SOULFIRE SC VOL 01
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iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
Size: pages
Price: 14.99
This review contains spoilers, click here to read
Created by:
Story tellers: Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner, chapter 7 being an exception (issue #5) where it was Michael Turner and J.T. Krull.
Script: J.T. Krull just for chapter 5 and 6 (issues 3 and 4).
Color: Peter Steigerwald.
Additional color: Beth Sotelo and Christina Strain.
Letters: chapter 1 to 4 (issues Preview, 0 to 2) - Richard Starkings and Comicraft
chapter 5 to 7 (issues 3 to 5)
That's according to the credits in the table of contents (which also tells you the chapter number, chapter name and part - if it's in parts, what issue it is, and the page number it starts at). According to the English Wikipedia it's:
Writer(s) Jeph Loeb, JT Krul
Penciller(s) Michael Turner
Inker(s) None
Colorist(s) Peter Steigerwald
The design of the cover is nice - you see the main people in this TP on the front cover and in the back there is a nice drawing that takes half of the back cover, and the name of this series is printed on the back in a nice way.
At the beginning of the TP there is an interesting and nice looking text and after it the comics starts.
The different parts are separated by the covers which are in a golden frame and above them there is a number that threw me off at first until I realized it's the page number.
That's the only page numbering that this TP has - on the covers.
At the bottom of the covers it tells you which issue it is, credits and the issue "number" using letters (A, B, C).
This TP collects the Preview issue and issues 0 to 5.
You can see in the letters and coloring a considerable use of the computer which usually bothers me but here it works.
I bought this since I wanted a number one TP (which is most of my to buy list), and it was on a list my comic book store publishes when new comics arrives, and I'm glad I did.
You can see by the cover that it includes dragons and magic and the women have an unnaturally long and thin body and the men are very muscular which turned me off so I read other comics and books before I got to this TP.
It reminds me of a completely computer generated cartoon about a futuristic time where there is an evil ruler and there are some people fighting him, and there are aerial bases and airplanes/hovercraft things they fly in, which I stopped watching since each episode was the same basically - meaning some kid in the rebels' hideout goes on a stupid mission while risking their base being discovered.
I might buy a DVD of that sometime.
You can see that sort of design in this TP - exaggerated proportions and bodies, weird clothing and hair and excessive jewelery.
Not quite my cup o' tea.
The lettering is unique and pretty much loaded which also turned me off a bit and postponed my reading of this TP, but it doesn't make the text harder to read.
The drawing is very good and the panel placing is very good and you can actually see the pencil lines which is great since sometimes the inking and/or coloring can hide a beautiful pencil drawing and make it generic.
There are small problems with details of background once in a while but there is a great attention to detail - there is a panel where there is a concert going on and the people in the crowd look like people and not like a sea of human heads which sometimes happens when artists hastily draw some things (300 is the best example I currently have - again, no hate mail in response form. There is a page where there are hundreds of people drawn together but they look like a hill with trees. It happens there elsewhere - for example when people get trampled by an elephant which I missed the first time reading it).
The story is simple and will probably turn off some people - it is told that the magic era and science era are circular, meaning there is a stretch of time where magic fades and science/reason rules the earth, and now the time of magic returned.
That means we start to see dragons roaming around and magical creatures pop up and we get introduced to a fight that has been brewing for some time and now unfolds and there is a teenager that is somehow related to that fight and his friends decide to tag along.
It reminds me of the TV cartoon series Avatar.
After the comics there are a bunch of beautiful covers and after that information about four of the creators.
I can not recommend this TP wholeheartedly. This is a great beginning. A promise of things to come. Offers great possibilities. An opening to an epic journey. It is filled with possibilities but the journey it might take might not live up to the possibilities.
I am going to buy the continuation of this series but I doubt it will continue since the creator died in 2008 and I doubt comic creators keep safes around where the last story they have for a character is kept in (Agatha Christie) or where scraps of a storyline is found at, or where descendants can find the intended plot points of the future intended books (J.R.R. Tolkien, Douglas Adams, the Dune series) and publish them (to the disdain of some readers), and I doubt someone will be able to head towards the original creator's goal, and I'm not sure if I want it even if there is a safe with the plot written out and someone else will continue it, or if someone will choose a different path to take.
Despite that I'm excited for what's to come and I am gonna check out the publisher (Aspen MLT) and buy things Michael Turner created or worked on in this or other publishers.
But man, that TP is jam-packed with possibilities and I'm excited...
Art: 4 - Very Good
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