Review of "Legends of the Dark Crystal: The Garthim Wars"

It's time for yet another review. This time around, it's the first volume of "Legends of the Dark Crystal: The Garthim Wars." This planned trilogy is a prequel to the Henson fantasy movie, "The Dark Crystal." If anyone hasn't seen this film, do yourself a favor and go grab a copy. It's a fun little fantasy flick full of Henson's excellent puppets at work. It focuses on two Gelflings (small humanoid creatures) who are out to fulfill a prophecy about restoring the magical Dark Crystal to it's original form, thus healing the scarred land. The land is ruled over by the cruel Skeksis, strange birdlike beings, who enforce their rule with giant beetle like monsters called Garthim. If you want to know what happens next, go watch the movie!

Just for some perspective, you all should know I first saw Dark Crystal when I was five. It wasn't a choice. My dad forced me to sit through it. And I was terrified. The different characters were so real, they scared me. And so for over ten years, I lived in fear of this movie. Until finally, about a year ago, I decided to give it one...more...chance. That's when love struck. This creative world that once frightened me now fascinated me. It was all just so amazing! So when I heard about this book, I knew I had to read it.

Set long before the events of the movie, this story focuses on a young Gelfling shepherd named Lahr. After seeing his village destroyed by the Garthim, he inadvertently kills a Garthim. Traveling along, he meets up with a female Gelfling named Neffi, whose village was also destroyed by the Garthim. The two friends set out on a journey to save other villages from the Garthim. To teach Gelflings how to fight back.

I fell in love once more while reading this book. Barbara Kesel does a superb job at capturing the essence of the Dark Crystal world. Her Gelflings are dead-on amazing and she even manages to make the Skeksis just as creepy as they were in the film. Kesel's story & plot is great. Seeing how these peaceful Gelflings are forced into battle is an experience. She throws us into the middle of their feelings as they tear down their peaceful existence to create weapons of war.

The art was beautiful. Heidi Arnhold & Max Kim outdid themselves with every page. Every detail of every race is perfectly drawn. The characters leap off of every page, engaging you and making you believe that this is really happening.

The only downfall to the book is that while there is a conclusion, it still gives the reader a giant "To be continued..." moment with the introduction of a freaky Robo-Skeksis and the promise of a Gelfling jail break. And seeing how it will probably take a year for the next book to come out, I am saddened. I can't wait that long without giving some grief to TokyoPop.

Yet overall, this is a superb book deserving a spot on any fantasy fan's bookshelf.

Final score = 9.5/10

Demon Hunter

So I just got Demon Hunter's new CD today. Finally! I was supposed to get it last week, but didn't. Now, after not too long of a wait, I've decided that "Storm the Gates of Hell" is one of the GREATEST albums I have ever heard. I have just fallen in love with it. Every single song makes me jump with glee. Seriously, I can't get enough of this album. Listening to it once is just not enough.

I was also lucky enough to get the Deluxe Edition of the CD, of which I discovered have ALL sold out. Way to dodge a bullet, huh? Included inside the amazing case was a DVD and an extra-sized lyric booklet with band commentary. The DVD has a music video for their song "Fading Away." The video only adds to the awesomeness of the song. I can't get over how much I love this album.
What a great CD. I HIGHLY recommend picking this up.

Review of "Return to Labyrinth" Volumes 1 & 2

"Return to Labyrinth" is the sequel manga series to the 1986 fantasy film directed by the late, great Jim Henson and starring a young, but still talented Jennifer Connelly and the amazing David Bowie. So far, two volumes have been released with two more on the way.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Labyrinth story (How dare you! Go out and watch it!), it focuses on Sarah Williams (Connelly), a teenage girl burdened by her "wicked stepmother" to watch over her baby brother, Toby. One day, she wishes that Toby would just disappear forever. To her horror, she finds that Jareth the Goblin King (Bowie) wants to make Sarah's wishes come true. He kidnaps Toby and takes him to his magical kingdom, the massive maze called the Labyrinth. Sarah then embarks on a journey to rescue Toby, meeting new friends along the way and discovering her true strength.

"Return to Labyrinth" takes place far after the events of the film, starring a 15 year old Toby Williams. He's just like any other kid, trying to get through high school. Yet all of his life, he has somehow been given anything he wished for. This is due to Jareth, who has been secretly watching Toby all of his life, granting his wishes. Jareth wants to make Toby his heir to the throne. After a series of mysterious events, Toby finds that he has traveled to the world of Labyrinth. And thus begins the adventures of this series, with Toby meeting new friends, encountering some friends of Sarah's, and struggling with the throne of Labyrinth.

Now I am not normally a manga reader. But I made an exception for these Henson books. I really had no idea what to expect when opening these pages. Would I get a rehash of the movie, with virtually nothing new to this magical land? Or would I find a world completely unrecognizable to me, bearing nothing linking it to the world I once knew? I am very proud to report that these books are excellent sequels, paying respect to Jim Henson's creation while blazing new ground.

The first volume is definitely the strongest of the two. It captures the essence of Labyrinth while nicely mirroring Sarah's original quest with Toby. Toby is portrayed perfectly, a guy who is just trying to wrap his mind around this strange world. Jareth, while missing that Bowie charm, still shines as a dark, yet charming, goblin. We meet some fun new characters (Hana, Stank, Moppet) that fit in perfectly with Labyrinth. And we old fans are treated to some cameos to characters past (Hoggle, Ludo, Sir Didymus) that advance them even further. There are some great moments that just make you crack a smile. In particular,the reveal of Hoggle as the ruler of the Bog of Eternal Stench was hilarious, but made me sad to see how much he hates it.

The second volume, while still good, just doesn't maintain the speed of the first. It slows down a lot, not covering nearly as much ground as before. Jareth and some of the other creatures then lose their imposing nature for no good reason. They just switch out of character and lose the awesomely creepy letters used in their word bubbles. It's minor, but enough to bug me. Also, there's several plot points that aren't explained. The reader is expected to just accept Jareth's past relationship with Queen Mizumi. But we don't know enough about it yet. The reveal of one the new characters, Moppet, is just too weird and doesn't really make sense. I know it will probably be explained later, but it's just so freaky and seemingly impossible that it bothers me.

The art for both volumes is great. Done by Chris Lei, it's not dark enough to make the books creepy, but stays away from being too comical. There are occasional times where the characters look a little too goofy, but I guess that's what to expect from manga. It was a little hard to tell Toby apart from Jareth in the second volume (another minor complaint for that volume) but the writing quickly told me who was who. Overall, I was very impressed with Lei's art.

Jake Forbes has crafted a superb story. He gets the voices of each & every character perfectly. He has rooted himself in this world, touching on already done concepts while exploring more of the world around him, introducing new but fitting aspects.

While disappointed with Volume 2, I still enjoyed both books in the long run. They're excellent stories that I look forward to reading more of. Whenever the next books are released...

Final Scores =
"Return to Labyrinth" Volume One: 9/10
"Return to Labyrinth" Volume Two: 8/10

The Beginning

Hey there. This is my blog. Pretty fancy, huh?

I'll be posting various things on here. My thoughts of misc. topics, reviews of movies, comics, books, etc.

I hope to keep this as updated as possible. See ya later.