** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley

~

These Savage Shores (These Savage Shores, 1-5)
by Ram V., Sumit Kumar
★★★★★
176 Pages
Content Warning: mild violence, vampirism



These Savage Shores is an exploration of the East India Trading Company, with a blend of vampires and demons to add a spark of historical paranormal influence. While exploring Indian culture, it also explores good v evil, following your instincts, and doing what it best for the greater good. Challenging the concept of good and evil, it asks if sometimes the best way to accomplish a bigger-picture victory is to actually do the wrong thing for the right reasons.

I loved the art. It was stunning, yet fitting perfectly into the historical/gritty storyline. It was detailed and intricate, giving a beautiful elegance to the Indian culture explored on page, and the Raaksha's who were one of the central characters.

While I started off thinking I would rate this 4* – due to the confusion of main characters, as I thought the vampire Alain would be the main character, as he got the most pages in the introduction to the story – by the time I'd finished, I actually enjoyed the overall story much more. I think the whole thing came together in the last half of the book, blending all the POV's so that it made sense why it happened the way it did, exploring multi-POV's for a while.

The story was like an old fairytale that holds life lessons, full of warnings and cautionary tales. The way vampires took the role of an evil villain, while the East India Co also held a position of oppressor, villain and (at one point) a necessary evil. The way the three aspects were combined together – vampires, Indian folklore, and East India Co – made for a really intriguing story that told the history of India/EIC's past while adding a paranormal spin on it.

I really loved how it was paced, the dialogue was never unnecessary or hard to read, and I loved the inventive and novel choices made with formatting. I'm an avid reader of all kinds of comics/manga/yaoi, so whether it was intentional or not, I noticed a few nods to those styles.
Rather than trying to explain, here are some non-spoiler panels to show it. (I put them into one image to save space)
<img src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bd/4c/09/bd4c09e859e8ef8918420a9efa408cf6.png" width="440" height="200" alt="description"/>
I felt these gave a whole-picture concept that looked amazing, adding a huge visual impact to those pages. Often combining colour palette, character movements, and limited dialogue to present an entire page statement. The styles were used sparingly, and I think that gave them more impact, when they did come along. I also liked the use of letters/reports, to give a lot more information without compromising on space or making the story drag out.

Overall, it was a great read with incredible art. The story was well paced, written and styled, and I loved the sad ending and uncertainty of the future. I see it's listed as Volume 1, and episodes 1-5. I wouldn't be surprised if there was more to come. While this story ended with a complete storyline, I would read more by this artist/author pairing and more of these characters or in this world.

(4,7 of 5 for a refreshingly excellent comics story about monsters and humanity)
I tried to pinpoint the main trope, sum the story but it seems to be rather difficult. Maybe it's an absence of the main trope, the story is composite of few lines - the immortals - England's vampires, hunting and being hunted, Indian demon questioning the farce of his humanity on account of his immortality, the ruthless colonization effort of England in India and the power struggle between Indian royalty.
Huh, it seems a lot for five-issue comics? But I must admit it is perfectly executed, everything has its weight, space and time. I'm very pleased how Ram V and Sumit Kumar executed the things. The art is very nice, consistent, nicely drawn and coloured, well-composed. The comics can be done dynamically (more often with manga) or narrative and These Savage Shores are a great example of the latter. Author and artist excel in "sequential art", I love how they work with panels and scenes, both telling the story and creating surrounding and atmosphere. I love it. Just that kept me reading, kept me interested, submerged into the world and events of the story, whatever the story is.
I could go on what I liked, dissect every detail or some of the pages, but it's not necessary to be that wordy. The main thing is this is excellent comics craftsmanship. I enjoyed the story, how executed and balanced it is. I enjoyed the art, how good it looks and how good scenes and panels are, well arranged and perfectly working for the story behind them.
This was a perfectly splendid reading experience.

This was an interesting read. Anything with vampires or werewolves I'm here for. I was 100% connected to the story, but I enjoyed the graphics.

Visually stunning and impressive storytelling. Vampires and monsters with a backdrop of colonial England.

DNF

The story in this one is actually not bad at all, buy unfortunately the file itself wasn't readable, and therefore I am forced to dnf this title, when I really didn't want to. But, as for the plot line and story, this is a wonderful story.

The framing of <em>These Savage Shores</em> in its marketing materials is interesting; it tries to portray the vampire sailing to India as the protagonist, a colonising force that thinks he's an untouchable predator. Spoilers: the point of view vampire dies in the first chapter, because <em>These Savage Shores</em> is an anti-colonial historical fantasy, where a prince and his supernatural guardian take on the literally vampiric East India Company.

The art reminds me of the art style was popular for graphic novel adaptations of classic literature when I was a kid, only with a much more vibrant colour palette and a dynamic sense of motion. (I couldn't tell you which graphic novel of Dracula it reminds me of, but the font and the particularly jowly faces on the white dudes are really familiar!) The monsters are properly monstrous, and the action scenes are generally easy to follow. People's facial expressions don't always match up with the scene they're in, and I find it weird that a vampire POC has the same skin tone as the white vampires, but on the whole, I like it!

As for the story: it is not happy. There are betrayals and vengeance and people failing as protectors, and funnily enough colonialism isn't completely overthrown on page. But honestly things ended more happily than I expected, for all the tragedy and monsters going on; Kori is a dancer, and I knew her fate was inevitable from the moment she was introduced – but she doesn't end up completely fridged. I know that's a low bar, but my expectations were <em>low</em>. Having her be the narrative's recurring beat – the repetition of "How were you made?" with its different answers, and the way the final answer is turned inside out – works really well. I would have liked more time with the prince and Bishan and Kori, rather than the introduction of new narrators, and I had trouble following some of the battle scenes, but for the most part I enjoyed it. I'd get it out of the library rather than buying it, for myself, but it's pretty solid!

[Caution warnings: gore, colonialism, racism, off-screen suicide] [This review is based on an ARC from Netgalley]

Take some beautiful artwork, mix in Indian mythology with a dash of British vampire, throw it into a pot with colonialism, and you get a fabulous graphic novel, with well developed characters, world, and story. Read it!

#TheseSavageShoresTPBVol1 #NetGalley

Absolutely stunning. Ram V's story execution, Sumit Kumar's gorgeous art, all of it is brilliant. This is the best thing I've read in awhile. Set in 1760's India where the English are trying to invade, a vampire is exiled from London to India where he comes across an Indian demon, a Rakshasa. The story spirals out from there. It's beautifully narrated through letters with perfectly paced art. Kumar's art looks like an old Rudyard Kipling illustrated novel. I can't say enough good things about it. Not only is it stunning, but his sequential art panel execution is perfect. I won't say anything else but go out and buy this. You won't regret it.

An East India Trading Company employee goes missing in the Malabar woods, a lovely but sad women tells children tales of a dark one, and tribes fight against new trade routes in this all to short graphic novel.

An eerie and enchanting, fabulous new fable for the origin of vampires.The illustrations are beautiful and haunting! Fans of The New Deadwardians by Dan Abnett will enjoy the start of what I hope is a long series.

I was fortunate to receive a free ARC of this book from Netgalley. The above thoughts, insights, or recommendations are my own meek musings.

These Savage Shores has absolutely breath taking art and amazing character design. The world and scenery of the this comic was a masterpiece and a character in its own right.
However I can't say I enjoyed this comic much. While the experience while reading it was pleasant. I loved the art and the simplistic panel structure and the way it would sometimes resemble frames of an animation. My main issue is that the story itself was a bit lackluster for me. There is a lot going on and they don't seem to meld together that well. There are vampires, raksha, colonialism, wars, politics, revenge, history, mythology but somehow it seems very superficial. The concept is great but it felt like a series of events and then it was over.

The end was not satisfying and I was left wondering what was the point? The story and the characters never pulled any emotions from me and I was mostly confused by what was going on. (Like I understood what was happening but it all seemed meandering)

I don't know. I loved the art but the story was only ok

Received an arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this title!

Wow.
I was mesmorized by the story of Kori and Bishan. This story certainly fits into the gothic romance mold but does things very differently simply with its setting and background. Vampire stories are typically based upon western European folk stories, this one by using Indian lore and the encrouchement of the East India Company (and therefore, colonization) feels remarkably different. I was on the edge of my seat for the duration of the story, sometimes quite literally. The artwork here is gorgeous, the writing is simply poetic.

Fantastic work all-around - minor stipulation - definitely recommended for a high school or public library (due to a fair bit of bloodshed and dark themes around the nature of men)

10/10

Hmmm… When a vampire is exiled from European society and ends up in India, he thinks, despite the tropical sun, he will be a little more accepted. But he immediately finds there is worse than he in the jungle. Or is it at court? This was a distinctive, horror-inflected book, but I really couldn't latch on to what was needed from the Indian history, told as it is by multiple espistolary narrators, to follow proceedings properly. The way it tries to borrow Indian myth and give it monsters that we haven't come across seemed to be done very airy-fairily. If you have a decent knowledge of the background, and some character types that might be more recognisable, then I'd say go for it, but the casual browser might not get much out of it. I didn't.

I read all of the reviews that came before reading this story. For all of its talk, this series exceeds expectations. Colonialism is certainly a hot button topic for anyone who brings up the British Empire and its attitudes towards non-European lands. This series however introduces some nuance to those views.

Vampires of nearly all myths are lords who feed off people from the shadows not unlike tax collectors. Going to a foreign land that peers say is a dangerous place sounds great for a creature of the night. Unfortunately, there are always bigger and stronger predators than anyone expects. The fact that there are dangerous beings out there compels people to act on some sense of duty in order to survive. Unfortunately that duty often leaves people in states where they are worse off. For a Rakshasa like Bishan, that duty to rule from the shadows has left him nearly as hollow as the mask he wears. As for the vampire hunter who was looking for the vampire Bishan kills, his actions and beliefs come from his paranoid-filled duty. He's willing to kill a child in the remote chance that child is the vampire's slayer. But after seeing the state Bishan is in, the hunter begins to show more compassion to his captors. After all, despite acting like his prey initially, the hunter is a man driven by duty to help those victimized by vampires.

Duty is something that is both a burden and a means of grounding oneself in reality. The sultan is more than ready to defend his home and leave a foundation for his son. But in order to do so, he attempts to manipulate and betray those around him to prevent anything that would compromise his son's independence. While these decisions are not always for the best, it's more important to make choices and take responsibility for them rather than simply say you were in the right. If people just live through scapegoats or figureheads, that only means they are nothing but charlatans. While not everyone can what they want out of something, making the most out of it means quite a lot.

The dark creatures from the "civilized" world invade the realm of the more ancient demi-gods as The East India Company attempts to spread its power and influence.

This is really well done. Not the most original story but told in a more traditional folklore or fable style with artwork to match. At times the art brings to mind a more vivid version of old parchment scrolls handed down through generations, the story reminds one of elders gathered around a campfire sharing oral histories and grave warnings of the evils of outsiders.

I thoroughly enjoyed this.

***Thanks to NetGalley, Vault Comics, and Diamond Book Distributors for providing me with a free digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I used to love stories weaving vampires and monsters into history as hidden players, especially when they mixed mythologies, until the whole field got so oversubscribed that the thrill quite wore off. Just occasionally, though, someone does it well enough to remind me how powerful it can be. The central idea here is an obvious enough colonialism metaphor; European undead flitting in with the East India company, and the indigenous monsters not taking too kindly to that. But it's all in the execution, the grand, tragic execution, making positively Shakespearean use of the short-sighted internecine struggles of the local potentates and the insidious power-plays of the Company. And the art! Kumar and Astone have crafted something which feels closer kin to European than Anglophone comics. It's not quite Manara, or Pratt; maybe there are better comparisons if you know the field in a way I don't, but it has an echo of the distant, knowing expressions of their characters, the yearning encoded in their landscapes. Beautiful work.

(Netgalley ARC)

Another graphic novel incorporating vampires in actual historical events. The East India Company is trying to secure The Silk Road during the 1760's and 1770's. A beast from Britain hopes to escape his pursuer in India, a country filled with it's own wildness and other kinds of monsters.

Believable and Intriguing. The artwork is stunning. This is one of the most beautiful graphic novels I have picked up this year. The illustrations captures the turmoil of the land and overall anger of the setting the story takes place in.

Absolutely gorgeous artwork adds a lot of depth to this story that incorporates aspects of Indian mythology with Vampire lore against a background of the British colonization of the Indian subcontinent in the 1700's.
It's the story of an ancient immortal creature, the mortal woman he loves, the kingdom he has sworn to protect and his struggle to come to grips with his true nature: can you be both a monster and a good man, or is that asking the impossible?

'These Savage Shores Vol. 1' by Ram V with art by Sumit Kumar is a story of monsters in an India that is in conflict with Europe in the mid-1700s.

When an English vampire goes too far in England, he is sent to Calicut by ship. Once there, he meets his death at the hands of a creature that is sworn to protect his land. The conflict for this land shows that we are all capable of being monsters, but this particular tale takes on the shape of a tragedy in the poignant ending.

I didn't think we needed another vampire tale, but the setting and time period brings a real freshness to the story. The inherent tragedy of these sort of stories is ramped up nicely here. The art by Sumit Kumar is a standout.

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

"These Savage Shores TPB Vol. 1" is a fantastic collection of graphic novels. The art work is well done and the story is great too.

What a beautiful and hauntingly sad story! I don’t think I’ve ever read an Indian comic so when I saw this had an Indian author and illustrator I was intrigued. I wanted to see how the art style and storyline might be different than North American comics. I don’t know much about Indian history or Hindu mythology so a lot of this was completely new to me. It was appalling but interesting how the British East India Company manipulated the local leaders to fight against each other, leaving the way open for the British to develop trade routes and basically take control of the financial bounty of India. It sounds like this is a history lesson and I suppose in a way it is but it’s mostly a love story and a monster story.

I was not expecting to see vampires! The vampire is British and after getting caught feeding on a victim he has to leave London. He’s sent to India and initially loves the brutality and danger of the country thinking that he is the biggest bad, and then he runs into the local “monsters” and finds it’s a whole new world. I now know what a Rakshasa is and it’s terrifying, and in this case kind of sexy! I should mention that there is a gorgeous love story and it is heart rending. Even the secondary characters were so well developed that I became very invested in their plight. The art and colouring are spectacular. The colours are rich and saturated and the art style is scary and beautiful at the same time, much like the story.

This is the most interesting and unique comic I’ve read in a long time. If you like horror, romance, history, or just great art then check this one out.

Thank you to Diamond Book Distributors and Vault Comics for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.