Rogues’ Kingdom #1 is comic written by James Robinson with art by Jeff Johnson and colors by Brennan Wagner. A sell-sword and a thief travel as prisoners with a large caravan. This is a supernatural fantasy comic that has drama, violence, and an interesting cast of characters. The imprisoned duo consists of Rondo Manway and Peachy Least, Rondo the white-haired sell-sword is up there in years and has a notorious reputation whereas Peachy the redheaded thief is much younger and supposedly bad at his craft. The leading lady here is the Princess of Lumpland, Terra. She likes to go out and explore the city though her father King Reynald wishes she wouldn’t. This story begins with Rondo and Peachy arguing about how bad the other is at their job as they are both imprisoned. This argument irritates the carriage driver and another prisoner enough to tell the two to shut up, but Peachy asks what Lumpland is like so the driver begins to describe it. This takes place in a world with mages, centaurs, and four-armed beings. The violence here is brutal with light blood and gruesomenss. The pacing here is steady and there is a somewhat adventurous/fresh start tone here. There are violently intense moments but it is pretty calm otherwise. The dialogue here seems British-like in a bit of an older style with good back-and-forth. There aren’t any word-heavy pages though at least a couple get close. This is a debut issue that seems to focus on character introduction while still providing exciting violence and interesting lore. There is a bonus short story about a baker that is entitled “Arlo’s Downfall” that takes place in the same world; it is 5 pages long.

            The art here is drawn in a slightly smooth, modern style with good lighting and shading. The color palette changes depending on the focal character with a lot warm tones like yellow and brown outdoors and cooler ones like blue and gray within the city, especially in the palace. For scenery we have large mountain ranges, thick and scattered forests, and huge fields of flowers. The main location is the caravan, specifically the caged cart where the prisoners are held. There are also scenes in Lumpland from the middle of the city to the palace. The backgrounds always show the immediate and distant surroundings which can add a bit more weight to the different moments. The expression level here is around average as most characters don’t veer far from a hard look. The emotions on display here are annoyance, anger, happiness, irritation, tiredness, and rage. The faces have a good amount of details and tend to show the emotions with clarity. The weapons used here include swords, spears, and spiked gauntlets. The violence can get a bit bloody with light gruesomeness and brutal attacks. The action scenes come in bursts with a decent amount of panels and a smooth flow.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural fantasy stories that star a varied cast while featuring violence and light drama then this is for you.

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

PG-13. Violence, light gruesomeness.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Can you believe he called me a lout?”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1536854088/rogues-kingdom-issue-1/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 22

Violent Pages: 7, for 32% 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.”