Nottingham #1

Nottingham #1

Mad Cave Studios 2021

Written by David Hazan

Illustrated by Shane Connery Volk

Coloured by Luca Romano

Lettered by Joamette Gil

In this twisted medieval noir, the Sheriff of Nottingham hunts a serial killer with a penchant for tax collectors. The Sheriff's investigation makes him the target of England's most nefarious power-brokers. That's to say nothing of the Merry Men, terrorists lurking amongst the trees of Sherwood, led by an enigma known only as "Hood."

Now I’m not so sure about the way this is described because to me it would be akin to history and the way it’s been whitewashed so that things don’t look as bad they truly were. Let’s face it most folks know Robin Hood from fairy tales and Disney but during that era it was a much more brutal place to live so for me this just feels on the more accurate side of how should’ve or could’ve been. Doesn’t really matter though does it? What does matter is how well the story is being told and is it something we as readers’ and fans’ can get behind? By the way in case you are wondering, YES the story is one we can get behind and quite easily at that.

I like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. We get a very clear sense of what this is going to be about and how the behaviour of the Merry Men is being determined through their actions. Which leads us to the character development that we see here. Now the guys do come across as zealots for a cause and as such can be considered crazy as a loon. However, it’s all about perception and where you stand on the fence, Richard the Lionhearted or the Sheriff of Nottingham. The pacing here is superb and as it takes us through the pages introducing us to the characters, their world and the beginning of the story.

The way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge we are taken to a very dark and surreal place. The way that everything manages to work together to create the story’s ebb & flow is really rather nice to see. With the interesting dynamic and personality traits of the characters this is going to be one of those potentially game changing views of the Merry Men!

Now I am not the biggest fan of the interiors here. To me it’s like stylised caricature art. That pig snout nose on the first page immediately set my alarm bells off. I wish the characters would look like the backgrounds as they have a much cleaner set of linework involved in bringing them to life. Now lets all keep in mind that just because this isn’t exactly my cup of tea, I prefer coffee, that the work won’t speak to you. For something this dark i’d like to see sharp, clean work not something that reminds me of Monty Python or Jr. Jr.. still the composition within the panels with the backgrounds manage to bring us some really nice depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a solid eye for storytelling. The colour work is beautifully done and how we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is really rather well rendered.

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There is a reason I am such a supporter of Mad Cave Studios as they are willing to a chance to unknown talent. Everything that we like may be subjective to the individual reader but this overall is a really great take on a familiar classic tale and it’s sure to thrill everyone who reads it!