Local Heroes

Picked up a couple comics featuring work by Lubbock-based creators. Let’s give ’em a once-over, oy?

 

The Goblin Chronicles #2

This one features coloring work by Lubbock Sketch Club poobah Will Terrell. Our story focuses on youthful fantasy heroes Gorim, Zara, Sprig, and Gween as they try to avoid the Dark Queen’s troops, fulfill a wizard’s quests, and free some slaves. But the more they succeed, the more the Dark Queen will try to capture them all.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Still good fun. You almost feel sorry for the Dark Queen’s soldiers — they really don’t stand a chance the whole time…

 

The Idea #1

This comic is illustrated by local artist Luis Estrada. It follows a young writer named Johnson Doyle who has paralyzing writer’s block. When he attempts to break the block through meditation, he discovers that he can take a mostly immaterial form and is able to change into anything that anyone else thinks of — specifically, when he overhears a father reading a bedtime story to his son, Johnson ends up becoming the dragon in the story. Can he escape from the angry crowd pursuing him, or is his path to enlightenment going to be cut short?

Verdict: Thumbs up. The story is plenty cool, and the artwork is really interesting and expressive. I think it even gets more expressive when Johnson takes his mostly-featureless “Idea” form, but as we’ve noted before, good cartooning becomes more universal as it becomes simpler and less complex. At any rate, it’s definitely worth picking up.