Geeks logo

Orphan and the Five Beasts #1

Dark Horse Comics

By Steven LeitmanPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
Like

Orphan and the Five Beasts #1

By James Stokoe

A brand-new kung-fu epic from James Stokoe, the creator behind Orc Stain and Aliens: Dead Orbit!

Spurred on by her master's dying words, the adopted warrior ''Orphan Mo'' seeks to find and kill five former disciples who now threaten the land with corruption from their demonic powers. Part Five Deadly Venoms and part surreal grindhouse, James Stokoe brings his knack for ultra-detailed fantasy imagery and over-the-top violence to this classic tale of revenge.

Honestly I was on the fence with this one but since I did love his Aliens story I felt I had to give this a try. Boy am I glad that I did too! There is always something inherently interesting about seeing stories set in the Orient of the past. The warriors and the sensibility are the likes that most Westerners have never seen before and I have to say that I appreciate the intricacies that telling these kinds of stories has. Also to take the subject matter, add that touch of fantasy and create a story that is representative and thrilling is no mean feat and yet James manages to do it with seeming incredible ease.

I am loving 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. How we are introduced to the story and the characters has its own uniqueness about it that ramps up the interest factor before there is even an encounter between our orphan and one of the five beasts. The character development that we see is pretty interesting as well. The boys Master is a character in and of himself and to hear his story and the result of ending it well hell I have to say I kind of want to see him as a young man. The pacing is great and as it takes us through the pages revealing this world, these characters and the story it’s easy to get swept up in this.

I am enjoying how we see this being structured. With the layers within the story and how they swirl about and how little we really know about the five beasts really manages to create this buzz around what we see that’s amazing. How everything we see is able to work together to create the story’s ebb & flow is really rather marvellous.

The interiors here are utterly gorgeous! I am not sure that I have ever seen someone illustrate a story the way that James does. He has this incredibly unique style that is instantly recognisable and he is able to bring out so much feeling and emotion through his work. How he is able to manipulate the linework through its varying weights and techniques to bring about this level of quality of detail work is mindbogglingly brilliant. Even those rare moments that feel like anime or manga work beautifully here. The fact that we see backgrounds being utilised so prevalently and how they work within the composition of the panels to bring us this amazing depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the book. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work we see is spectacular. How we see the various techniques in laying the colour down with all the various hues and tones that create the shading, highlights and shadow work is done with such aplomb.

Dark Horse has themselves something special in James Stokoe and so long as he’s got story ideas they need to let him have free reign to tell them. This will ignite the readers’ imagination and creativity in ways that will thrill and nearly terrify how you see the world.

comics
Like

About the Creator

Steven Leitman

Just me talking about the comics I enjoy reading, ones that you might not know exist and spotlighting the indie creators that excite me.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.