Title: Sky Pirates of Valendor: Valendor ChroniclesIssue: #1
Date: 2009
Publisher: Free Lunch Comics
Writer: Everett Soares, Stephen Carr
Penciler: Brian Brinlee, Chris Ring, David Woodward
Inker: Michael W. Kellar, Chris Ring, David Woodward, Alex Rivera
Tones: Jet Amago
Letterer: Steve Kuster, Matt Mundorf
Editor: Amy Haley
Cover: Keith J Murphey, Brian Brinlee
This is an anthology of stories set in the world of Sky Pirates of Valendor. First up is "An Easy Prize", a key moment in Captain Tobin Manheim's backstory and a turning point in his relationship with his cyborg on-again-off-again girlfriend, Gearz. Let's just say that when a supposedly easy raid goes badly wrong, Tobin may need to set his relationship status to "it's complicated". Aside from the major plot point between Tobin and Gearz, this story accomplishes its other task nicely, which is to show Tobin's crew in action. I particularly liked Bryan's tactics for dealing with a phalanx of pikemen behind a shield wall. Not a lot of subtlety, but effective, and spectacular when rendered in Brian Brinlee's pencils.
Second story, "Blood Feud" gives an ancient tale of the Dagger of Night. While the Dagger itself comes off as a pretty generic McGuffin, the point of view of an adjudicator who failed to prevent a blood feud is an interesting one.
"Mouse & Cat" is an almost entirely wordless scene between Shyni and a kind of mutant rat critter, and it's played mostly for slapstick value.
The fourth story features the Pirate Queen, who's always been one of my favorite characters in the Sky Pirates world. In "The Letter of the Law" the queen faces a challenge to her power from the Lawyers' Guild. The Queen does what many people would probably like to see done to certain lawyers. It's satisfying, but could have used a bit more in the way of twists and complexity, although some of that is just me wanting more Pirate Queen.
The last story is a prose piece by Stephen Carr called "Cloudbreaker" about an aging former pirate who returns to his old ways on a mission of revenge. It's well written and fills in some nice flavor about the setting.
A nice set of pinup art by Peter Vinton, Scott Ethan Ambruson, and Enrique Savory rounds out the collection.
Thematically this collection is a bit scattered and some of the stories could have used a bit more depth, but there's plenty of good stuff here.
Rating: 7/10.
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