Blue Lance Chronicles

Posted: Tuesday, November 15, 2005
By: Steve Saville

Cover of Blue Lance Chronicles Writer(s): Justin Cermak and Leo Winstead
Artist(s): Leo Winstead
Publishers: Self Published
From: USA
Price: $3.00(US)

A woman, Eyest, teams up with a small group of mercenaries, Cure and Wade [and a bear cub], to take revenge on a dragon that has killed her family. Chapter 1 Redemption of this new title transports us into a fictional medieval world of dragons, swords, rowdy bars and the like. Kind of a mix between Dungeons and Dragons and Conan the Barbarian but with a Red Sonja type as the main character.

It contains all of the normal ingredients for tales of this genre. We have a journey, a testing, a formidable foe, violence, alcohol, log fires and bravery. In many respects this comic adds little to this popular genre but that in itself need not be a bad thing. If you are a fan of fantasy style stories then this could be just what you need, if not then there is nothing here to convert you.

The artwork tends to be rough in appearance but this adds to the rustic nature of the setting and subject matter. In places, this can feel a little heavy and clumsy but to balance the ledger, it has to be said that that is one damn fine dragon leaping about incinerating anything that it comes across.

The writing creates the "olde worlde" tone well but this tends to be undermined by the computer- generated font.

There is a second self- contained story in this edition featuring a character called Gregor the Huntsman who is a kind of Scandinavian demon slayer. Like the longer story it follows it does verge on the predictable but at the same time shows plenty of promise.

Overall then Blue Lance Chronicles does not present us with anything new but that is almost one of the hallmarks of this genre so that should not deter potential readers.

My advice would be to give it a go, if nothing else it offers a nice bit of escapism. I can’t help but feel though that this title is going to grow up pretty quickly and there is this feeling gnawing away at me that it will eventually develop into a very interesting comic. Early days then but if nothing else Blue Lance Chronicles does deserve recognition for inventive use of dragon dung.

In a Word: Fiery.



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