Broken Frontier

Ardan is the sole surviving elf on all of Tyr, and this makes him the most wanted creature, sought after by friend and enemy alike. Good thing the lad’s a samurai!

Samurai Elf is a seven-volume series set in the fantastical world of Tyr, where a string of global wars have wracked the lands and sent civilization back into a simpler, feudal structure. Yet while war has ceased, peace does not reign; the whole of Tyr is now threatened by the slow expansion of The Horde – an army of hive-mind, cybernetic soldiers that are as terrifying as they are efficient. It seems there is only one thing that can possibly halt the Horde’s swathe across the continents: a teenage boy named Ardan Nassus – who just happens to be the last pureblood elf to have survived the global wars! Much like the beginning of Star Wars, Ardan loses his foster parents and is sent hurtling into an epic journey of discovery, danger, and decidedly eastern combat training in order to achieve his supposed destiny.

Illustrator/auteur Miguel Guerra along with his wife and co-conspirator Suzy Dias, has crafted a gorgeous, archetypically high-fantasy world, that’s as haunting and horrific as it is inviting and fanciful. The Horde – with their many permutations of Grunts, Hunters, Squadra, Commanders, and Gytrash – are a perfectly wicked evil empire, and flesh out a world otherwise filled with fallen civilizations, samurai dwarf sensei, Rastafarian bounty hunters, and (of course) a single, lone elf. The main character, Ardan, is properly young, oblivious, and temperamental, though poised and willing to become something far greater. This first graphic novel, Set Apart, tells the tale of his awakening, his training, and the beginning of his long, cumbersome journey.

The story is excellently paced, and moves from lighthearted to deadly severe with startling ease. Guerra has put together a fantasy world of equal parts mirth and blood-letting gore the likes of which I haven’t seen blended since Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards. When the action lets up, the book could possibly pass itself off as an all-ages read, but all thoughts of an eight-year-old getting their hands on Samurai Elf quickly go out the window when the blood and cursing and unexpected black humor come to the fore – which they do with relative frequency.

The art by Guerra is breathtakingly polished – smooth and clean and as perfectly rendered as an animated feature. His style reminded me a lot of Richard and Wendy Pini’s Elfquest, mixed with the detail-laden, tech-sensibilities of Rod Espinosa’s Neotopia or Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä. Simply put, Samurai Elf is a jaw-droppingly lavish looking book, with stunning vistas, kick-ass character designs, and perfectly rendered fight choreography (and for a book that is supposedly about a samurai – that last bit is extremely beneficial!). Guerra himself has been put through grueling martial arts training in his past, and he uses this knowledge to stunning effect in Samurai Elf, illustrating some believable and visually captivating fight sequences that set the book well apart from the pack of other martial-arts-fusion concepts littering the racks today.

Samurai Elf is a near perfect fantasy graphic novel, with all the trappings you’d expect (and want) to see, coupled with an equal number of mind-blowing original conceits. It has eye-popping art, an effortlessly enthralling story, and it all comes packaged in 180+ page installments. Comics – especially fantasy epics – do not get better than this. Everything you love about Star Wars, Final Fantasy video games, Elfquest, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is perfectly situated inside the pages of Samurai Elf. I cannot praise this book enough. It’s certainly the best fantasy graphic concept to come down the pike in years. So you’ve been warned. You have only yourself to blame if you miss this one!

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For more information on Samurai Elf and Iberian Press, visit www.iberianpress.com