no review no review no review no review no review no review no review no review no review no review no review no review no review no review didnt get a chance to read

It was not a book for me. I doesn't finish connecting with history or art and many times it was difficult to follow the lettering.

When I read the premise of this graphic novel on Netgalley, it sounded so good... It sounded like the kind of graphic novel that I would instantly go for in a book shop. Alas, whilst reading it, I found it confusing and just straight up boring. 

Famed warrior Azarias has gathered a small army of varied adventurers on a quest to gather the dust of a distant island god in order to save the life of their king. Along the way, they encounter numerous beasts and monsters all in the process of gathering artifacts necessary to locate the island god before ultimately defeating it.

Throughout the course of the adventure, the band disperses into small groups with individual objectives in order to cover more ground in shorter order. These individual side-story adventures reveal more about each of the many unique and intriguing characters and their different interactions in different combinations. 

This expertly curated anthology approach builds to the ultimate encounter and resolution in the end, with each of the warriors in the ensemble receiving their due attention. A very intricate and original fantasy universe filled with a large cast of intriguing, complex, and diverse warriors deserving stories of their own.

The thing that really confused me about this graphic novel was that, when a new chapter started, there would also be a different kind of artwork, and then the different artwork would represent a different character's point of view (see images below). This is a good idea, but it wasn't executed well AT ALL. I had to Google whether the difference in artwork meant that there were multiple graphic novel stories in this one, like an anthology. I mean, I guess it was an anthology of sorts? It was an anthology of artists...

It also didn't help that the story was confusing as well, I had no idea what was going on for about 75% of the time. The graphic novel actually started off really strong. With the amazing art work and a solid plot idea about a warrior going on a quest to save his King, I was excited to continue reading about his journey through different lands and completing different tasks. I think that if the first artist had done the illustrations throughout the graphic novel, and it didn't keep switching perspectives, then this would have been a magnificent story. However, that just wasn't the case. The story turned into one with weird artwork, and (sometimes) indecipherable lettering, so you really had to squint and concentrate to even make out the words which was so annoying.

It's such a shame that this graphic turned out to be a 1-star, because I was really looking forward to it. But hey, you can't enjoy every book that you're going to pick up, are you?

Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Azarias, champion to the King, has been tasked with a deed of great importance. He is to assemble the greatest heroes the world has seen, venture to a mysterious island, and retrieve the ‘dust’ of an ancient deity, which is said to grant the one who consumes it an extra 100 years if life. This, the King believes, is key to his putting realm affairs in order, and securing his legacy despite reckless heirs. However, getting the dust is another matter altogether. Azarias’ team is plagued with death and disaster from the outset.

While I found the artwork gorgeous (mostly), the story itself seemed simplistic and uninteresting. Added to this is dialogue I could brush off in a mediocre video RPG, badly translated from Japanese speech and culture into modern American speech and values. Both dialogue and storyline may have been overridden, in a gaming format, by the pure pleasure of playing the game. Alas, the graphic novel format wasn't an asset. The dialogue became massive info dumps, as if needing to explain everything to the characters, even things they should know, or be able to infer. This left the characters feeling flat and generic, offering little to no depth to their personalities.

As the story went along, it became a dull parody of video RPG, with random tasks, adventures, and consequences. There were jarring instances where font, style, and language changed several times. While an overall excellent concept in theory, Hunters just didn't pan out for me.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Diamond Books/ Lion Forge for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I didn’t get to finish this because I could not download it on my new iPad. But I had started it on my old one. At first I was a little uncaring, and the change of storyteller and illustrator was a bit hard to get used to, but I ended up loving it. How the change of the art style went with the change story line. While I didn’t complete this story I will be once it’s published.

The book started off strong with a group of heroes landing on an island in search of a dust that will prolong their king's life. I'm a sucker for this "Mysterious Island" kind of trope, but then it broke off into an anthology series where each team of warriors went in search of a macguffin. That's when the book got really shitty. The short stories were filled with poor storytelling, terrible art and in some cases even indecipherable lettering.

Hunters

An aging cursed and dying king gathers warriors and adventurers of all stripes and ages from across his kingdom. He sends these heroes to an island to kill and collect the ashes of a god to grant him another lifetime to further build and protect his kingdom. Hunters is a classic sort of adventure quest with a dubious and suspicious set up that leads to some interesting if uneven storytelling. Hunters is told across fifteen chapters three by one of the creators of the project Josh Tierney with art by Miguel Valderrama. The rest were created by by a large cast of creative talent that you can check on my list of the contents of the book below. As with all anthologies some chapters may not be your kind of thing but there is an lot to like in the one volume, for me this collection of linked stories was a for the most part a welcome treat.

The introductory middle and final chapters in this book by Tierney and Valderrama are a kind of big epic fantasy story. It’s got an ensemble cast of characters working towards their collective goal. These three stories give the other chapters a framework to hang from, they are packed with either action or exposition and though solidly enjoyable come off a little flat in characterization. Had that been the tone of the rest of the book it would have been pretty and interesting but nothing outstanding. Thankfully the remainder of the smaller personal tales allowed some of the more interesting characters to shine and have stories of their own.

The twelve smaller stories break the cast up into smaller adventuring groups working through smaller parts of their overall quest. The creators have enough storytelling room to mix and remix the teams allowing a variety of characters to have their own screen time. Some of the stories are your standard adventuring fare but a few trend into other tropes heading into satire and folktales or comedy and horror. For me only two of the stories from the other contributors fell a bit flat and that sadly I would attribute to the stylized lettering that made reading just a bit of a chore.

A cursory flip through the collection of stories might give you an indication of what your getting but it would not do the depth of some of the storytelling Justice. “Hunters” showcases some pretty skilled visual storytellers. The art ranges across a spectrum on influences from underground comics, Japanese manga and cartoons to the world video games as do the stories they tell. All the various artists skills may not appeal to everyone but it does have a little bit for just about every taste. My interest was spurred by the Valderrama brothers and Irene Koh but I discovered some amazing new names I would not have known and will want to see more of in the future. Even with all the variety of style everyone followed Afu Chan’s distinctive designs. Wether the artist was working more traditionally, or digitally, if coming from a manga influence, a western fantasy comics, underground comics or euro-comics style they kept to the look set by Afu.

Contents
The Journey by Josh Tierney Miguel Valderrama
Vulture by Paul Maybury
Whisper in the West by Niami
Full of Wind by Josh Tierney Jared Morgan
A Gargantuan Experience by Carlos & Miguel Valderrama
The Hoarded by Meg Gandy
Beasts and Demons by Devin Kraft
The Return by Josh Tierney, Miguel Valderrama
In Bright Darkness by Carlos Carrasco, Vlad Gusev
The Eleventh Trial of Eulalies by Kyla Vanderklugt
Really Hits you Hard by Ramón Sierra (colors Ian Bourgault)
Ghosts Irene Koh
Blood and Thunder by Benjamin Mara, Alexis Zeritt
Kloe by Josh Tierney, Travel Foreman
The Confrontation by Josh Tierney, Miguel Valderrama

I honestly couldn't even get halfway through this - the changes in artists and jumps in storyline made it very difficult to follow, enough so that I decided not to continue to try.

I do think the storyline of this had great potential, but unfortunately, this style wasn't for me.

The premise of the story was interesting enough. A king sent all the best warriors from his kingdom to get him the dust of a dead god to save his life and to prolong it. The execution of the story was uneven. Some of the individual stories and artwork did not work for me, even as others did. There was some character growth. There were a few surprises. On the whole the book was not bad. Overall, though, I don't plan to reread it and would not be inclined to read a sequel.

A team is sent to an island to find magic to save the life of the king. This is a great deal of adventure. I like the changes in the art style it gives the stories a distinct feeling.

'Hunters' with main story and art by Josh Tierney and Miguel Valderrama is a unique idea for an anthology story. Some of the art quality just doesn't hold up with the rest.

A dying king sends a group of adventurers to a mysterious island to look for a cure. They find clues for how to proceed and split up in to groups to search. As each group goes their way, a different art team tells their story. The styles vary quite a bit, and characters perish along the way. The group comes back together a couple times, and the mystery of the island has a final resolution, but not before showing us some pretty weird traps and monsters that the island has in store.

I like the idea, and I liked most of the artwork. I wish there had been a brief foreword to explain the concept. The radical change in styles was initially confusing, but I ultimately liked this odd tale.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Lion Forge, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

This novel has a primary story and a number of side stories, each told and illustrated in a different style and intended to add to the overall richness of the tale. I found the approach to be somewhat disruptive to the train of thought. I liked some of the side stories and illustrations quite well, but found myself skimming through the ones where I didn't care for the illustration style. Unfortunately, although I liked quite a few parts and side stories, I didn't like the overall product. 3 stars only because parts of it were quite good.

I honestly just couldn't get into this - I found the art style and lettering to be extremely jarring and not aesthetically pleasing. It was a bit a struggle to get through and in the end it just wasn't something I enjoyed.

This was a fun graphic novel, full of great characterization and adventure. I'll definitely recommend this to my patrons.