Tom Parkinson-Morgan

Parkinson-Morgan dedicates this first collection in part to Brandon Graham, and this is to his work on Prophet as the fires of Hell are to a half-burnt match. The decadent, depraved multiverse of K6BD, dead God(s) and all, is a feat of imagination unlike anything else going in comics right now that I can think of, and it feels like a gauntlet being thrown for every other writer-artist out there to pick up. My only quibbles with this first collection are that some of the meta-elements from show more the original web presentation have been dropped (most of the text pieces are gone, which is a real shame), but other than that this is straight-up the one book you can't miss in comics. Can't wait for volume 2 and beyond to be collected. show less

A young woman trying to have sex with her boyfriend is interrupted by otherworldly beings and ends up on a mystical quest.

The art in this one is impressive, and shows an impressive world. Unfortunately the writing is not of the same caliber: the story is confusing as hell and there are a lot of infodumps about the world's dense cosmology.

I like that art enough that I'll pick up the next volume in hope that the writing improves.

Received via NetGalley.

i wouldve given this 5 stars if not for the small amount of male-gazey/fanservicey visuals :/

its not even that much, just some of the character designs and a few panel compositions which VERY CONSPICUOUSLY sexualize female characters to a hyperbolic degree uncharacteristic of the rest of the comic (also theres a warrior-nun w bdsm-themed armor??? wtf??)

tom's built up enuf good will trying to think critically abt gender and patriarchy in the comic so far, and he's also been responsive to show more feedback/criticism from readers, so its all things considered not that bad, it was just distracting and upsetting

the rest of this book tho is rly amazing!! the pace of the action AND the pace of character development gets a little dizzying? a LOT of shit happens. the only reason i think its worth remarking on is its such a sharp contrast to the slow pace of the first book, otherwise i actually quite like the fast pace--tom ofc still takes time in places to slow down and go over fine details

the confrontation w mammon is imo just as fascinating as the confrontation w om in the previous book; i love how this comic tries to tackle the master-slave dialectic from so many different angles

i am wondering tho how many times we'll hear that the princess is in another castle show less

While not without wit, this is largely an unpleasant read set in a dense but poorly lit multiverse. Parkinson-Morgan's lore has some charm to it, but this first volume does little to introduce to the players names, let alone their motivations. There's a lot of playing with tropes, but for that to work, you have to know the tropes. Angels are stentorian law-and-order types, or are they. The blue devil, Cio, is an imp of some sort, and maybe the most appealing part of this first volume, but show more they come and go so erratically, and it isn't even clear what they are doing.

Ultimately, this story rests on the shoulders of its protagonist, 21-year-old barista Allison. It's not clear why she cares about her boyfrined, as his personality, at least that which is explored when he's trying to get laid, is boorish (which she acknowledges). I'm not even clear how she saw that he was kidnapped, that was lost on me. She spends the first volume appalled and confused, mirroring this reader's response. But then, for some reason, the passive/active switch gets flipped and she decides she's going to be a badass. Okay! Good for her!

Since this is a webcomic collected into a graphic novel volume, the form bears discussion. Others have commented that the page-size does the dark, dense artwork no favours. The lettering is also suspect. Red lettering seems to be used erratically, and many word balloons are not clearly pointing at their speaker. I love grotesques, but here, the use of different angles, distortions, darkness and a limited palette make it hard to identify characters from panel to panel. Parkinson-Morgan's art has been compared to Sergio Aragones, but the latter actually has a lighter touch, a better letter, a better colorist, and a better editor so that the reader can actually marvel in the piles of illustrations cluttering up the page.

The prose lore is moderately entertaining, at least. And Parkinson-Morgan does really neat diagrams, including the map of Throne and the layout of Hell 71. Both of these illustrations have witty annotations, answer unasked questions (on the tip of the tongue, though), and convey information much more efficiently than the ponderous dialogue. I'm pretty sure that if he just wrote a lore book, he could make it endlessly fascinating. show less