The Crude Knight: Collected Edition is a five-part limited series written by Ryan Little with art by Yusuf Idris. Now I tend to give reviews that give light info so as not to spoil the story, but because this is five issues in one spoilers for the first couple installments may appear. The star of this thick tale is a man named Jonathan Moore, the son of an oil baron who can’t seem to commit to anything. He has a friend coworker named Maria who he’s known form childhood and she’s the head of security for the oil field. The oil baron father does play a prominent role here. Now here’s the basis for the story: This oil field is built on Avalon, which is pretty much Camelot, and basically folk from Arthurian legends are taking over bodies and throwing hands because this land belongs to them. Is there action? Yes. So much action. Gunfights, sword fights, random object attacks, fires; this comic has small lulls here there but for the most part once it starts it keeps going. The dialogue goes from modern to American English to something you’d see on Masterpiece PBS but it’s all easy to read. There are a few wordy pages to start but it’s pretty much smooth sailing from there. This comic mixes medieval lore with modern architecture and the result is something you can sink your teeth into.

            This is some very detailed art with special emphasis shown to the faces, outfits, and the oil. About 80% of this story takes place on the oil fields, and they are mostly flatlands with scattered oil drills. I normally talk about expressions first but I have to discuss the faces. The faces here are highly-detailed; you can see the wrinkles, the spaces between smudges of oil and dirt, and small cuts. With the amount of care shown towards the faces the expressions are very easy to read and we can peep between the lines to get more info. The outfits for the most part are modern but we do get some medieval armor made from modern materials. Same goes for the weapons, we have the guns and swords but they aren’t all fashioned the classical way. Oil is a big part of this story and you can feel it every time in appears on the page. You can just imagine how much it’d ruin your day if it splashed on you. The fight scenes vary in style from one-on-ones to army vs. army but the flow very well and are hard-hitting.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like myths brought into modern times and comics chock full of battles this is for you. Also for fans of stories with leads who are asked to provide much more than they think they can offer.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“It’s good to be back in Avalon’s warm grasp.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/monsteroftheweek1/the-crude-knight-collected-edition/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 119

Violent Pages: 37, for 31% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 4

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 4

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 4

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”