Comic Reviews by Walt

Writer: Jerry Prosser
From a story by: Steve Conard & Jeff Gomez
Pencils: Rags Morales
Inks: Barbara Kaalberg
Letters: Bryan Dresner
Color: Atomic Paintbrush
“The Dragon War”: Jack C. Harris & Alex Glass
“Magic: The Untold STory”: Sharon Claire Mitchell
Graphic Design Edtorial Pages: Kenny Martinez
Assistant Editor: Jeof Vita
Armada Line Edtor: Jeffrey Artemis-Gomez
Published by: Armada/Acclaim Comics
Cover Price: $5.95
Cover Date: June, 1996

This is another of Armada‘s MTG projects that I’ve actually just read for the first time. I’m not sure where I got this volume–whether it was new at the time, from a bargain bin, or from a friend. Whatever the case–it’s one of the later books, and not one I’ve found to be all that common.

This issue has art by Rags Morales–something I found to be very interesting, as he’s been an artist whose stuff I’ve had an eye on since 2004’s Identity Crisis from DC. The art works really well–the issue looks like good fantasy to me. The style has something that I haven’t noticed in the other MTG books that at the same time is obviously fantasy but also looks like mainstream comic art.

The story itself doesn’t impress me all that much, as it seems to be a bit of a legend within a legend. While we learn a bit about Dakkon and how he gets his blade, and I’m not entirely sure what I did expect…this wasn’t it. The cover, I suppose, put me in mind of Dakkon being on some quest to track down/fight the Swamp King, and I just thought this would be a bit more “epic” than it proved to be. However…I got a huge kick out of learning the origin of the Carthalion line.

Given contemporary MTG comics are $4.99, for another 96-cents, this is a “prestige-format” one-shot with plenty of story pages, a notable absence of advertising, and PLENTY of “back-matter” which makes it quite worthwhile at the cover price by today’s standards. I’m not sure it would have seemed as worthwhile 15/16 years ago…but this is absolutely worthwhile if you find it for cover price or under, anywhere.

I had to force myself to read the prose story in the back–something about the larger-than-a-book pages and double-columns put me off. In the end, it was an enjoyable story, and definitely a “compressed” thing–it could easily have been a mini-series in itself if it was put out in non-prose comics format. The essay “analyzing” the various Armada comics wasn’t all that informative, though I read it all the way through without too much trouble, once finally in the mindset to read pages of text in a comic. These definitely packed a lot more time and value into the issue as I probably spent–all told–at least an hour to read everything cover to cover, which beats pretty much any other comic out there.

As said above, I’d not read this before, so no real sentimental value on this; no particular memories of when it came out and all that. It’s another MTG comic, that I enjoyed reading as I read it, had to force myself to read the prose, but generally it was a good read.

Other Revisiting Magic: The Gathering posts:

• Magic: The Gathering – The Shadow Mage
• Ice Age on the World of Magic: The Gathering
• Fallen Empires on the World of Magic: The Gathering
• Arabian Nights on the World of Magic: The Gathering
• Nightmare
• Antiquities War on the World of Magic: The Gathering
• Urza-Mishra War on the World of Magic: The Gathering
• Elder Dragons: A Magic: The Gathering Legend
• Homelands on the World of Magic: The Gathering

Filed under: The '90s Revisited | Tagged: Acclaim, Alex Glass, Armada, Atomic Paintbrush, Barbara Kaalberg, Bryan Dresner, Dakkon Blackblade, Jack C. Harris, Jeff Gomez, Jeof Vita, Kenny Martinez, Legends, Magic, magic: the gathering, Rags Morales, Sharon Claire Mitchell, Sol'Kanar, Steve Conard, Swamp King | 1 Comment »