u/FlubzRevenge

Man, this was pretty good. Most of the stories are *very* short in a book of 80 pages, but there are a few longer ones like The Sprig of Thraxin. It's definitely his ode to Heavy Metal, at least the first few stories. They're focused on the rule of cool and involve a woman getting naked / sex, and one is an ode to Richard Corben's Den, but it's pretty dark. After those first few, you seem to feel Kirchner is shedding that part of himself and going for more nuanced storytelling.

Kirchner became quite the effective storyteller even early on, The Sprig of Thraxin, as pictured above is probably my favorite. It's about a wizard and his waning powers. So he summons a small powerless demon named Eck to travel across the lands to do his bidding for him. But in just 18 pages you get quite effective characterization for Eck that makes you feel for what he's done. It's definitely by far the standout.

The rest after that were good, there's a lot of goofiness in these stories as expected. Each story feels like a peek into these 'realms'. The art is also still very nice, I remember from Dope Rider that Kirchner has a fascination with Native American rug-like patterns, so it seems he does even early on. The color pages are less flat, he seemed to inject more detail into his pages. Maybe the swap from traditional to digital, i'm not sure. All gorgeous, love his usage of colors.

Kirchner's art feels very comfortable to live in, here. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but there's just a warmth.

Overall a great read imo even if it's a bit uneven, but one of the Great American creators that often goes overlooked. There's more than The Bus!

Many used for a much lower price, preorders, kickstarters, sales, etc.

So many I had been looking forward to for a while.

Tons of things i've been wanting to read for a while, and most things here are not really talked about much. I like to dig deep. Lots of amazing artistry involved in the medium, folks.

Most preorders, cheap used books or sales. A few kickstarters.