By The Horns #2

By The Horns #2

Scout Comics 2021

Written by Markisan Naso

Illustrated & Lettered by Jason Muhr

Coloured by Andrei Tabacaru

Elodie and Sajen make their way to the island home of Futen, the Dark Demon Sorcerer of the Western Wind, to have a chat about unicorns. Their talk does not go well…

Now this is a great fantasy series folks. This is and feels so completely unique and original to me and it is so well put together that it’s a pure joy to read. Many times a fantasy series will be more like an RPG but this doesn’t have that feel to it instead it feels very much like the old novels I used to read as a kid. A world with fantastic creatures and all kinds of weird and bizarre folks inhabiting it and somewhere along the way it had this nice little moral lesson hidden within the writing and this is what that feels to me. With the introduction of three new characters we’ll see how Elodie and Sajen find themselves suddenly thrust into the midst of a travelling party. While Elodie has her sights set on destroying the Unicorns I have a feeling that this band of individuals will have bigger threats to face than her desire for revenge.

I am absolutely loving the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is presented exquisitely. The character development that we see is perfectly rendered through the dialogue, character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way it’s easy to swept up in this.

I’m impressed with the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen. It is the layers that add the depth and complexity to the story and in this issue we see a new one emerge that looks like it’ll change everything moving forward. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow and how it moves the story forward is achieved exceedingly well. I love the way there’s this natural progression to what we see and how it feels organic rather than orchestrated.

The interiors here are mindbogglingly brilliant to see. The linework is incredible, it’s solid, clean and crisp and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create his level of quality in the detail work is astonishing. This a great opportunity to showcase backgrounds and while Jason does a good job we could always see more. Plus how they work within the composition of the panels to bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense off size and scope to the book is really marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour is fabulous! How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is gorgeous. The pops of colour in the neon realm to showcase the magic and such really makes a huge impact.

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This is a great series and has a lot of depth to the characters and the fact that the story is already ever changing paths means that we’re in for one heck of a ride. I am completely and utterly impressed with the storytelling here as Elodie has such a hardon for these Unicorns and I cannot wait to see if her memory and the reality match up. I almost feel like emotions are clouding her judgement and her new companions may be on the verge of changing her life in some ways. That I am so engaged in thinking over the bigger picture from what is presented here is a huge testament to the power of storytelling that Markisan has. This is intelligently written and gorgeously illustrated tale that will envelope you in this strange and wondrous world.