Sky Pirates of Valendor Series 2 #4

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Sky Pirates of Valendor Series 2
Issue: 4
Date: 2012
Publisher: Jolly Rogue Studios
Writer: Everett Soares
Penciler: Brian Brinlee
Inker: Alex Rivera
Tones: Jet Amago
Letterer: Steve Kuster
Editor: Amy Haley
Cover: Craig DeBoard

The unlikely team of Gearz and Shyni, along with gun knight Kirby Kingsman are all that stands between the Prince and a horde of assassins.

The good news is that these ninja-types are definitely from the cannon-fodder school of ninjitsu. The bad news, they're just the distraction for a much bigger threat.

The ninja jobbers were a bit silly, but they did give the trio of heroes a chance to show off their fighting moves, and the main event featured some interesting reveals about what exactly Gearz is.

This was fast-paced light fun, that didn't take itself all that seriously, so it was easy to just enjoy the mayhem.

Rating: 7/10

Sky Pirates of Valendor #5

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Sky Pirates of Valendor
Issue: 5
Date: 2008
Publisher: Free Lunch Comics
Writer: Everett Soares
Penciler: Brian Brinlee
Inker: Alex Rivera, Keith Murphey
Tones: Jet Amago
Letterer: Steve Kuster
Editor: Amy Haley, Dave Haley

As Tobin Manheim and the crew of the Rogue's Revenge race to deliver their prisoner to the port of South Gate, the Temple of Khorii calls upon the full might of its fleet to blockade the approach to the floating island.


But Tobin is not out of tricks, and he's got one last favor that he can call in.


This was the conclusion to the current storyline, and it had some fun mass battle scenes between the sky ships of the Temple of Khorii and the returning (Yay!) Pirate Queen.

The more personal confrontation at the climax was fine for what it was, but would have been helped by a bit more depth and personality for the villain. Still, it delivered a fun moment and a satisfying end to the story arc.

Rating: 6/10

Sky Pirates of Valendor #4

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Sky Pirates of Valendor
Issue: 4
Date: 2008
Publisher: Free Lunch Comics
Writer: Everett Soares
Penciler: Brian Brinlee
Inker: Brian Brinlee, Michael W. Kellar
Tones: Jet Amago
Letterer: Steve Kuster
Editor: Amy Haley, Dave Haley
Cover: Brian Brinlee, Jet Amago

The skyship Rogue's Revenge comes upon a seemingly abandoned floating island, but when they attempt to claim salvage rights, they find themselves in competition with a crew of gnolls, and then fighting for their lives against a horde of zombies, controlled by a figure from Shyni's past.

The climactic fight scene was good,  but getting there involved a whole series of bad decisions by people who should have known better (heroes and villains alike). It also felt like some of this was resolved too quickly, although there was still plenty of plot left open at the end.

One thing is absolutely loved was the spectacular cover art by the Brinlee/Amago team.

Rating: 6.5/10

Sky Pirates of Valendor Issue #2 Preview

From the random stack of unread comics.

Title: Sky Pirates of Valendor
Issue: #2 Preview
Date: 2008
Publisher: Free Lunch Comics
Writer: Everett Soares
Penciler: Brian Brinlee
Inker: Michael W. Kellar
Tones: Jet Amago
Letterer: Steve Kuster
Cover: Brian Brinlee, Michael W. Kellar

Minicomic preview for the full-format second issue.

Captain Tobias Manheim and his crew arrives in town with a plan. But before they can make it happen, they are going to need to negotiate with the Pirate Guild.

This is well-edited. It introduces the steampunk fantasy world of Valendor very nicely, giving the reader enough setup to keep things interesting while not bogging down the story.

It also gives quick glimpses of the characters, with enough interaction that several conflicts become apparent.

Aside from the opening teaser page, there isn't really any action. This preview is all set-up. But it is all very effective setup, and an excellent tease for the full story.

Rating: 7.5/10

Sky Pirates of Valendor Series 2 #4

We're at Templecon in Warwick RI this weekend. It's a steampunk and gaming con, so I'm not sure if I'll get much in the way of comics, but there was one major comic release at Templecon: The new issue of Sky Pirates of Valendor from Jolly Rogue Studios!

Title: Sky Pirates of Valendor
Issue: Series 2 #4
Date: 2012
Publisher: Jolly Rogue Studios
Writer: Everett Soares
Penciler: Brian Brinlee
Inker: Alex Rivera
Tones: Jet Amago
Letterer: Steve Kuster
Editor: Amy Haley
Cover: Craig DeBoard

The Prince of Valen has been poisoned, and he's fighting for his life while sky pirates Gearz and Shyni spent most of last issue fighting, well, each other. But now, the Night Razors have decided not to wait to see the outcome of the poisoning. Time for the old frontal assault with half pincer movement.

Up against the horde of assassins (plus one chimera!) is Shyni and Gearz, plus Gun Knight Kirby Kingsman and about 30 redshirts. As it turns out, that's about even odds.

This issue was almost entirely one huge fight scene. And generally it was a pretty good one. It had even had a few little touches that were quite awesome. I love how artist Brinlee delivers the details on Shyni's fighting style, switching knives between two hands and a prehensile tail and making every movement graceful and deadly.

Gearz actually gets the big moment in this, as she takes on the chimera (which actually resembles a manticore) and manages to add some depth to the mystery of her origins as she is upping her ability to dish out damage by several notches.

Some of the fighting is a bit goofy, and in spite of the threat of the chimera, the bad guys really don't ever seem all that effective here, but this is a good scene for showing what the heroes are capable of, especially Gearz. There is action start to finish, and it's all fun.

Rating: 7/10

Sky Pirates of Valendor Series 2 #3

Well, lack of working internet access at our hotel killed the plan to do live reviews, but otherwise Connecticon was a great show. I picked up about six comics to review. Here's the first of those.

Title: Sky Pirates of Valendor
Issue: Series 2 #3
Date: 2011
Publisher: Jolly Rogue Studios
Writer: Everett Soares
Penciler: Brian Brinlee
Inker: Alex Rivera
Tones: Jet Amago
Letterer: Steve Kuster
Editor: Amy Haley, Elizabeth Tramonti

Gearz and Shyni don't like each other. They're pretty incompatible just on a personal level, but when you add in the fact that they are rivals for the affections of one Captain Tobin Manheim you've got a powder keg that's ready to explode.

Which is pretty much what this issue is. A bit of setup, followed by a six pages of brawl between Gearz and Shyni.

Then the real fun starts. Gearz and Shyni need to work together to deal with an assassin who has been slowly poisoning a prince. As you might imagine, it's a shaky alliance.

There were a few minor problems with this issue. The "story so far" text that opens the piece is more complex than it needs to be, and the story indulges in a bit of a cliché by not having the fight between the rivals reach a real conclusion. It felt like too easy a solution for the writer.

But what really stands out in this issue in the amount and the quality of the action. It's almost non-stop, and it's really good, convincing action that flows well.

This is definitely the best installment in the Sky Pirates series in terms of just plain fun, and it does a great job of delivering the swashbuckling action that the setting was made for.

Rating: 7.5/10

Sky Pirates of Valendor Series 2 #2

My last review from Anime Boston. Here is Sue Soares of Jolly Rogue Studios with the display of both issues of Sky Pirates of Valendor Series 2.

Title: Sky Pirates of Valendor Series 2
Issue: #2
Date: 2011
Publisher: Jolly Rogue Studios
Writer: Everett Soares
Penciler: Brian Brinlee
Inker: Alex Rivera
Tones: Jet Amago
Letterer: Steve Kuster
Editor: Amy Haley, Elizabeth Tramonti
Art Direction: Keith J Murphey

Half-elven pirate captain Tobin Manheim gets invited to high tea, and the event turns into a family reunion of sorts. Of course family reunions can be problematic when old suspicions rear their ugly heads, and they become even more problematic when one a family member is a powerful earth-mage.

The family drama takes center stage, but there is plenty of political intrigue in the background as Captain Manheim decides that he can split his crew to take on two missions at once for double the money.

A few of the time-cuts in the earlier scenes seemed unnecessary, but once the action focused on the main characters and the story got rolling, this moved along at a nice pace with plenty of action and some good backstory development.

The artwork on the fight scenes was excellent, with some fun and creative angles and panel layouts.

Rating 8/10

Sky Pirates of Valendor: Valendor Chronicles #1

Title: Sky Pirates of Valendor: Valendor Chronicles
Issue: #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.

Sky Pirates of Valendor Series 2 #1

Title: Sky Pirates of Valendor Series 2
Issue: #1
Date: 2011
Publisher: Jolly Rogue Studios
Writer: Everett Soares
Penciler: Brian Brinlee
Inker: Alex Rivera
Tones: Jet Amago
Letterer: Steve Kuster
Editor: Amy Haley, Elizabeth Tramonti
Art Direction: Keith J Murphey

Captain Tobin Manheim is willing to give his ex-lover Shyni one chance to explain her involvement in the killing of his mother. But her story may open wounds that are too old and too deep to heal. The beginning of the second series of Sky Pirates of Valendor takes its time to deepen the characters and to delve into some of the political intrigue that Tobin and his crew are being swept up in. Shyni's background story holds together well, and that's in spite of me feeling like there's a bit of an overabundance of "cute girl trained to be world's greatest assassin" in comics these days. Shyni somehow takes that cliche and rises above it with some genuinely powerful interplay with a conflicted Tobin. The emphasis on character development over swashbuckling action in this issue will make the action that much more meaningful as the series progresses.

Rating: 7.5/10

Sky Pirates of Valendor Series 2 #1 was my first acquisition at Friday night of the Arisia convention (with a photo of the book "in the wild" at Arisia). I'll be reviewing comics obtained at the con all weekend, and I'm even planning to up the Comic-A-Day ante to include a couple of bonus reviews as time permits. The first night of the convention was a lot of fun in spite of us getting a later-than-planned start heading up to Boston. We got home just in time to get this posted right under the wire. We'll be heading out bright and early tomorrow and I'm looking forward to a fun day at the con.