Comic Book Review: The Clandestinauts by Tim Sievert
The Clandestinauts are adventurers for hire in a harsh fantasy world. Currently, they are tasked with retrieving an item in the possession of the mysterious Red Wizard. To do so, they’ll have to penetrate his fortress lair, evade or slay his many minions and monsters, make a side trip or two to Hell, and learn the wizard’s most closely guarded secrets. Piece of cake! If it weren’t for one of them getting killed in the first few pages….
This graphic novel is very much in the fantasy role-playing tradition, and my copy actually came with character sheets for the protagonists. (I don’t know if that’s a standard feature or only for those buying directly from the artist.) It seems to have been loosely based on a campaign the author was involved with. It’s got dark magic, lots of gory combat, and plenty of twists.
The group is led by Chuck Ronan, a wizard who never completed his education. Also with them are Rogon, possibly the last of the slugmen warriors; Gravel, an artificial strongman; Rutger, a warlock who traded his soul for a magical weapon; Wilhelm, an elderly knight with severe bloodlust, and Ganglion the Grim, another warlock with a much more disturbing pact.
It’s this last thing that causes quite a bit of the intraparty issues. Ganglion has signed up for the Pact of Predation, which allows him to summon other warlocks who’ve made the same pact, and are thus immortal unless they are eaten by another warlock. The monster he summons does eliminate their current threat, but Rutger gets in its way, and while Ganglion is able to devour the newcomer, Rutger is a goner.
Now faced with several goals, the party splits up and remain in smaller teams or solo for most of the story. Several are faced with new revelations about themselves or tasks that apply only to them. And a new protagonist pops up, Juniper, who has secrets of her own.
The story gives the artist plenty of opportunity to display his skill at grotesquerie; as the chapters go on, they are each done in a different colored ink rather than the standard black and white. In addition to the aforementioned gore, there’s also full-frontal nudity of both male and female varieties. (Usually non-sexual.)
Where the book fell down a bit for me is that I didn’t find any of the characters particularly likable. There were clever moments, funny moments, but never enough to make me want to know what happens to the Clandestinauts in the next volume if any.
I think this book will do best with older RPG fans who remember when the hobby was disreputable, most folks had at least some homebrew in their campaigns, and hack ‘n’ slash was the preferred play mode for many with depth of characterization as a secondary goal at best.
