusting for... 

   From the Phostwood to some hideout in the Rift Canyon, passing by the Fellreev Forest (to meet Krysanya the Scryer) and the "hole in the Oerth" town of Luendorn (to meet some old friend), we have here some rescue-the-princess story on a Romeo & Juliet / Troy War background...far more entertaining and funnier than its prequel, Kenzer & Co reached some level here and the quality of the story as well of its art would bear comparison with the upcoming DDP's publications.

 

World of Oerth - Duchy of Tenh, Fellreev Forest & Bandit Kingdoms area

Note that we are granted of an unique piece of RPG material at the beginning of the 4th issue :

   It's kinda sad to think this will be the last mini-series Kenzer & Co will produce under the D&D license as they were getting very good at it, raising the quality from one to the next... I tend to think that these short publications convinced WOTC to persevere in the comics industry. These may be not the most famous D&D comics but K&C really offered their readers a nice insight of the Greyhawk setting and pretty fun tales to read.

O_oV

D&D comics history part 21 - The Legend of Huma (DDP)

Adapted from the novel by Richard A. Knaak, The Legend of Huma (based on D&D's DragonLance settings) released in 6 issues from jan. 2004 to oct. 2005 by Devil's Due Publishing (and compiled in TPB in 2007) depicts the adventures of Huma Dragonbane, young Knight of Solamnia, who will be later known as hero of the Third Dragon War.

The story takes place around 1300 years before the War of the Lance (events depicted in the famous trilogy "The Dragonlance Chronicles").

The comic is not covering the entire novel, ending in midstream and leading the reader to get the book from Knaak to know the denouement.

Interesting way of getting people to reading heh.

A bunch of artists worked on this serie, and uncommon fact (or not ? -> am not comics specialist heh XD) is that even in the same issue pages can be drawn by different pencillers.
Mike S. Miller worked on issues 1 & 2 and the 12 first pages of 3rd issue in collaboration with Rael Lyra (who will also work on the first 8 pages of 4th issue).
Mike Crowell did the pages 14-17 of 3rd issue and Joe Prado p.13 and p.18-22.
Abdul Rashid drew the pages 9 to 15 of issue 4 and Carlos Paul p.16 to 22.
Issue 5 was done entirely by Andrea Di Vito.
6th and last issue by Steve Kurth. (Who will work on the 2 first volumes of the Dragonlance Chronicles).

 Pages from issues 1 & 2 by Miller & Lyra

 

 Issue 3 - by Prado                              Issue 4 - by Paul

Even if the styles of the artists is obviously different from one to another, the reader doesn t suffer a really brutal visual change from a chapter to another, excepting, imo, the last issue which inking is very pastel compared to the rest of the work.

Issue 6 - by Kurth

I believe that the quality of the serie will convince Hasbro to grant DDP the full D&D license who will allow the publisher to start working on other settings as Forgotten Realms, Eberron or even Ravenloft.

Now, I can t stop wondering on the choice of DDP to adapt this D&D novel amongts the hundreds released.

It s an interesting story, no doubt, and very epic in the end... but having read dozens of D&D novels, I would not consider it as a must-to-read compared to the rest. More, only DragonLance fans would have heard of Huma, which is, in term of sales, a risky adventure DDP decided to undertake... The ways of Devil's due are unpredictable heh...

Anyway, the comic itself is a great realization and marks the evolution of D&D comics line.

o_O

D&D comics history part 20 - Crisis in Raimiton

WOTC released a free comic entitled Crisis in Raimition - An adventurers Guide to D&D for the Free Comic Book Day event, on july 3, 2004.

Pencils / cover art : Scott Roller        Story / inks : Matt Clarke

Inks : Matt Phillips       Digital color / lettering : Zach Odil

You could find official WOTC review a few years ago on their website but the page is down for a while... (they really should invest in servers... tsss)

The story is about a bunch of RPGers preparing a D&D game (creation of characters, etc) and then playing it. The story then depicts the characters' adventure.

To be fully honest, I would qualify this issue as a pure piece of shit. 

No more no less... no offense heh XD

Part showing the gamers in "real life" is just a mix of caricatures and idealistic propaganda. Like, the guys are eating chips but they all look like fitness addicts. More, the players are 2 dudes and 2 gals... which is pretty much anti-sexism but really far from reality. (I dunno the stats but i do think at least 80% of RPGers are dudes...). On other hand, the DM is still a dude heh... o_O

Be an adventurer...eat chips !

But anyway, if the story is all but interesting, it s not where the novel falls short.

The ultimate fail is the graphics... man... they so suck. And the computer coloring and the cheap lettering are just adding to the mediocrity imo.

SPLUTCH!

At least it was a free issue heh... I always try to find the good in the bad... but here... heh... more than a challenge to me. Even the adventure scenario, being so simplistic, is distressing...

The only good thing i could say of this issue is about the purpose the authors had. It s obvious they really wanted to create a understandable introduction to D&D (3.5) to the uninitiated public. But even with the best of intentions...

But well, this is marked D&D...this is a comic... this had to be in my collection...

(>_<)