http://twelvedragons.keenspace.com/

6/23/05

Plot: A trio of heroes, all of exotic nonhuman species, are remarkably powerful adventurers but are also unusually independent from the politics and wars of their fantasy world, Pangea. Their main macro plot concern is the slow extinction-in-progress of the dragon races, which apparently is very bad for everyone and must be prevented by a prophesied group of five, including our trio. However, the macro plot is almost invisible, as the main characters struggle to maintain their independence while being basically good at heart. I can sort of guess at which elements are going to become important if the macro plot develops farther, but at the current glacial pace of the prophecy, I’m not really very worried about hints.
This macro plot prophesy isn’t exactly terribly exciting, and not just because it appears rarely and slowly. Another “gather the X number of elements needed to save the world” prophecy is hardly blood-stirring. If the macro plot stays a minor part of the comic’s focus, I couldn’t be happier. Obviously the prophecy and whatnot will eventually have to be concluded, but the more strips of the fascinating small-scale plotlines and the fewer that relate directly to saving the world, the better.
The bulk of the plot are small encounters with the various hostile and friendly forces in Pangea. These can last a fair amount of time, sometimes around 30 strips, but they keep moving along at a very nice pace--expect a major change in the fight every one to three strips. The pacing is great, but what makes me really like the comic is the intense character-centric themes, which I’ll get o in the next section.
The world design deserves a mention here. Twelve Dragons’s world takes a different track from, say, [url=http://s4.invisionfree.com/so_Bad_comics/index.php?showtopic=16]Eliada[/b], in creating a world without a dominant theme. This isn’t a darkness world, or a dragon world, or anything like that, but a world of many separate works of creative design. Not only are some of these very creative, including some wonderful new takes on earth animals, but the presentation is also very nice. The narrative exposition is brief, to the point, and is never boring, and the world is introduced very naturally through the adventures of the main characters. What’s great is that the comic knows when to stop and not fill the readers in on every single detail. Enough is given to make the plot work and feel rich, but it’s not a forced education in every aspect of the world. A minor quibble: double-capitalized words, such as “HeavenStone,” bug me a lot. Double-capitalized words were introduced largely for business and commercial product names, and have no place in a fantasy comic.
There are frequent sexual encounters and nudity, and although they’re not pornographic, neither are they particularly P.C. Don’t expect these to really count as fanservice, either.
Characters: Almost every significant character in Twelve Dragons is nonhuman, and part of this design includes histories of persecution. We are told that these characters have plenty of anger and other negative emotions to share, but the comic really isn’t an angst-fest at all. Each of these characters has very specific goals, which turn what they feel into actions which are directly and fluidly portrayed in the comic. In other words, there’s less talking, more doing. Each scene is definitely character-centric, in that there’s no doubt that what is being shown is an expression of understandable feelings of specific characters, but it’s always an expression, not a narration. Upset? Blast someone. Sad? Walk off in disgust or joke to try and pretend otherwise. The handling of the characters though the plot is immensely enjoyable, and is perhaps the best, or close to it, that I’ve seen a comic deal with negative emotions.

so Bad: Sometimes the comic feels much less like a comic and more like a world-discovery process, which is technically a fault in something that does present itself as a comic. However, the presence of purposeful characters gives the information about the world a sense of usefulness. The characters want to do things and interact with the world, and so the nature of that world is much more important and interesting than in comics where the characters don’t express their feelings so actively. Oh, and the world can be just so cool that it’s worth learning about regardless of any of this.

Art: Realistic, a mix of black & white and color strips, with CG shading. The art is very convincing, and certainly portrays the fantasy world well, but does not go beyond very good into amazing. Realistic is no exaggeration, as anatomy and scenery is pulled off as perfectly as I can detect, except for a few early pieces. It’s quite clear what is going on in the action scenes, and I often regret that most of the action scenes involve more killing blows than they do actual swordfights. The CG shading in the black and white art is very good as well.
However, the color work, while not poorly done, does not show the same complexity the black and white art, which in turn is not quite as rich as some of the best color art I have seen in comics. Also, the fantasy art design is also not in any way poor, but does not feel quite as “fantastic” as I see in the very best comics. In particular, the design of many creatures seems closely aligned with the anatomy of real creatures, which dampens slightly the impact of the creative descriptions of the natures of the creatures.

Updates: Erratic, but expect a few strips a month. While there’s no schedule to speak of, the update rate is much better than I am used to from erratic comics. Full page strips, typically three to six panels.

Overall: One of the best designed fantasy comics out there. I would recommend Twelve Dragons over many, many fantasy novels for any fan of fantasy. Not perfect, but much can be forgiven for a comic with such great strengths. Only one thing could hurt this comic, and that would be a clumsy handling of the central prophesy that emphasizes this unoriginal core over the great handling of the smaller elements and the characters of this comic.