Robin Hood, The Legend of Sherwood Volume 1 is a comic written by Jeff Douglas Messer and Robert Akers with art and letter by Chris Geary and colors by Gereth Oddie. Robin of Locksley returns home from the crusade to discover that his former home is being torn apart. This is a retelling of Robin Hood that focuses on the characters and the way they deal with these dire circumstances. The main character for this tale is Robin of Locksley, he was an archer in the crusades and fought alongside King Richard. After a tragic event he heads back to England and discovers that things have changed. Some of the classic characters that make an appearance here are Will and Guy of Gisbourne. This story begins somewhere outside of Jerusalem where Robin is attempting to prevent further casualties by taking out some enemy archers. His plans come undone when he is noticed and the situation becomes something of a skirmish. This takes place in 1192 and looks to be relatively accurate to the period. The main theme here is loss and suffering as the peasants are going through a lot. The action here features a very small amount of blood with some rough shots but nothing gory. The pacing is slightly slower than normal with a tone that gets frequently heavy. There are many intense moments throughout. The dialogue has the Old English tone with some big words and is almost entirely conversational. There aren’t any word-heavy pages here. This is a comic that sets the scene by showing us how these changing and dangerous situations affect the people; Robin’s arrival provides them with a glimmer of hope, and gives us a cliffhanger.

            The art here is drawn in roughish but detailed style and it looks like something you’d see in illustrated history books. There are a lot of browns and greens with the overall color palette matching the tone of the story. For scenery we have the Sherwood Forest which we’ll see from many different angles. There are open spaces, thick woods, and plenty of places to hide. The starting location is a battlefield in the Middle East but the majority of the areas we’ll visit are in England from the throne room to city streets to the forest. The backgrounds vary greatly from part of the scene to a color gradient to being whited out. The expression level here is low as these characters basically maintain the same look for the whole comic. Sometimes they yell in fear or anger and they might flash a smile but these displays of emotion are very rare. The faces are decently drawn with enough details for the looks to come across clearly, there just aren’t many looks. The violence here involves either a bow or a sword and there is almost no blood. The action scenes have a decent chance of confusing you on occasion and they feature a lot of panels.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this ticks your boxes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like historical fiction stories that involve legendary folk heroes and features violence with drama then this is for you.

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

PG-13. Violence, death.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“He has a sharp tongue, I say we cut it out.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffdouglasmesser/robin-hood-the-legend-of-sherwood-graphic-novel-1/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 48

Violent Pages: 12, for 25% 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 – 3

“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 – 2

“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 – 3

“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.”