Chatty’s Review: Alex Robinson Lower Region’s

A few weeks ago, I got an email from a Leigh Walton from Top shelf productions saying they were sending me a copy of a Sword & Sorcery Graphic Novel by artist Alex Robinson ‘for my consideration’. I assume this is a nice way to say “feel free to review it on your blog”.

Once I got back down my ‘Oh my gosh, I’m getting free Swag’ high, I promptly forgot about it and moved on.

Yesterday, I had a little envelope in the mail addressed to ChattyDm/Philippe-Antoine. That felt weird because it’s the 1st time I see someone use my alter ego somewhere else than online.

Anyway, I opened the envelope and out popped a 6”X4.5”, 56 page book with the cover you see in the image. It was quite the unusual size for a comic book (I’m used to the American Marvel/DC format as well as the smaller-but-thicker Japanese Manga’. Physically, this book reminded me of the Flip-books we filled with Stick Figures killing each other that we stapled together when I was 10 or so.

There was also a pair of promotional letters about the comic giving me the low-down on the author and the story in the comic book. It hinted that a special gift was also included in the package.

Then as I picked the book, a Magic the Gathering card slipped out of the book. A Wood Elves no less, which as Yan can attest is one of my most used Green cards.

Guys, you had me at “here’s a free comic”….

So since I’m currently ‘in training’ for writing reviews as I’m thinking about doing this type of thing more officially some day, I’ll happily review this comic.

Visuals

As mentioned before, this is a ‘Landscape’ oriented black and white wordless graphic novel with a nice color cover. The art is black-line ink with a clear emphasis on character details over background. Characters are very expressive and detailed while backgrounds tend to be minimalist. In terms of style, long time D&D fans would be reminded of the 1st edition Core Books and the cartoons found in Basic D&D, nudity included. Oh and I didn’t know you could be so gory with black ink!

The Story

Lower Regions follows the story of a well-endowed Barbarian Lady and her diminutive sidekick’s foray in a monster-infested dungeon. While the theme is definitively D&Desque, the material is not straight from D&D. All the monsters she meets (and there are a lot) are the author’s designs, although the classic fantasy fixtures of demons, trolls and undead are there.

The story is based on a series of fights. In the 1st part, the main character seems to be persuing a Lich holding a little boy. The Lich appears à la Dragon’s Lair by leading the heroine from room to room, into traps and ambush. Later in the story we realize that’s she’s actually looking for her beau in distress, a rather pudgy looking blond guy.

The fights scenes have the distint characteristic that the Barbarian Lady get’s her share of hurt more often than not. Thankfully she has in her backpack some other staple of fantasy dungeoncrawling, a very very potent healing potion.

Like all dungeon crawls, it ends with a boss fight against a surprising foe and the Heroine finds a satisfying way of winning the day.

There’s even a bonus 2 page comic in it about a duel between a Magician and a Barbarian dude, but I don’t get the punch line, so moving on.

Bottom line

Lower Regions is an interesting comic. While I didn’t know what to expect when I first read it, I was a bit disappointed about the art in it, it’s not bad, it’s just not Marvel/DC/Image comic grade. However, as you read on, the artist is able to pull you in the story, which requires talent for both drawing and story telling… which is no small feat considering that no one actually talks in this book.

For 7$ I think it would make for a great little gift for your teenaged Sword and Sorcery geek (if you don’t mind the frontal nudity) or your Nerdish DM/GM.