Gage and the Dragon's Tear part 4

Created by Patrick Hellner
Pencils and inks by Donny Hadiwidjaja
Colors by Ichsan Ansori
Letters by Ed Dukeshire

Here's their Facebook Page.

Two pairs of horsemen.

At first I thought this would be really hard but it ended being very easy.

Gage, the titular thief of the story, is off to steal The Key of Fairington for a price, which is (you guessed it) a jewel called The Dragon's Tear. He goes on his trip riding a horse, along with another rider named Varell who's got Wolverine hair.

Another pair of horsemen, Raven Cal and Boris Rasgin, go riding to kill Lord Toliver, who resides in Farrington. Raven's father was murdered years ago by Toliver's body guard so he has a stake in this quest.

Two stories.

So by Issue Four we have two sets of horse riders to keep track of. And two story lines. It's almost as if Patrick Kellner is trying to tell two stories at once. If they meet up later on that's great, but it's at the cost of the reader having to keep them straight. It's not too much of a problem, but there was more than once a part where I had to flip back between the four parts to refresh myself to what's going on.

When you look at all the classic stories, heroic tales of Greece or Rome, Ulysses or Aenis, you never need to consult the scorecard. Same holds true for Tolkien. Homer, J.R.R. and company put a lot of work in keeping it smooth and organic for a reader to follow. You almost had to in an age before written word, where stories get handed down. This is where Gage and the Dragon's Tear breaks down. Too many story lines, too many characters who don't interact with each other.

The easy part?

Well, it turns out the whole second half of the book is (no lie) one big no dialogue fight scene!

Next Two Tuesdays:

Queen

parts 1 - 2, then 3 -4
by Jaime Me