Xarde #1: The Dragoness is a comic created by L. Dean Gibson II. A woman with dragon powers has a very bad night and learns about her past. Our leading lady is a woman named Xarde(pronounced Zar-Day)and she has some sort of dragon power that makes her invulnerable to fire. And she’s strong. A couple of the supporting characters are her Gypsy friend Aleks and a mysterious man named Cal. The plot is basically story, then a fight, and repeat the process until the comic runs out of pages. And scatter some flashbacks in-between. The total elapsed time of the story might be about three hours but it moves pretty fast. Maybe too fast, as sometimes there are gaps between panels that should’ve been filled and you will have to pay close attention so you don’t get lost. The action here is very bloody and gruesome and it’s mostly hand-to-hand. The dialogue goes from short and smooth to long and info dumpy. And sometimes the conversations seem out of place and weird. Overall this comic isn’t too wordy but when they want to tell you something they will spare no word in telling you. Xarde #1 is an alright beginning to a story about a woman dealing with her forgotten past while facing very present danger.
This comic is drawn in a more modern style but with a nice emphasis on some smaller details. This is also a very hornily drawn. But we’ll discuss that later. This is also very colorful. Many locations are visited here from a nightclub to a concert to an ancient battlefield. And they stick around as the story goes from panel-to-panel. This comic is very expressive which will help keep you abreast of the story when the words might fail. Faces veer from slightly above-average to low quality but thankfully there aren’t enough prominent faces for there to be face sameness. Bodies are drawn proportionally and when Xarde transforms the dragon skin does look cool. And she even gets new feet! Some of the other supernatural creatures look like gargoyles, and we do see beings from the dragon family. The action scenes are not afraid to get nasty and are easy to follow. Did I mention this comic was horny? There is no nudity but on the first page we get a butt shot. This comic has fondling, pole dancing, and clothes tearing! And the demon women are built like models. So yeah there’s some oversexualization here.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yeah.
“Would I like this?”
If you like lady-led stories starring women with dragon powers and involving supernatural friends and foes and featuring a backstory fed in pieces this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Blood, gore, and horniness.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“What am I going to do with a sword?”
Indiegogo Link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/xarde-1-the-dragoness/x/26236710#/
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24
Violent Pages: 7, for 29% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 3, for 13% 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 – 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 – 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 – 2
“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.”
