Jotham Knight’s Round Table

When Eric and I got back from Novi, we stepped right into the end-of-the-school year craziness. We worked out tails off to post the con coverage that we did, but some things had to wait until time became for available. I’m sorry to the people that had to wait for reviews, but it could not be helped.

So here is my review of ELLIUM: RISE OF THE FALLEN by Jason Moser, Matt Krizan, and Scott Licina of Asylum Ink. This is a graphic novel that they produced into a frame motion DVD (I think that is what it’s called). Basically, it works like a Hollywood story board film. We see the still frame artwork panned over in various ways, sometimes layered with other art, and there is an original score playing as you read the word balloons that pop up. The DVD itself contains four stories and some extras

The summery on the back cover reads:
“Prepare to enter a futuristic world of espionage secret societies and the occult. Where the true powers behind puppet governments are secrete factions, each vying for control of humanity with only the members of ELLIYUM to stand in there way!”

The secrete organization story is very well played here. The reader/watcher never really gets the whole story on who or what ELLIUM is. This made me want to get more of the story, which is whole point, right? The plots of the stories range from the realistic (Diamond Mine) to the fantastic (Blood Read Snow), but all have the X-Files feel with a horror edge. Now I’m not a fan or horror, but this book succeeds in not letting the “horror feel” overpower a good story.

I found the artwork to be a cleaner lined version of Ben Templesmith’s work in 30 Days of Night. It added to the story without be distracting and succeeds in creating the perfect setting for the story.

Check these guys out here and talk to your local comic shop about getting their stuff in.

Story: B

Art: B

Overall: B

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 7th, 2007 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Con, Comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.