Soulfire: Dying Of The Light #1-5

Written By J.T Krul
Pencils by Micah Gunnell

Well this is a first, a requested review!

I left a comment over on the website of Micah Gunnell, one of the best young artists today, never expecting in a million years that he would bother to respond! Well he did, he read this blog and he asked me to review something from Aspen. So here it is. But just cause Micah requested this doesn't mean I'm gonna lie... After all, saying he is one of the best young artists today is what I genuinely think, check out the guys site for proof. At the end of the day, I told him that on his site before he bothered to come check out our humble domain.

Now, some may think this to be quite sad, but I have every single comic published by Aspen. Not out of some misguided loyality to an individual publisher, but because everything they have put out has warranted my cash in some way shape or form. Admittedly some stuff is better than others, but everything has been good enough to buy. Soulfire: Dying of the Light is something I have, obviously and it is one of those Aspen titles that has both hits and misses.

Unlike it's parent title Soulfire, DOTL managed to stay more or less on schedule, which these days is a frickin' miracle. Not only that but it was a nice, enjoyable read. Soulfire, apart from its lateness, is one of Aspen's worse titles. The story didn't exactly get me hooked but Turners art is what got me into Aspen in the first place. I find that the art is what I buy most titles for anyway. Aspen seem to be a company that believe in style over substance, and this, fortunately for them, is one of the few times it really doesnt matter. Come on, I buy Aspen books cause they employ some of the best artists. Mike Turner. Micah Gunnell. Koi Turnbull. Talent Caldwell. Marcus To. They are all excellent. Don't even get me started on Steigerwald, Sotelo and Strain, those guys can colour any other colourist into next week.

And yes, DOTL is another Aspen title I buy simply for the pictures.

I'm not sure quite what it is about Soulfire, but I just find the story so unappealing. So uninteresting. But I can't quite pick a specific fault. It's kind of confusing like that. But visually, Mike Turner created one of the most beautifull worlds seen in comics. And Gunnell puts his own spin on it to fantastic effect in DOTL.

If I could recommend DOTL for one thing it would seriously be for the visuals. You have to see the visuals for the sheer awe of it all. I told Micah to convince the guys to put out more sketchbooks and Swimsuit issues etc. simply because the art is fantastic.

But if you want a riveting story from Aspen I gotta tell you to check out Fathom.

DOTL is really beuatiful however. Check out the dragons in issue 4 alone. Gob smacking. Grace is one of the most beautiful characters designed in recent memory and the world as a whole has this shining quality unlike anything in modern comics.

Unfortunately though, I could understand that alot of people need a story as well as art. Thats fine. Regardless, they should check the comic out, they may like the story. Personally I hate fantasy type stuff. Things like Lord Of The Rings just have no appeal to me whatsoever. But others might be different. But as long as the production quality is this high, Aspen have my custom no matter what the story.

I have to say though, Micah is only six years older than me. I'm pretty jealous of his talent and the fact he is working at the best "art book" publishers there is. But then I'm jealous of everyone who can draw, since I have trouble getting stick men right.

If there is one title I would like to see given the Aspen treatment by Gunnell, Turnbull, To and the rest it would have to be Nightwing. Or a good zombie comic. Can you imagine that? A zombie comic with colours done by Steigerwald? It gets me all happy just imagining them zombies...

All in all, I gotta say thank to Micah for checking us out here, and thanks to everyone else who reads these. Please leave some comments, it'd be nice to hear some peoples opinions of mine and Markus' reviews. Although the first feedback I received being from an industry professional? Can't be bad.