I told you so.

Wailing Blade: Headtaker

Volume 1

Written by: Rich Douek

Artist: Joe Mulvey

Colorist: Chris Sotomayor

Letterer: Taylor Esposito

Editor: Tyler James

160 pages. Published by Comix Tribe.

You can buy it HERE.

Back in November last year the Kickstarter for this awesome colorful violent die-cut hardcover hit the 'net and I urged everyone to back the campaign.

This book arrived a week or two ago and really rocked my world when I read it! The Wailing Blade harkens back to the early days in the 1970s-1980s Heavy Metal magazine.

It has a very colorful palette and somewhat stylized cartoony characters who show a lot of teeth. And man-buns. Yet the Saturday morning cartoon vibe is contrasted nicely in its very gory and no-holds barred approach to story telling. Definitely not children's fare here.

Medieval Tech.

What kind of story is this? Is it fantasy? Is it science fiction? A little of both. I would call it 'medieval tech' where you have people living in a low-tech feudal state like The Middle Ages mixed with relics of a long-lost high technology. Bits and pieces of extremely durable hardware survive the ages. Few if any people know how they work, only that they work in a certain way. Such is the case with the titular object, The Wailing Blade. Once a normal weapon used in the field of battle ages ago now there's only one blade, wielded by a hired executioner called (naturally) The Head Taker.

A prince has had his father taken away by the ruthless king of another land, who intends to punish him publicly by having The Head Taker behead him personally. There's a solid shaft of light that beams up to the sky to summon him -like the Bat Signal, which was cool.

Joe Mulvey and Chris Sotomayor work in concert with their style. Blood in TWB's universe is sticky and thick, with tiny highlights. And boy, do they lay it on... to levels of Tarantino or before him Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch.

Lord Nierus, having captured King Auros intends to make his death a satisfying public display for his subjects. There's the touch of the Artist in Nierus, and he likes to exploit that.

Enter Bonebreaker.

Later, there's a quarrel over who gets to execute Tychon as it took so long for The Head Taker to arrive. There's a challenger in the form of Bonebreaker, a fierce woman warrior with a massive hammer.

Heavy Metal magazine might have gone away, but the spirit of high flying fantasy is alive and well with The Wailing Blade!

Two Tuesdays from now:

I'm skipping the review for Tuesday next week because up next is another big heavy volume called Lady Killer.

She's -literally- a 'lady killer,' as in a lady who kills people. From the 1950s.

Leon the Professional meets Mad Men.

Buy Mayfield Eight Here: