Writer: Chuck Cox
Artist: Tera W.
Royal House Comics / Black Astronaut
ADVENTURE ABOUNDS in the premiere issue of BAND OF THE BLACK FIST, featuring elves and goblins, and a smattering of other talking creatures alongside a variety of human types in an “after the fall” world, where all dress in medieval attire, and clash and slash with swords, bows, and halberds, letting us see again what it looks like when someone tries to lift one of those ponderous weapons now stacked in museums. The prologue tells us this is the future after humanity has “faded” yet clearly resembles a mock-up gamesite playing out Lord of the whomever fantasies, rooted in the past.
Suspension of disbelief, however, doesn’t really matter in the concoction of how we got here. Fantasy rules.
Artwork by Tera W. picks you up right away. Several pages elapse before one notices it’s all in black and white. Lush shades and grades of black and gray fill the scenery, and pop to life an otherwise tired drama with exquisite detail. Engaging dialogue by writer Chuck Cox holds attention, and it all seems colored enough.
What’s left of the Band of the Black Fist appears to be three human types, apparently all black humans, one big bald guy, and two pint-sized girls, or maybe a girl and a woman, both cutish enough to play on one’s heartstrings. We get to see them in battle with bandits, and at leisure in a woodland tavern, just like a thousand video games, only here the dialogue is far better, the characters more enchanting, and despite the trite, with foreboding monsters challenging the frontier, quite worth the adventure.
[Editor’s note: this title is available on Amazon via the following link: https://www.amazon.com.au/Band-Black-Fist-Chuck-Cox-ebook/dp/B0CDYLQJ7X ]