Aguste de Riviere returned from the Crusades and vows to not do evil again. He followed a sorcerer into the forest and came out another time.

Let me first start by saying I really enjoyed this book. That being said I was so confused. When you begin the story you know about as much as Aguste de Riviere which is next to nothing. As Riviere learns more so do you and I absolutely loved how I felt once it all made sense. Even though I was just the reader, it felt like I was going through all of the frustration of not knowing as Riviere was. It was very well done, but you have to be ok with being in the dark for the first part of the book. As you jump through time it gets confusing. This is definitely one of those books that once you finish you want to reread to see what clues you missed.

The art is beautiful and the colors, wow! There is a double-page spread that shows different time frames and it is absolutely gorgeous. I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this book.

Creative Team:
Writer Cullen Bunn
Artist Fran Galan
Letterer Dave Sharpe
Published by Aftershock

Sheesh. I think this is about a battle between a Crusader and a wizard that gets played out time and time again throughout eternity, even present day New York. But if it wants to show an endless battle between good and evil it would do to actually have a beginning bigger and better than 'some people go into a wood'. It's impossible to invest in any character in this pell-mell rush, and the ugly visuals don't help either.

Solid time travel action story. Art not great, but it grows on you. Some of the story seems convoluted at first, but most mysteries get resolved. There is definitely a place for a sequel, which I would like to read.

'Knights Temporal, Vol. 1' by Cullen Bunn with art by Fran Galan is the story of a Templar knight caught in a time warp.

Disgraced knight Auguste de Riviere has returned from the Crusdades. He pursues a sorceror into the woods and gets lost in time. Forced to live through many eras and always in pursuit of the sorceror. He is accompanied by a woman named Jane Foole, but her purpose in this is murky, as are the rules of this odd world Auguste finds himself in.

I liked the idea behind this story, and I think it works pretty well. The resolution is about what I expected, but the ride was fun. Fran Galan's art is good. I like how he made Auguste's looks just a bit different in different era.

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

If you have ever heard that time is an illusion, this series will do that saying justice. The theory of consciousness is a tricky topic. Especially one that deals with what it can encompass. What you see, what you feel it could all be real or just what you perceive. When that turns out to be something that throws three characters throughout time in a game of cat an mouse what people go through cause two of them to question everything. Sure nobody gets any real explanation on why it happens. But consciousness isn't easy to nail down so whatever explanation that might've come up might just be unsatisfying. If there is something to take away from this, it's make choices that you can be proud of, even if they're repetitions.

Sure the full potential isn't realized. Like how does balance factor across different time eras? Or how did Jane get fond of August; there's nothing to say that happens. I guess it gets harder to fit so much in just a few issues. You win some you lose some.

You can see why the block time hypothesis might have a particular appeal to comics writers; they set down a script, which like our lives appears to move in linear fashion, but once it comes back from the artist, there's a cabinet of moments you can flick between, each panel making sense in itself, able to be shuffled or reversed. Or at least, that's how it worked for Alan Moore when he was collaborating with the likes of Mike White on The Reversible Man, or Dave Gibbons on Watchmen, clear and fluent storytellers.

Cullen Bunn, on the other hand, is here working with Fran Galán, whose crowded art suggests someone led astray by the mistaken belief that Sean Murphy's style is easy to emulate. Initially I also assumed the busy colouring - which if I'm honest I hadn't even thought was a thing until I read this - might be the sign of an unsympathetic collaborator, but no, turns out he did that too so has only himself to blame for the exhausting and confusing look of this. Though it is a comic where even the lettering sucks (the enigmatic exposition character has apparently random words of her dialogue done in wibbly purple, reflecting no plausible manner of spoken emphasis), so all told it's a bit of a perfect storm.

The story, such as it is, sees a crusader seeking redemption pursuing a sorcerer into a cursed wood, only to find himself fragmented and scattered across time - sort of City Of Death, but minus the laughs. Or the charm. Or the thrills. Bunn has written some very good comics, but this definitely isn't one of them.

(Netgalley ARC)

A knight seeking redemption chases a sorcerer into an evil forest and emerges in another time after time after time. Auguste de Riviere and his companion Jane Fool keep seeking the sorcerer Gaspard to end their quest. How that happens is the gist of this volume, but then a new quest is found.

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this volume.

Really weird, kinda confusing, but really fun at the same time. A solid melding of sci-fi and fantasy, and I look forward to more from this story.

<i>arc provided by the publisher and netgalley in exchange for an honest review</i>

This was just an okay graphic novel to me. It took me awhile to get into the writing and the art style, which I’m still not the biggest fan of. The plot was confusing and very very fast and I wish we would’ve had more time to develop the present characters and have more explanations of the different worlds and the gods and the magic system.

Overall, this was just an average read for me and I probably won’t be continuing with the series.

2/5 ⭐️

Wow! This was such a cool read. Even though the storyline was wild and sometimes difficult to follow, given the nature of the time-travel/multiple dimensions element of the plot, I enjoyed it immensely. It's a very high-concept sci fi comic series, and I definitely soars in the genre.

The artwork is really great, and I loved that each time period had a totally different vibe and color palette, but that all the time periods felt similar and connected.

August and Jane were really great, but I also adored Kerri and hope we see more of her in the future!

4/5 stars! Great comic bind-up for the first volume of this series. I look forward to subsequent issues and volumes.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an eArc of this collection in exchange for a fair review.