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7 Soldiers: Klarion, the Witch-Boy

 
  

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The Falcon
14:52 / 13.04.05
A muthafuckin preview.
 
 
Haus of Mystery
15:43 / 13.04.05
*SQUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAL*

That looks like the shit.
 
 
Aertho
16:41 / 13.04.05
So many ideas! So many! I'm drowning! Metagroovified Field Go!
 
 
---
17:33 / 13.04.05
Cool. Maybe I should start getting comics again, I haven't even got Vimanarama yet.

I hope, I really, really hope, that the Witch, doesn't end up being the traitor. That would just suxxor. (then again though, maybe I have a bias for witches, or it's because I thought Klarion was going to be my fave.)
 
 
Mario
18:48 / 13.04.05
First Annotation/Prediction.

I'm willing to bet that this village lies in or near Slaughter Swamp. The Grundy connection almost ensures it.
 
 
BGK
18:51 / 13.04.05
Folks were saying how they didn't like the artwork. But the previews, especially page 4, are looking good to me.
 
 
Billuccho!
20:40 / 13.04.05
Very pretty art work. Shades of "The Village," only less crappy.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
22:03 / 13.04.05
I am gay for Klarion.
 
 
FinderWolf
15:09 / 14.04.05
No one writes "AAAUUUUU" quite like Grant.



Looks great.
 
 
grant
20:05 / 14.04.05
That Slaughter Swamp makes me think all the locations might well overlap in some way... so I've started a Category:Seven Soldiers Locations on the wiki to try to map them.

Those hidden lines on the Guardian's subways have to lead to Castle Revolving, don't they? DON'T THEY??
 
 
Ganesh
20:17 / 14.04.05
I am gay for Klarion.

You're not gay for pay, then?

Klarion reminds me of a more sussed version of St Swithin's Day's Neurotic Boy Outsider...
 
 
The Falcon
12:23 / 15.04.05
Man, I watched The Village last night.

Do think it may have had some effect on this, but god. I should've known better. M. Shight Nyamalan.
 
 
The Natural Way
13:07 / 15.04.05
Isn't Klarion's home subterranean? Pretty sure I remember Grant saying it was. And I doanwanearno talk 'bout "But it's raining..."
 
 
The Natural Way
13:24 / 15.04.05
Yep, just checked - definitely right about that'n. If it is near Slaughter Swamp, then it's under it. I think, however, that there's some locational crossing over with Guardian, so I imagine it's nearer New York.

The subterranean thing also explains the insular, isolationist vibe. I mean, Puritans? In the present day?
 
 
Spaniel
13:31 / 15.04.05
Call me a cock, but I just assumed it was set in ye olde times.

I think Grant must've watched The Village.

Bad Grant.
 
 
Kirk Ultra
00:55 / 16.04.05
What makes people think this was influenced by The Village? I haven't seen a single similarity, aside from the similar clothing.

(p.s. i hated the village, i can't not say it)
 
 
Triplets
14:12 / 17.04.05
It's raining because the swamp water is seeping down into the hollow town.
 
 
Keith, like a scientist
15:24 / 17.04.05
now that's some motherfucking artwork.

so refreshing to see GOOD quirky artwork like this. quite looking forward to it.
 
 
Mario
20:49 / 20.04.05
Quick note:

Croatoan refers to the colony of Roanoke (recently seen in 1602), which disappeared sometime between 1587-1590. The only clue to their whereabouts was the word "Croatoan" carved on to a tree.

I'm guessing "Blue Rafters" refers to the open sky. I have found no other reference.

The Horigal & Draaga are both from Klarion's first appeaarance, DEMON #7, although I don't know whether they appeared as they do here.

Clearly, the folk of Klarion's village are witches. They hid over 400 years ago, and have stagnated ever since.
 
 
Aertho
21:46 / 20.04.05
Beautiful. Not as wildly impressed, but that's cause I'm used to the giddiness of 7S by now. One thing: The pacing seems more slow, more calculated. More New X-Menish in the dialogue. Wonderful set-up and rethinking of the "witch-boy".
 
 
Spaniel
13:49 / 21.04.05
What makes people think this was influenced by The Village? I haven't seen a single similarity, aside from the similar clothing.

Um, have you actually read it? I think the influence is pretty clear.
 
 
Eloi Tsabaoth
16:01 / 21.04.05
Really enjoyed this. Shades of Witchfinder General, His Dark Materials and Fungus the Bogeyman.
 
 
Haus of Mystery
16:33 / 21.04.05
Don't give a fuck about The village. Please no more time spent discussing that shit. Onwards!

This was great stuff. Some of the most original artwork I've seen in a DCU book, and a really nicely realised new world. Loved the beginning sequence - very Burtonesque, and Klarion seems a nice inheritor to the Marvelboy mold. So I'm guessing Teekl ha a few tricks up her...um paws. She took down a Sheeda quick smart. Also really liked all the Grundy's standing around their dead masters. That reaaly chilled me. Yet another different and original comic in the SS line up. Hats off to Morrison really.
 
 
Aertho
16:54 / 21.04.05
All the Grundy's standing around their dead masters.

Sí. Brilliance. But par for the course, really.

About the Sheeda and Teekl. Maybe animals can kill em cause they ARE just bugs?
 
 
Aertho
17:00 / 21.04.05
And wasn't Village about people who shunned the common world and so went BACKWARDS?

This is an actual separatist culture that's apparrently hundreds of years underground. Similar only in wardrobe - and even that's weak. The Witch-Folk have much more style.
 
 
Mario
17:01 / 21.04.05
I think Teekl could kill the Sheeda because cats are evil, self-centered bastards who aren't affected by illusions or mind games. :0
 
 
Mr Tricks
18:20 / 21.04.05
Interesting parrallel to New X meN's "the World" in that the rest of the universe is made of solid rock. Seems to connect to a "soft place" ala S7 #0, swamp thing and sandman. Appariently the subway tunnels will overlap, lead into that marketplace that's been mentioned.

I bet Guardian's gonna fight that Hunter/Monster on Witch-boy's last page. How many legs does it have? 6? 8?
 
 
Aertho
19:12 / 21.04.05
If all that overlapping is going to occur, why the hell is Shining Knight all the way in California?
 
 
Mario
21:07 / 21.04.05
To take a wild guess? Because Hollywood is also known as a Land of Dreams. Are there Sheeda under the Hollywood hills?
 
 
miss wonderstarr
22:06 / 21.04.05
I read this in about 10 minutes on the train and thought it was fun and eerie, and that Klarion was cutely Burtonesque. Then, having finished Klarion, I read Philip Roth's The Plot Against America for the next 10 minutes, and it just seemed so much more ambitious, substantial, solid and rich that I wondered why I even bothered reading comic books. This may sound facetious: I don't mean it as such. It seems a shame that the grandest project by one of our very best comic book authors seems so disposable and light as soon as you pick up a decent novel.
 
 
Eskay Doss
01:59 / 22.04.05
Dude. This was a superhero comic book. It's POP art, meant to be quickly consumed. Quit looking for meat and potatoes inside of a candybar and spare us your angst.

Klarion was great. I LOVED the art. Very fluid, detailed, and expressive. Although this would have been nice in black & white too, the colors are amazing and really add to the atmosphere. The dark and cold tones allow for some beautiful contrasts too: I've never been so in awe of a kit-kat wrapper before or considered it's potential for magick.

There is actually quite a lot to enjoy in this comic. A limbo town of outcast witches who have become as puritanical and consevative as their ancient persecutors, Zombies as a blue-collar slave-force, etc. Klarion offers a brilliant premise, a cool re-imagining of a long-forgotten character, fantastic visuals and some fun ideas wrapped around an entertaining story.
 
 
Alex's Grandma
02:33 / 22.04.05
I had a similar experience with Klarion, The Witch Boy, funnily enough. After putting it down, having finished it in five minutes, I reached for my copy of The Satyricon, which was okay, but which in the end seemed a bit nebulous compared to the stimultation on offer in the latest edition of Arena magazine, with which I eventually repaired to the train's facilities.
 
 
Mark Parsons
04:55 / 22.04.05
I was SO impresed by this, and I've loved every series thus far. My only worry is that GM will run out of steam. How can he make "The Bulleteer" as cool as Justin, Guardian, Zatana & Klarion? Yoiks! I do have faith that he can pull it all off. This metaseries blows away the Infinite Crisis material. Maybe DC has realized that there is room for two (or a multiplicity) of tones: dark and gritty (bastard stepchild of grim'n'gritty), and Post-Mod Silver Age madcap madness.

All this and Superman yet to come. It'll be interesting to see what comes next...
 
 
miss wonderstarr
07:33 / 22.04.05
What I wrote wasn't "angst". Klarion is angst, so if you don't like Germanic teen neurosis, I'm not sure how you enjoy this comic.

Dude. This was a superhero comic book. It's POP art, meant to be quickly consumed. Quit looking for meat and potatoes inside of a candybar

That's one argument, but it doesn't seem long ago that people were saying you could expect more from a comic book, even a superhero one -- that superhero comic books could give us meat, could be on the level of "literature". You're saying that because it's a superhero comic (which is open to debate anyway... the genre is more gothic horror) it's pointless to even compare it to a novel.

I know some people do feel that way, but it goes against the idea that comics could be a form of, I don't know, serious art. Am I so naive for thinking 10 mins of a Morrison comic might potentially measure up, in challenge, resonance and depth, to 10 mins of a Roth novel?


There is actually quite a lot to enjoy in this comic. A limbo town of outcast witches who have become as puritanical and consevative as their ancient persecutors, Zombies as a blue-collar slave-force, etc.


Ironic that to celebrate this comic, you do exactly what you laughed at me for -- you're trying to find "social allegory" in it. You are looking for meat in the candy bar, rather than saying hey it's just throwaway fun. The stuff you cite as "enjoyable" isn't pop bubblegum, but underlying class struggle.

Which is fine, and actually I think the comic deserves it: it does have ideas and substance, as well as great indie looks and colouring unlike anything in the DCU since Swamp Thing's "My Blue Heaven".

My channel-surfing from comic to novel threw up an interesting, and in a way disappointing contrast, that's all.
 
 
Haus of Mystery
10:01 / 22.04.05
Am I so naive for thinking 10 mins of a Morrison comic might potentially measure up, in challenge, resonance and depth, to 10 mins of a Roth novel?

Seems like a weird complaint though. You're comparing two different forms. Would it be OK to complain that you didn't get the same level of depth from watching 10 minutes of The Seventh Seal? A comic is a particular form and a good deal of the resonance and depth comes from the synthesis of art and script. I found Klarion to be a richly imagined thoroughly original vision. Morrison's carving out new spaces in the DCU, and offering an intriguing take on what can be done with a pulp form. What exactly is you're complaint against Klarion - that you liked you're book more?
 
  

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