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Legends From Darkwood is a strange, strange American "manga". I picked up the first issue this past month, in need of some decent review fodder. Weeks later, I'm still not sure whether or not I like the comic. I believe it will take a couple more issues to decide if it's a good sort of wacky, or just wacked.
I'm not quite sure what the story is going to be yet, but in the first issue, young Rose Moore learns the sad facts of how her city does well- they kill unicorns. That's right. The ivory in Rose's toothbrush, the fur in her beloved stuffed animals, and the meat in Unicorn Surprise, all come from unicorns! Even worse, Rose is destined to become the next great Unicorn Hunter.
There's a definite dark humor here that appeals to me. However, the story is a bit flawed. Are we honestly supposed to believe that Rose is so naive that she never figured out what was in Unicorn Surprise? She thought that it was normal to play "Pin the arrow on the unicorn"? That takes dumb blonde to new levels.
Another gripe with the comic is that John Kantz's art style is just plain weird. Not quite your usual manga, not quite "normal" either. There's something about his entire style that slightly bothers me, and I can't quite put my finger on it, but it permeates the whole. It's not just the people, or just the backgrounds, it's all slightly off, and I don't know how well it fits the story.
Legends isn't quite as good as it could be, but it does show some promise. If you like fantasy-themed manga or comics that are slightly twisted, you may want to give it a try.
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