BAD THING: For no readily apparent reason, Sonja is now in a longer - and much more practical - leather skirt as opposed to the chainmail breechcloth she usually wears.
Why is this a bad thing? Because this scene seems to follow immediately after the end of last issue (Sonja and company are still standing in the same room where Sonja found the heads of her men laid out) and no reason is given for the wardrobe change. Which is odd because Sonja is wearing her usual costume on the first page...
EDIT NOTE: On rereading the issue, I noticed - in the scan above - that the caption does note that this scene takes place two days later, though the dialogue is much the same as the lines that closed out the last issue. Also, couldn't/wouldn't they have buried the heads by now?!
GOOD THING: Ignoring that, there is absolutely nothing else about this issue I can complain about. The artwork is great, the story engaging and the dialogue manages the unique humor and pacing that the sword and sorcery genre requires.
The Final Verdict: Another solid issue, though one wonders why Sonja changed skirts and how she changed so quickly and without comment from her men between issues. ;) In all seriousness, the sudden costume change is jarring but it is a minor distraction from what is a perfect comic all-around.
There's not so much a "costume change" as adding armor -- a logical precaution since all the armies in the area are riding in to destroy the city.
ReplyDeleteThe switch to the chainmail "tunic" / byrnie was a visual cue that I've rolled the timeline back to not long before her first appearance in Conan the Barbarian (in which Thomas and Windsor-Smith featured a Sonja in that outfit.
As for the heads: it's a bit of poetic license, which seemed in keeping with a more Howardian tone.
Glad you liked the issue!
-Eric Trautmann
Oh, I'm loving it. In case you can't tell, I'm having to dig to find bad things for this book to fit it into my gimmick.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm amazed you found my reviews, much less found the newest one so quickly. :)