Each issue of Image’s Lost Fantasy series, much like the old Dark Horse Presents series, contains serial stories by various writers and artists. Lost Fantasy #6 contains the next chapter of the main story and the first chapter of a new serial for the second story. Both stories are written by Curt Pires and Franklin Jonas, with art by Maxi Dall’o and Luca Casalanguida and colors by Mark Dale.
Dall’o and Casalanguida’s art reminded me a bit of Norm Breyfogle’s work from the Batman comics of the late ’80s to early ’90s, especially in the combat scenes.
The big drawback of this series is the fact that they don’t recap what happened in earlier chapters with the main story, they just drop you in the middle of the action. So when I read this book I found I had to get the previous two issues to fully understand the characters and their world. Aside from that, the main story’s an entertaining romp of urban fantasy, with eyepatch-wearing warriors wielding magic and huge swords battling amidst a city filled with computers and castles.
The story’s setting borrows heavily from other fiction works, ranging from Harry Potter to film noir movies to He-Man, with a dash of Taken thrown in, as warrior Henry Blackheart desperately searches for his father, who was supposedly killed but Henry’s sure he’s still alive and being imprisoned somewhere in the kingdom.
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Lost Fantasy is total pulp fiction of the Conan/Weird Tales variety, with a tissue-thin plot and one-dimensional characters. It’s forgivable, though, because it’s still a fun read and this whole series seems to be trying to imitate EC Comics and their mountain of action/horror/sci-fi zines, which always aimed to tell entertaining stories rather than probe into deep issues pertaining to the human condition.
The best parts of the main story are the combat sequences, which are visceral and bloody, not only where swords are involved but also in hand-to-hand combat. Henry Blackheart’s a master fighter and he’s not afraid to go for the jugular if he’s not getting the information he needs. As a result, nothing feels “safe” about the story, which gives it a sharp edge throughout.
The second story is brief but interesting, as an archaeologist with a lot of bad life habits stumbles onto a dimensional portal and gets into serious danger when he agrees to steal a dragon’s egg for a mysterious being who can wipe away all the mistakes of his past. This story promises to be equally exciting as the main story and seems to draw from Japanese lore. I look forward to seeing the next chapter of it.
Anthology series like Lost Fantasy are great because you get a few stories for no additional cost, meaning more bang for your buck. If a synopsis of the previous issue’s chapters can be provided in the future, the book’s unique fantasy and sci-fi elements will likely draw a large readership over time.
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