I considered posting Volume Two and Three of Errant Story together, but in the end, they both deserve their own posts, so I guess we'll have a lot of pages for The Classic. Ah well, more writing for me, and reading for you.
Volume Two is really more exposition for the comic. And a fight. But mostly exposition. It's spaced out enough with the action that it doesn't feel overblown, but there is still a lot of talking in this volume. Not as much in the first one of course, but enough.
The first major bit is a flashback for Meji, and it's what finally broke the commentary track version of the comic. The art is very different from the rest of the comic, with these long, almost brush like strokes used for the shading and coloring. It gives it a very nice look, but apparently made it a pain to actually prep for publication. On top of all the other issues happening at the time, something had to give and the commentary track was one of them. Several of them in fact.
Still, it's an interesting look at what Meji was like prior to events in the comic, and she's not exactly a happy kid throughout. It was kind of obvious before hand, but made even clearer here. Her slow physical development made her very self-conscious and withdrawn. She was more than happy to live with the lie that she was just a human prodigy rather than a half-elf. It also shows, once again, her mother is a non-entity in her life while her grandfather, while stern, at least is interested.
Then there's a fight with the elves. We only see a bit (the last part is done in Volume 3), but it's enough to show that Ian is kind of a badass, taking on a cluster of elf soldiers basically alone. Still, as the first major action scene it plays out pretty well, showing the sheer confusion and anarchy that should reign during such an event. The fact that Sarine stays out of the fight (and instead heals one of the wounded elves) says more about her than even a few words could ever state.
In fact, most of this volume is about Sarine. And we get to see quite a bit of her. Um, meaning she's naked in a few scenes. Actually, there's more than a little nudity in this volume for some reason. I guess this is the point where Poe said "I need more readers," and while that is cynical of me, that might actually be the reason. It's never full frontal or vulgar, but it's there. Which ends up being an odd contrast to the fact that so many curse words are censored throughout. I think this is actually very common throughout all of Poe's comics, but it just feels weird to me any more. Not sure why, perhaps I'm just more used to the less dainty comics that are out there any more.
Back to Sarine and that bulk of the volume involves her in one way or another. From interacting with Jon and Meji to, well, telling the story of the Errant Wars. It's actually very tragic, terrible, and very plausible. From just what was seen in this volume, it's abundantly clear that it happened, and it was horrible and terrible and left some really nasty scars, especially on Sarine's psyche. Hell, it all but wiped out the elves as a whole (they went from occupying 2 continents, to having barely enough people to populate a single city). And it really still hasn't handed. Sarine is going around killing errants (ones who have gone crazy for the most part) despite not really wanting to.
That's really the core of Volume Two, the history of the Errant Wars, and how it set up the current state of the world. There will be more backstory as the comic goes on for the other characters, but with the end of Volume Two, the basic world building is done, there's little more to add. Then Anilis shows up and things get a little weird, but that's for Volume Three.
Until then kiddies.
Volume Two is really more exposition for the comic. And a fight. But mostly exposition. It's spaced out enough with the action that it doesn't feel overblown, but there is still a lot of talking in this volume. Not as much in the first one of course, but enough.
The first major bit is a flashback for Meji, and it's what finally broke the commentary track version of the comic. The art is very different from the rest of the comic, with these long, almost brush like strokes used for the shading and coloring. It gives it a very nice look, but apparently made it a pain to actually prep for publication. On top of all the other issues happening at the time, something had to give and the commentary track was one of them. Several of them in fact.
Still, it's an interesting look at what Meji was like prior to events in the comic, and she's not exactly a happy kid throughout. It was kind of obvious before hand, but made even clearer here. Her slow physical development made her very self-conscious and withdrawn. She was more than happy to live with the lie that she was just a human prodigy rather than a half-elf. It also shows, once again, her mother is a non-entity in her life while her grandfather, while stern, at least is interested.
Then there's a fight with the elves. We only see a bit (the last part is done in Volume 3), but it's enough to show that Ian is kind of a badass, taking on a cluster of elf soldiers basically alone. Still, as the first major action scene it plays out pretty well, showing the sheer confusion and anarchy that should reign during such an event. The fact that Sarine stays out of the fight (and instead heals one of the wounded elves) says more about her than even a few words could ever state.
In fact, most of this volume is about Sarine. And we get to see quite a bit of her. Um, meaning she's naked in a few scenes. Actually, there's more than a little nudity in this volume for some reason. I guess this is the point where Poe said "I need more readers," and while that is cynical of me, that might actually be the reason. It's never full frontal or vulgar, but it's there. Which ends up being an odd contrast to the fact that so many curse words are censored throughout. I think this is actually very common throughout all of Poe's comics, but it just feels weird to me any more. Not sure why, perhaps I'm just more used to the less dainty comics that are out there any more.
Back to Sarine and that bulk of the volume involves her in one way or another. From interacting with Jon and Meji to, well, telling the story of the Errant Wars. It's actually very tragic, terrible, and very plausible. From just what was seen in this volume, it's abundantly clear that it happened, and it was horrible and terrible and left some really nasty scars, especially on Sarine's psyche. Hell, it all but wiped out the elves as a whole (they went from occupying 2 continents, to having barely enough people to populate a single city). And it really still hasn't handed. Sarine is going around killing errants (ones who have gone crazy for the most part) despite not really wanting to.
That's really the core of Volume Two, the history of the Errant Wars, and how it set up the current state of the world. There will be more backstory as the comic goes on for the other characters, but with the end of Volume Two, the basic world building is done, there's little more to add. Then Anilis shows up and things get a little weird, but that's for Volume Three.
Until then kiddies.
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