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The Info Bit

Title: Charismagic: The Death Princess #1

Genre/s: Fantasy/Adventure

Writer: Vince Hernandez (Fathom: Kiani, Executive Assistant Assassins)

Artist: Emilio Lopez (Executive Assistant: Lotus)

Colorist: Emilio Lopez, Jocelyn Dunn, & Ivy Beth Gladstone

Letterer: Josh Reed (Idolized, Fathom)

Publisher: Aspen MLT

Number of Issues: 1 (of 3)

Page Count: 20

Price: $3.99

 

The Review Bit

The love for stories involving magic at Aspen MLT seems quite strong, as proven by their newest series, Charismagic: The Death Princess. This new 3-issue mini-series is the second comic series to take place in creator Vince Hernandez’s Charismagic universe. Following the release of volume 1of Charismagic, The Death Princess does not actually directly follow the cliff hanger ending of the previous series. Instead, Death Princess plays as a prequel and perfect jumping on point for those curious to read what Charismagic is all about. Fans of the former Charismagic volume may remember the main character of this story from his early appearance and deus ex machina return in volume 1 of Charismagic. Yes, we are seeing an early tale of the soon to be great wizard, Kon. Of course, he doesn’t come off as all that great and wise in this volume while he goes up against the titular princess of death, Orlana.

The story of The Death Princess opens like reading an old fairy tale with epic narrative. In the very first 3-pages we are introduced to Orlana, our Death Princess and antagonist. It is amusing to note that in these 3-pages we see Orlana at three different ages in her life, allowing us a quick development of character both visually and authoritatively as she gains power over the people around her, building a vast kingdom of worshippers. She is able to build this kingdom and gain these worshippers through the extremely powerful magic of mind control. But it is not long before we learn our protagonist, and narrator, is that of the young and mighty wizard, Kon. Kon and his good friend, Serke, lead an army to take on the Death Princess, but are easily defeated. Kon manages to escape, only to determine that he must find a way to go back and defeat Orlana. The majority of the opening issue deals with Kon putting together a party of magical users to bring war back to the Death Princess and rescue Serke and the world from a horrible fate. Fans of the original Charismagic series will likely enjoy little nods to the previous volume, and might particularly be shocked by this issues ending. But for those who have never read Charismagic before, the issue is still a fun read with no real requirement of foreknowledge needed going in.

Charismagic: The Death Princess has a strong narrative, beautifully crafted by Hernandez, that immediately pulls readers into the story. It is also sprinkled with the bits of humor that made Charismagic volume 1 so fun while still being an epic adventure. The only flaw in the writing seems to be one created by the rather short length of the mini-series. While Orlana is described by Kon and others as this great evil…we really don’t see much of it. Sure she has the look of a sexy and evil tyrant, and we know she is controlling people’s minds like slaves, but there is very little time devoted to her kingdom’s expansion or torturing her followers. The closest we get is a little caption about those who resist and a panel depicting a single resister being violently murdered (well, as violently as one might get in a PG movie). In fact, the limited time spent on Orlana’s villainous acts actually makes Kon come off as the instigator. The story also seems to rush through the gathering of allies, leaving us with little more than names for each member of the team. But with only 2-issues left in the story, we certainly wouldn’t want over half the tale dealing with setup.

On the art end, Emilio Lopez’s interiors really shine and make this comic look just amazing. Lopez uses a kind of soft art style, with few real sharp or angular lines, giving it an almost animated feel. This cartoonish or anime like look is further emphasized by the vivid, yet light colors. Speaking of light and colors, the lighting for various scenes made by the coloring really makes the book pop and exist as something utterly unlike the comics you would have read before digital coloring. We particularly can see and enjoy this in the scene where Kon is consulting a druid character in his party about the future of Orlana. That scene actually has very few colors in it, but the skillful use of gradients and opposing colors makes it stand out like no other. Letterer Josh Reed’s use of colorful word bubbles for the druid also makes those pages rather memorable.

In the end, I want to draw comparisons to another comic from Aspen, Soulfire: Chaos Reign. Perhaps it is because both comics deal with a rare topic of magic in prehistoric times, where men wore fur and loincloths, while painting their skin and piercing with bone. Or it could be the winged people and dinosaurs (though I believe they were technically dragons in Soulfire). But what definitely does make them comparable is they were both stories that felt far too short and contained absolutely stunning artwork.

 

The Rating Bit

Charismagic: The Death Princess #1 is a nice opening to what looks to be a fun mini-series. The art in the comic is fantastic, though the story feels slightly rushed to fit everything in its somewhat short length. Never-the-less, it comes off as yet another great romp in the world of magic, earning a nice 8 out of 10. Pick up Charismagic: The Death Princess #1 in stores today!