GFT Retrospective #13: Sinbad and the Eyes Of Fire
Get ready to set sail, Ticketholders! I, the Ticketmaster, Poetrymaster, and all-around Grimm Fairy Tales enthusiast, have returned to bring you another edition of the GFT Retrospective! This week's miniseries comes to you courtesy of a preview featured at the end of The Piper TPB (Trade Paperback). And like any good Zenescope series, this seems to feature Belinda. I think.
From page one, Sinbad is a series dripping with awesome. Of course, there are typos galore and so many incorrect verb tenses that you’d swear the lettering was translated from another language, but when you get past that, the writing itself is smart, witty, sexy, and badass. The action that goes with it is artfully presented in a dynamic series of epic panels that need no explanation beyond what they tell, and what they tell is…awesome.
The art style is deliberately sharp around the edges, giving the appropriate impression that even the heroes have an element of danger to their character.
Originally intended as a standalone concept, it is the tale of a sailor so legendary that women want him, boys want to be him, and men twice his size would rather jump overboard than fight him.
Wrongfully accused of murder and exiled from his home (Baghdad, Iraq), Sinbad appropriates a ship and crew to sail the Mediterranean in search of the Sunfury Amulet, an artifact that is only one part of a more powerful MacGuffin (the Jericho Visor) he believes can show the truth of his innocence--at least as far as the murder is concerned.
His search takes Sinbad and his crew to a pair of volcanic islands, where they encounter a sizable army of Assassin’s Creed-style ninjas and a woman calling herself the Witch Queen Alorana (who is not yet confirmed to be Belinda, but looks enough like her for it not to be a coincidence--see cover at left). After some exciting ninja fights, and intercourse of both varieties, Alorana lends her second-in-command to accompany Sinbad’s crew on their search for the amulet, which is on the other of the two islands, sealing away the spirit of an elemental fire wizard “Alorana” defeated somewhere around the dawn of time.
The voyage to the sister island was intended as a suicide mission orchestrated by Alorana herself. While Sinbad and crew battle a dragon and a bunch of fire demons, two of his spies on Alorana’s island run afoul of the Witch Queen and her army. The crew defeat the demons and retrieve the amulet, but in doing so they release the wizard. Sinbad engages him in combat but is forced to retreat.
We find out snippets of information about the murder Sinbad was accused of, but the sailor keeps tight-lipped about why he needed to acquire his current ship and crew in the first place.
Meanwhile, the two spies (Pots the cook and Samelia, a young witch Sinbad rescued at the beginning of the series) lock Alorana in a trunk and flee her guards, taking Alorana with them as leverage. Everyone reunites outside Alorana’s palace, but there’s no time to celebrate because the wizard is literally hot on their trail.
In the end, Sinbad defeats the wizard with the help of a mysteriously cursed crewmate named Wilhelm. Having taken Alorana as their prisoner, the crew sets sail in search of the rest of the Jericho Visor.
Sinbad Volume #1: The Eyes of Fire
The art style is deliberately sharp around the edges, giving the appropriate impression that even the heroes have an element of danger to their character.
Originally intended as a standalone concept, it is the tale of a sailor so legendary that women want him, boys want to be him, and men twice his size would rather jump overboard than fight him.
Wrongfully accused of murder and exiled from his home (Baghdad, Iraq), Sinbad appropriates a ship and crew to sail the Mediterranean in search of the Sunfury Amulet, an artifact that is only one part of a more powerful MacGuffin (the Jericho Visor) he believes can show the truth of his innocence--at least as far as the murder is concerned.
His search takes Sinbad and his crew to a pair of volcanic islands, where they encounter a sizable army of Assassin’s Creed-style ninjas and a woman calling herself the Witch Queen Alorana (who is not yet confirmed to be Belinda, but looks enough like her for it not to be a coincidence--see cover at left). After some exciting ninja fights, and intercourse of both varieties, Alorana lends her second-in-command to accompany Sinbad’s crew on their search for the amulet, which is on the other of the two islands, sealing away the spirit of an elemental fire wizard “Alorana” defeated somewhere around the dawn of time.
The voyage to the sister island was intended as a suicide mission orchestrated by Alorana herself. While Sinbad and crew battle a dragon and a bunch of fire demons, two of his spies on Alorana’s island run afoul of the Witch Queen and her army. The crew defeat the demons and retrieve the amulet, but in doing so they release the wizard. Sinbad engages him in combat but is forced to retreat.
We find out snippets of information about the murder Sinbad was accused of, but the sailor keeps tight-lipped about why he needed to acquire his current ship and crew in the first place.
Meanwhile, the two spies (Pots the cook and Samelia, a young witch Sinbad rescued at the beginning of the series) lock Alorana in a trunk and flee her guards, taking Alorana with them as leverage. Everyone reunites outside Alorana’s palace, but there’s no time to celebrate because the wizard is literally hot on their trail.
In the end, Sinbad defeats the wizard with the help of a mysteriously cursed crewmate named Wilhelm. Having taken Alorana as their prisoner, the crew sets sail in search of the rest of the Jericho Visor.
This is the end of the Eyes of Fire arc, but it is not the end for Sinbad. Remember to like, share, and subscribe, click those ads above and below each post, and I’ll get back to this amazing series several volumes down the road. Stay tuned for an actual essay later this week in New Piece Offerings, and another Ticketverse Throwback. Until then,
Ticketmaster,
saileeeeeeeng aywayyyyyyyyyyyy!!!
Thanks, Styx....
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