The Ring of the Nibelung, Volume 1: The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie

So, unlike many of the reviewers, I am utterly and completely ignorant of Wagner's opera on which this and the next volume are based. I know nothing about opera. Nothing against it, but it's simply an art form I have no interest in.

However, P. Craig Russell is one of those seminal comic book artists that I will pretty much buy on sight. I've been a fan since he and Roy Thomas gave me my first introduction to Elric, and I've followed Russell's work since, and I don't think I've ever been disappointed.

That said, I don't think, in all the incredible work he's produced since that Elric adaptation, that he's blown me away again like his has with this. This, I think, is Russell's masterwork. The art is utterly gorgeous, yet it never gets in show more the way of the storytelling, which is a skill less and less comic artists seem to possess these days.

But what about the story? I'll leave it to others to debate how close he stayed to the original, or how good or bad his changes were. Coming into this cold, I can only say I was impressed and delighted with what's turning out to be a very classic tale of the gods that also seems to scoop up elements (or the authors of these works stole liberally from the opera) of Norse mythology, Thor comics, the Lord of the Rings, King Arthur's mythology... honestly, it kind of feels like the original fantasy tale that everything else was spawned from.

I am excited to dive into the second, final volume. show less