Broken Frontier

If Douglas Adams, Monty Python, and Terry Pratchett tickle your funny-bone, then The Order of Dagonet is right up your alley.

It was truly heartening to receive the latest issue of the creator-owned modern fantasy romp The Order of Dagonet in my inbox. Often, independent creators and studios don’t survive due to any number of personal, financial, or creative reasons and many a good comic disappears off the radar before it’s had a real chance to find its sea legs. Having just published their first collection last month, Jeremy Whitley and Jason Strutz’s Firetower Studios hits the ground running with this fifth stanza of the magical invasion of Britain.

Once again humour is the driving force providing much of this issue’s momentum. Whitley has exceptional comedic timing, using his snappy dialogue and witty observations of all things British to drive his plot’s pace. The result is a bouncy, magical little romp through the looking glass. This issue witnesses the drawing of Excalibur from Merlin’s bag of tricks (literally) by one of the bumbling Order, while a lost compatriot narrowly escapes a centaur cooking pot, thanks to the intervention of a Lara Croft lookalike.

Strutz also continues to impress with his kaleidoscopic artwork providing the perfect visual outlet for Whitley’s zany adventurers. His vibrant palette and near-tangible texture infuse Dagonet with a distinctive visual tone and firmly anchors the story in colourful borderlands between the mundane world and flighty realm of Faerie. For my money, this is one of the more visually interesting artists cranking out pages today.

Reminiscent in tone of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker series and the works of Terry Pratchett, The Order of Dagonet continues to be one of the best creator-owned books to fall into my lap this year.

The Order of Dagonet #5 is available for purchase now, through the Firetower Studios website.