Thieves & Kings #44

I asked the Kiddo to pick out my next comic to read from the stack, and he chose the issue of Thieves & Kings that immediately follows yesterday's review. So here goes!

Title: Thieves & Kings
Issue: 44
Publisher: I Box Publishing
Date: 2004
Writer: Mark Oakley
Artist: Mark Oakley

Interesting essay about dreams, superpowers, and originality to start things off. Then a prose segment about a girl named Leahanna who served a witch queen and fell in love with a prince.

From there, a scene with Heath comforting a frightened boy who is being sent to sea by his parents to avoid conscription into the army.

But the real focus of this issue is Kim, who is dealing with anger and feelings of inadequacy, and those feeling are brought to a boil during an intense conversation with Lady Soracia. The dialogue is great, weaving between questions of past lives, predestination, and dark powers, with the very worldly concerns of friendship, jealousy, and the difficulties of being the third person in a relationship.

Good cliffhanger ending too, and lovely artwork as I have come to expect after sampling just a few issues of this series.

Rating: 8/10

Thieves & Kings #43

From the random stack of unread comics: I have a short run of three Thieves & Kings issues, of which this is the middle book. My review of #42 is here.

Title: Thieves & Kings
Issue: 43
Publisher: I Box Publishing
Date: 2003
Writer: Mark Oakley
Artist: Mark Oakley

This issue contains two stories. The first is longer and contains an extended prose segment. It involves Heath and Kim helping a boy with a bedwetting problem. Well, that is what his overbearing mother describes it as. Heath suspects something quite a bit more sinister is going on, and soon uncovers the source of the boy's nightmares.

This leads into the extended prose segment, telling the background story of the mysterious magical being at the heart of the boy's troubles. The prose storytelling was a smooth read, and I didn't find it interfered with the overall pace of the comic.

The second story concerns a rebellion of sorts by a group of clockwork soldiers. It's played a bit more for laughs, and requires more of the reader in terms of familiarity with ongoing storylines. As a result, I didn't get as much out of it as readers who have been with this series from the beginning probably would.

Still, it was fun, and the artwork continues to be amazing throughout the book.

Rating: 7.5/10

Thieves & Kings #42

I have a consecutive run of three issues of Thieves & Kings, beginning with #42 in the random stack of unread comics.

Title: Thieves & Kings
Issue: 42
Publisher: I Box Publishing
Date: 2003
Writer: Mark Oakley
Artist: Mark Oakley

Thieves & Kings is one of those series that I've been meaning to check out for years. The art is absolutely gorgeous, and the setting looks intriguing.

That being said, issue #42 is probably not the ideal jumping-on point for a complex fantasy epic with a big cast of characters and painstaking worldbuilding.

But you know what? This was still awesome.

From the intense magical battle that opened the issue to the "quiet moments" that occurred after a several month time-jump, to the emotional character-building dialogue in the ending scenes, every bit of this was really good. And this was a random issue in the middle of the series.

Great artwork and great characters. Consider me hooked. Looking forward to the next two issues, and I'll be on the lookout for the trade paperback editions so I can read the story from the beginning.

Rating: 8.5/10