PREVIEW: Dave's Rant Special: Talus Montage

[David Van Domelen]

Dave's Rant Special:

The Talus Montage #1 (Void Publications) "Here Be Dragons?"

This is a review of a photocopied preview copy of a comic due out around
the end of 1997. Some parts may be altered between now and then, so any
detailed or nitpicky comments I make may not be relevant to the final
product (although this copy looks pretty finished). The genre is a sort of
blend of fantasy and science fiction, more on that after the art comments and
spoiler space. The art comments will be a lot more than I usually do, since
this is as much critique as review. }->

The Art: With the exception of the heads of characters, this is fine
greyscale work...rich backgrounds, good figure drawing, a fairly good sense
of keeping the foreground from getting lost (it's off and on, some pages are
a little too busy, while others use various tricks to keep the business from
being a problem). I would guess this was pencilled, then watercolor painted
in greytones or inkwashes, then inked over that, with white paint or
white-out used to outline figures in danger of being lost against their
background.
But, as I said, the faces present a slight problem. To his credit, the
artist (Butcher or MacKillan, not sure who did what) didn't fall into the
common trap of having what looks like a tiny face in the center of the head,
something which often occurs in B&W art because of the lack of backshading.
The extensive use of greytones keeps faces looking rounded, so the features
don't have to be artificially stretched out to the edges of the face to look
"right" to the eye. Unfortunately, the artist seems to use some of these
extension tricks anyway, which when added to the shading make the eyes look
way too wide...eyebrows leading almost to the ears, even. On top of that,
the characters all seem to have heads just a little too large for their
bodies. It's less of a problem in the full-figure shots, but even there the
characters tend towards being six heads tall rather than seven to seven and a
half heads tall. And in the closeup shots, it's even worse. Mind you, this
may be closer to real human proportions in some cases, but in line art it
looks...off. The opening splash page gets it right, but it's hit-and-miss
after that.

Okay, a little spoiler space for anyone who wanted to read art
commentary but doesn't want the story given away....

The Talus Montage is being told in chapters, rather than in
self-contained episodes. Each chapter is about 16 pages long, and the first
issue has three chapters while later issues will have two chapters each.
While the first chapter doesn't really feel like one piece of the story, the
other two do come across more coherently as individual parts of a single
story.
The story, in this case, is of a world which until recently was a very
magical place, but which has more and more had to turn to technology as the
world's "aura" declined. As the story opens, the ruler of the world's single
city is making the final arrangements to launch the first space exploration
expedition from Talus, an expedition in search of new forms of energy.
Conflict pops up instantly as the King has to make unKingly compromises, the
Prince has to see his beloved risk her life in the space shot, and the cracks
start to show in the current civilization. Most readers should be able to
figure out why the planet's magical aura is declining, although none of the
characters have yet (which seems rather odd, IMO).
If I'd seen more of "Wings of Honnemaise" than just the trailer for it,
I might try to make a more detailed comparison to the Talus Montage, but even
with my minimal knowledge there seem to be some similarities. Another planet
with humans on it and a seemingly lower level of technology attempts to put
people into space on what may be a fool's mission. Yes, there's plenty of
differences, but if you liked the general prinicple of Honnemaise you might
want to check out Talus as well.
Given the scattershot of new terms, characters, history and so forth
that come out in this issue, the glossary is a welcome addition, although I'd
suggest either putting it at the front or making a note near the beginning
referring to it (like when the Yithlari are first mentioned, put a footnote
on that page to refer to the glossary). After all, not everyone skims a
comic before reading it in depth. }->
As the "Montage" part of the title suggests, there's a lot of different
elements dropped down into the story. Some of them I found interesting,
others looked like they had potential, and some I hope fall by the wayside
pretty quickly. As the prince evolves as the main character (and while not
all scenes include him, he's definitely the main character), certain aspects
will inevitably be focused on while others are resolved or ignored...which
ones get which treatment will largely determine the quality of this book in
the long run.

Dave Van Domelen, "He's the last priest of a religion that's all but
*dead.*" - Han Solo...er, no, it's Jollison.