Sloboda, Paul – Salvager Kain #1

Website

Salvager Kain #1

Aspiring comic artists, take note: if you’re looking to make an impression, you could do a lot worse than to follow in the footsteps of this guy. Scroll down this page and you can see me review the first issue for a couple of series, one of which lasted 8 issues and one four, then today in the mail I got the first three issues for this series. These were all done over the last half dozen years or so which, in the small press world especially, is a ridiculously productive pace. And there’s the minor fact that there’s noticeable improvement from series to series, which is even more impressive when you consider that he wasn’t bad at all to begin with. Kudos to the man, that’s all I’m saying. Well, how about the comic? That whole diatribe would seem pretty silly if I hated it, now wouldn’t it? What we have here is an excellent setup for a series. We see a big wall, behind which is a kingdom, theoretically at least. We’re introduced to the main character right away, as he’s indignantly dragged out and sent into exile. As a precondition to his exile (and to the exile of more people that we see soon enough) his mind is wiped, leaving him with no memories and no idea of who he is. Once he’s out he meets a few of the options in his new world. He can stay by the wall (out of fear of heading into the unknown forest), get eaten by cannibals (who live in said forest) or join up with a seemingly together group of people who are arming to take the kingdom by storm. Or not, as he figures out soon enough. The name “Kain” comes from an odd set of sticks the man sees, and in this entire first issue we’re given very little to go on in regards to the inhabitants of the kingdom and the main character, just bits and pieces of life outside the walls. All of which is a great setup to a series, as what keeps people coming back for more faster than multiple mysteries? As for the art, it’s tremendous. Paul has a serious lock on facial expressions (useful for illustrating what are essentially a bunch of blank slates trying to figure out the world) and the whole thing is just gorgeous. I can only guess that he keeps himself chained to his drawing table, as what else explains this impressive productivity? Like I said, I have two more issues to get to in the near future, but from the first issue this looks like something well worth checking out. $3