Scorch #1 is the first issue of a new series from Glenn Designs, and it is a romantic comedy about a dragon who is in love with a human girl. He has dreams about her, but he was faced with a dilemma. He needed to make the girl fall in love with him without scaring her off forever. Can he really make the girl fall in love with her or is it just a dream?
The first part of this issue "The Curse of Gandorf" is the main story featuring a girl called Rowena and a dragon who is in love with her. One day, the dragon has a dream that he fell in love with a human girl, but to his surprise, she was horrified at the sight of his true self. My first impression is that it's a charming tale, full of humour tale about a dragon's love for a girl. The reason for the title becomes clear later on in the story. The art is beautifully cross-hatched, and full of painstaking detail. By painstaking, I mean the artist must have spent a long time drawing the lines and scales on the dragons and in the background. It really suits the story, and the setting seems to be in a medieval viking time, where society is fairly primitive. There's an unexpected surprise in store for the dragon, and his dream may yet be realised. The ending of this first story seems open-ended, as if there is meant to be much more, hopefully continued on in the next issue.
The artwork is considerably more cartoony in the next tale "The Wish Ring", and its meant to be much more comical. The story was just one page, but it's a hilarious joke arranged into six panels, with the punch-line at the very end.
A different artist Jennifer Aponte did "The Battle Untold" story, so the artwork is much more realistic this time. The setting appears to be the same as the previous two stories. There's a lot of heavy black and white inking here but there's also a fair bit of gray shading too. The ending of this tale was far more dramatic than I expected given the earlier stories had more of an all-ages feel to it.
This first issue comes with a couple of colour pin-ups. So far, I enjoyed this issue although it felt much more like an anthology to me than a single issue. I wasn't too clear on why the last two stories were included, although they are great reading. I'm hoping to see more of the story of the dragon, which I found very charming and romantic. The artwork really impressed me, and the story, even though it was simple, had an appeal to it that I think young readers would enjoy, and adult readers would appreciate the humour. More information about this title can be found at http://www.glenndesigns.com |
