What do you get when you cross a barbarian with a full beard, a massive sword, a disembodied undead head of a witch, and a whole lot of decapitations? You get Head Lopper, one of my favorite comic reads of the last year!
Head Lopper Vol. 1 (Image Comics)
Some day my own beard will be this kickass.
Norgal is a warrior. Described as “son of the minotaur, the executioner, The Head Lopper,” he spends a good deal of time telling people to just refer to him by his name, and not his various titles he’s picked up along the way. He’s what Conan might become after another 40 years of sword swinging, only he has a slight thorn in his side in the form of a witch he decapitated sometime in the past, who is still alive, still annoyed at being killed, and spends her time biting him, yelling at him, and annoying him at all times. Her name is Agatha, and she’s FANTASTIC.
Agatha is my girl.
This is a long tale, filled with intrigue, regicide, plots of usurpery, decapitations (obvi), and beautiful layouts of death and destruction.
Is It Good?
YES BY CROM, YES.
This book is pure fire. The artwork is like Mike Mignola pulled back 400 feet, allowing for gritty and slightly comical features, with the benefit of massive monsters being relieved of their heads. Every panel seethes with implied violence, and at no point did I fear for our main character, as he seems as unstoppable as a force of nature–a hurricane of a man with a big goddamn sword.
Also, Agatha, our blue witch head, brings a great comic tone to everything–a perfect foil for our monosyllabic head chopper-offer.
It’s like a ballet of ass kickery!
Also, and this is me being a bit of a home team guy, but the writer/artist is a fellow resident of Massachusetts so he’s automatically held in higher regard.
EVEN HIS SOUND EFFECTS ARE AMAZING
I loved this. 100%. I’ll give this a 10, for the art, for the story, for the laughter, and for the Masshole. I highly recommend you buy it, chuckle through it, and prepare yourself for your need to read much more about Norgal in the future.
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