Knights of the Golden Sun #1

Writer: Mark London

Artist: Mauricio Villarreal

New comics can be a lot of fun.  There are characters we love, but the price of starting their books is starting on comic #273.  Unless you are extremely familiar already with the character, you are missing a ton of backstory.  New comics let you start on the ground floor and not miss anything.

The downside being, you may not get what you are looking for or something you like.  The art presents itself, making that an easy choice, but the story and character development can sometimes take a few issues to keep going. Madcave Studios is releasing a new title you might want to check out.  Knights of the Golden Sun #1. 

 Whats It All About

Knights of the Golden Sun is a series scheduled for at least 7 issues, taking place during semi-biblical times.  I say semi-biblical because it uses biblical names, stories and, settings, but takes liberties in places to suit the story being told.  A small example would be that the Arch-Angel Gabriel is now Gabriel, a female.

The setting is roughly 330 BC for the most part, but the time jumps around through biblical stories at times.  For those that know biblical times, this time period going forward is considered a time where God goes quiet for the most part until the birth of Jesus.  He has some prophets, but the Jewish people no longer see the miracles they were used to seeing.  The premise for this title is that God is absent from everywhere.  He cannot be found in Heaven or on Earth.  The archangels are scrambling to figure out what to do.  While they figure that out, The Fallen mobilize their evils to capitalize on God’s absence.

While nice to see Christian comics being produced, if you aren’t into Christian stories, do not let that stop you.  This reads like a very well done fantasy comic that just happens to be based on angels and demons.

The People Behind The Comic

Writer Mark London does a great job with this first issue of setting up the world and what’s going on while making the characters interesting and intriguing.  He does a great job of staying true to biblical beliefs and stories yet avoiding being heavy handed with any type of Christian messages.

Artistically, I absolutely love the style Mauricio Villarreal uses in this series.  It is very similar to my favorite styles of the 90’s that were popular from Top Cow and Image at the time.  The coloring and shading are very rich.  The detail is deep.  The images have a mildly graphic nature.  Limbs fly and blood sprays, but to no extreme.  The images do what they have to do, no more.  Visually this is a stunning comic.

I would highly suggest thumbing through this issue and checking it out.  You may need to talk with your comic store owner to order it.  I am really looking forward to what this series will bring.

Madcave Studios

Madcave Studios is a newer independent comic company, only 4 years old, with some promising titles under his belt.  Their titles are diverse and each has a very unique feel to them.  The other good thing about such a young studio is that it is easy to collect back to the #1 issues if you like a title.