Helm Greycastle Volume One a available on DrivethruComics.
The story of a man named Helm Greycastle and his party of adventurers who also seem to be a bit shady around the edges in what they do. Opening with a fight to retrieve an item to help a friend it quickly leads to a rescue mission to another world. With the goal of saving a young dragon prince who's been captured the crew must make their way through a culture they have never encountered before. One that Helm discovers he has a connection with. A mix of political intrigue and plain old sword and sorcery action takes place as they must negotiate with rulers and Gods.
The writing and pacing of the story felt off. Starting off with so many characters being introduced fast and furious with little time for the reader to even begin to know them. One right after the other without pause it seemed. Then there was some disconnect between what was being seen on the page, with what was happening in the text and how it related to the next few panels. I felt like I missed something multiple times.
Henry Barajas has a great story here and judging from his credentials can tell a great story. But it's hard to wade through this. I'm wondering if this shouldn't have been a few more issues longer with more time to showcase the characters and their motivations a bit more. So much information was just poured forth quickly with dialogue that didn't seem to flow.
Worldbuilding wise they have a great thing going here. It's interesting with lots of potential. The characters eventually liven up a bit and we begin to see what they are all about. But by the time it gets there it's been a slog already.
Art wise Rahmat Handoko delivers in a pretty solid fashion. Clean art all the way through and all the characters are captured as being unique on the page. You don't mistake one for the other over the course of a few pages. With the colorist Bryan Valenza backing him up it all worked out very well.
The game material presented in the back for use with the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons appears to be functional and well done. I'm not an expert on the latest version of D&D but from what I understand this looks very usable. Again, the world presented is really great and this just backs that up. Tristan J Tarwater, Geoffrey Golden and Matt Hawkins look like they know their stuff and do a good job presenting the information in a clear format. Along with the art of Jen Vaughn splashing in through out to pull it together a bit more.
All in all I give this one a four out of five.
Good review. Thanks.
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