FEATURE REVIEW ARDDEN ENTERTAINMENT NECROMANTICAL #1

NECROMANTICAL #1 

Publisher: Ardden Entertainment

Writer – Massimo Rost

Artist – Stefano Cardoselli

Published: 5/7/2014

I have said in earlier pieces that I will never take personal shots or make comments about a creator, no matter how bad I think a book may be.

I will always give credit for at least creating the book and getting it out to the people, which is about all I can do with Necromantical.

Necro means dead . . . and that is what this book is: Dead.

Ardden Entertainment proclaims on the back cover: THE NEXT SCI-FI PHENOMNEN STARTS RIGHT HERE!

That is a major boast, and it is the first thing that turns me off this title right at the start. That kind of boast always makes me cringe. Unfortunately, for them, I think I can safely say the next sci-fi phenomenon doesn’t star here.

Why? First, one would have to produce something phenomenal . . . not an utter mess.
The book is called Necromantical . . . and it looks and feels like a dead rotted corpse.

The writing is a mess, not telling anything in the way of a story or really anything going on. Characterization is non-existent, pace and flow of the story seems an afterthought. It comes across like it wants to rely on its art to carry it.

Massive mistake. A poorly rendered cover gives a great preview of the art inside.Some may find something appealing in this art. Many may call is ‘stylistic.’ A few may even call it ‘pure art,’ instead of being honestly critical. The art is bad.

First and foremost, it fails on the most important level, it doesn’t tell a story. The art of a comic book has one main purpose, to get across the story using sequential pictures. If the art doesn’t do that, than nothing matters.

Beyond that, everything is muddled. It is hard to tell what is happening, to whom and to tell characters apart.

The inking style doesn’t help, which seems to be done simply as tracing and nothing else. The colors are monochrome, bland and muted.

This is a title I do not think is worth the money or your time.

Rating: 3

Ace Masters.


NOTE: This is an admitted old review, but I just looked it up and noticed that it seems #2 has yet to be released.