Fantasy series are too often burdened with thegoal of world-building, causing a struggle between characters and the land theyinhabit. This might entice fans of the genre, but it's not so inviting to acasual audience. Zubkavich remedies this by letting his world just be, allowinghis characters to burst from the pages and dictate the action and setting. Histwo cartoonish, crass mercenaries-a feisty, red-headedScottish dwarf and a calm, bald, tall guy-take aseat-of-your-pants roller coaster ride that grabs everything in its path, grindsit up, and flings it aside with a fury. Whether facing law enforcement, deathcultists, demons, or evil fairies, the result is always thesame-bombastic chaos. Laugh out loud humor comes fromcharacter quips and tangents, as well as the grotesque and theabsurd-tall guy wields an anachronistic and unexplained handgun that's the source of many laughs-incorporated into Huang'swell-executed action sequences. It's like a sword and sorcery buddy moviechanneling Milk and Cheese. This lavish edition collects the first 11 issues ofthe comic with previous short stories featuring the mercenaries, and an activitysection with puzzles and other delights-paper doll fans, takenote.
