front page  ·  comicbook reviews  ·  interviews  ·  comics  ·  merchandise  ·  contact us  ·  newsfeed: rss xml

Artesia, Artesia Afield Artesia Afire, Artesia Annual #3 Book Released: 20 July 2004 Review posted: 11/27/05 Writer: Mark Smylie Artist: Mark Smylie Publisher: Archaia Studios Press  5.00 out of 5 Stars Reviewed by J. W. DeBolt Jr.

Back when gods were real, when they received and acted upon the sacrifices and prayers of their suplicants, the warrior Artesia rose in prominence. Artesia was the lover of King Branimir and Captain of his army, but when he turned from the goddess Yhera and started to worship the Sun King, Artesia and her forces disavowed themselves from him and turned against him. Artesia has a certain authority in this because she can speak to otherworldly entities. She has the mystic edge — perhaps even a divine calling. She knows that her religious beliefs have substance.

The Artesia series takes place in one of the most intricately detailed worlds I've ever seen created for a tale of sequential art. The most recent annual contains the entire history of “The Known World” — the universe in which Artesia lives and fights. Mark Smylie has created a vast mythological pantheon that blends into his history and includes the different interpretations and cosmologies of competing cultures. It looks like it must have taken years to develop.

All three Books are divided into six chapters each, with a major battle occurring in the sixth chapter of each. In the first series, Artesia addresses her domestic situation in the conflict with Branimir. She becomes a leader with a solid following. In the second series, she turns outward to defend the land against Thessid invaders. The third involves the consolidation of territories and the prevention of encroachment by other forces.

Artesia is a character destined for great things. She has a leader's wit and sensibility. She's not above killing a man she's just bedded if she knows him to be conspiring against her.

Much of the storyline in this epic deals with strategy and tactics, as Artesia and her followers participate in battle after battle. Maps of the entire area show places mentioned in the text. We don't get much in the way of backgrounds of characters — or even of Artesia. It all happens here and now.

One weakness, or perhaps a “good problem,” is that so much goes on that a lot of the activity happening outside the reader’s view is explicated in meetings with Artesia. We get no visual flashbacks, just a bunch of people talking as they brief Artesia.

But the logic of personal interplay is consistent and incisive. For example, Sava, captain of Artesia's guard, tells a captured soldier who is put in charge of a unit that has been co-opted into Artesia's army, “The day you stop serving her, you die.” He answers, “Then I must die before our queen does.” And Sava commands, “See that you do.” Excellent stuff.

Besides a chronological history of events, Mr. Smylie has included formal prayers said by supplicants for battle preparation, for strength in battle, as a pledge of veterans, and for other reasons. Each chapter begins with a prayer needed for an occasion that will arise in the chapter, such as a prayer for the dead. Several cultures exist contemporaneously in these pages and some side with each other in conflicts. The history in the added material is so detailed that many a story can be told within its parameters.

Smylie does not hold back on the goriness and nastiness of battle. The story evokes Robert E. Howard in its gritty realism of violence in battle and the hard choices that must be made. Smylie shows the horrors of war, and the gravity that comes with being a military leader. Indeed, a running theme of the story is Artesia's changing role in the world and how she chooses to accept it.

The art is painstakingly detailed, but drawn in a style that suggests speed. Watercolor painting over the pen-and-ink drawing allows for subtleties that highlight the moods as needed from scene to scene. The borders of some pages are decorated like medieval texts, with supernatural creatures pointing at the human foibles within.

While some reviewers have criticized the depiction of nudity and sex within, I believe their criticisms are too parochial — or at least inconsistent, since the violence is not so harshly criticized. While the battles of war and all the brutality it entails is part of real life, so is sex. And great leaders have historically had strong sex drives that are part of their overall “type A” personalities that have brought them to pinnacles of power, such as Caligula and Alexander the Great. So Artesia having sex on a whim with whomever she wants seems more realistic than, say, a superhero who never takes off his costume.

Artesia: Adventures in The Known World (ISBN: 1-932386-10-6, Stock# ASP1010, $29.95, 192 pages, full-color, 8.5" x 11"), a role-playing game based on Artesia will be released next month. Since this is RPG-involved, one wonders whether Mark is playing the game in order to see how his stories turn out. That would be neat way to tell a story. We may be able to find that out when the fourth Artesia volume is released: Artesia Besieged.

If there's any one idea I’d like to leave with the reader it is that Artesia is a richly detailed creative epic that is different than anything else out there. It is definitely worth a look.