Skyward Vol. 1

This is the first in a series of reviews in which I’ll be writing about the comics and books I picked up at this year’s San Diego Comic Con, mostly for tax purposes. I tend to be more attracted to the indie offerings at these kinds of events, and I think I found a few gems this year. Unfortunately my first subject, Skyward, could use a little more polish.

Jeremy Dale’s anthology is the quintessential “boy and his dog” tale set in a traditional D&D fantasy world. It has a beautiful modern comic aesthetic, and I’m generally a sucker for adventures in the woods with bows and arrows (with bonus points for animal companions). Nine bucks for the first volume of three comics and an added short backstory seemed like a pretty good deal. This wasn’t the first time I’ve been tricked by a pretty face with little depth.

Our tale begins with Corin, a retired war hero turned peaceful fisherman, teaching his son Quinn the trade. Before long Corin is visited by his old adventuring friend Herod, and plunged back into the game in a classic “curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal” moment. Violence ensues and Quinn is left standing at the ass end of the melodramatic origin story required of all comic/anime heroes. But not before receiving his father’s mysterious dagger.

Part two introduces Abigail, the young tracker and archer extraordinaire. Abi, her friend Jon and his dad Tanner find out about Quinn’s misfortune and decide to find and help him. They soon have to quicken their pace, as they discover their quarry is also being followed by two goblinoid “slog riders.” And right then, in the middle of dialogue, is an ad for their “free comic book day” issue outlining Corin’s previous rescue of Abi and the gang. Two things: first, nothing takes you out of an immersive experience more than unexpected advertising; and second, why the fuck would you keep an advertisement in a volume of comics THAT CONTAINS THE COMIC YOU’RE ADVERTISING FOR?! Trudging right along, we find at the end of this chapter that Quinn’s dagger has magical properties and glows blue like a another legendary blade, I think called Gordon Sumner.

Before we can get to part three, they decided to squeeze in the backstory comic. It interrupts the flow a bit, and would have worked better as the intro, but what the hell do I know? Anyway, we see some of Corin’s heroics as he fights a giant bloodworm, one of the many monsters that have been roaming a bit too close to their nondescript town. In the end, it’s Abigail that deals the final blow with a perfectly thrown axe to the beast’s head. On the one hand, I’m happy to see a strong female character in a medium that features very few. But on the other, any character with no flaws that immediately has the solution to every problem quickly becomes a very boring person to follow.

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Finally, the end of the trilogy. Our rescue squad stumbles upon a very large foreign army headed in the same direction as Quinn and his dog Jack. We also find out Sting is actually called Skerrigan, and is very important to the main antagonist, and head of said army. Our young hero crosses paths with an elf named Garrick, and his giant blue footed booby, Oscar. Garrick travelled this way to investigate the sudden influx of monsters in this part of the world, and gives Quinn some much needed aid. We’re left with a cliffhanger when Abi and the guys end up in one hell of a pickle. Who knows if they’ll ever make it out alive??

I know I have a lot of gripes, but it’s really not a bad comic. It just isn’t very remarkable either. It’s obviously ramping up to a bigger story; I saw at least two more volumes at their booth. I’m just not sure I’m invested enough to buy them. So far it seems like it would play much better with a younger audience. The 8 to 14 range would probably be perfect, even though it’s marketed to all ages. We’ll see how I feel after I finish the way too high pile of other shit I picked up at the con.