ChiSai
Created and written by: Bart A. Thompson
Art by: Steve Fox
Lineage
Created by: Jay Jacobs and Chris A. Tsuda
Art by: Chris Tsuda
Nelson and Ivory's Adventures of The Molly Be Damned
A Tale of Seafaring, Swordplay and Sorcery
Created and Written By: Richard Nelson
Art by: Eli Ivory and Brain Lamframbiose
Discount Stories
Created and Written by John P. Ward
Art by Steve Doty
Frail
Created and written by Chris O'Bryant
Art by James Sandman and Brian Laframbiose
Myriad is, as the name so aptly describes it, a collection of varied short stories. Most of the stories are intended to be continued in the next book, but not all of the stories feel like they have closure to them. Even when telling a story in serial each piece should have an ending to it.
First in the series is Chi Sai. It looks like it might have the potential to be interesting; however, it is the primary story that leaves me just scratching my head. To begin with, there's this chick in armor, who looks like she should kick butt and take names. The thing is, when they get to the fight with her, she looks to be getting her butt kicked. It ends with her taking a bullet to the helmet or right about to. Now while this might, perhaps, be realistic, if you're going to make a big swanky looking character, who you know from the first two pages is going to kick the bad guy's booties, at least make there be more drama in the conflict of her apparent loss than just her getting the crud beat out of her. Though the art in this first story is just amazing looking. I was quite impressed with the shading. It looks like it might have been done all in different weight pencils rather than pencil and ink. From the looks of it, some of the background shading was done on the computer.
Lineage, the second story in the book is masterfully done. The characters, plot and conflict are all presented in a way that's easy to pick up on and clear to understand. The ending is a cliffhanger, but it leaves you wanting more. A city of over twenty-two million disappears and the reason why will rattle Earth as it is in it's futuristic incarnation. The art is well done. The anatomy is a little wonky at times but it's mostly forgivable.
Adventures of the Molly Be Damned is an interesting story, but I'm highly curious how the cursed sailing ship and the betrothed princess, her lover and the jealous baron she's promised to, all coincide. It's a nice set up, but I'm completely baffled as to how it all goes together. The art here is very cute and kind of cartoony.
Discount Stories has got to be my favorite story in the entire book. It's about an elderly man who's a greeter at a Wal-mart like store. If you've ever worked in retail you know how hard it is to be perky and do customer service. Now, imagine you are a curmudgeonly elderly man, and your job is to smile and greet people that you have nothing but contempt for. What would make you be able to go in and do that job? It's really a beautifully written story that was easy for me to connect with. The art could use some polishing. Most of the women look the same, and anyone smiling with teeth looks kind of creepy. However, that can almost be overlooked for how good the story is.
Frail is also a very compelling story. It's basically a man and a woman on a date talking about themselves and their lives. It's just everyday stuff. Until the very end when something completely unexpected happens. My only complaint was that the "to be continued" tag was very small and I completely missed it the first time through, which left me wondering if the story had any point whatsoever. But with the "to be continued," it makes for a good hook to make you want to read more. The art is well done and beautifully inked.
The impressive thing about this anthology book is that none of the stories and none of the art are similar. It's all varied and there's probably something for everyone in it. You can go check it out at http://www.approbationcomics.com/
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