by Miguel Estrugo
What is supposed to be the main goal of a comic?
I have heard way too many answers to this simple question. I have been told that comics are an art form, and thus, their main purpose is to let the artists express themselves. I read once that comics are supposed to make money. I've also heard that comics should be hedgy and provocative, and should make their readers feel uncomfortable. I've heard that comics are the poor man's movie industry, the barricade to fight for one ideals, and so many other things...
But in my opinion, the main goal of a comic is simpler and more prosaic than that. A comic is supposed to entertain. If the audience is entertained by a comic, then the creator can express himself, make money, be hedgy, turn the comic into a barricade to show the artist's ideals, and all that yadda yadda. But if the comic isn't entertaining, nobody is going to care about it, regardless of how vanguardistic, hedgy, provocative or titillating it is.
From that perspective, I think The Gods of Arr-Kelaan is a very good work. It may not have the best drawings; there may be hundreds of comics with deeper, more intricate dialogue, and the plot may not be the most original. But that doesn't matter, because his comic is drawn decently enough to be understood at a glance, its dialogue is witty, and the history is explained thru a narrative style easy to comprehend, yet rich in graphical resources.
In other words, this is an entertaining comic. That's more than enough to satisfy me.
As creator Chuck Rowles explains on his website, The Gods of Arr-Kelaan is the final product of many afternoons of playing Dungeons and Dragons with his friend Leonard Zaikoski, about 20 years ago. For the game, Rowles created Ronson, the God of Apathy, a character who would let his clerics have as much power as they wanted as long as they left him alone (!). The character caught Rowles's attention, and shortly after, he started plotting histories involving this original deity and other characters in an imaginary world.
Ronson is an archetypical anti-hero: eyes half-open, hair unruly, beard unkept, shirt out of his pants. After an accident on a spaceship, he lands on an unknown world and finds that he has the power to do whatever he wants simply by wishing it; very much like a D&D player falling into the world he has created, with the ability to do and undo things at will.
Attractive as this might sound, it isn't appealing for Ronson, since the only thing he wants is to be left in solitude. A series of flashbacks, cleverly executed and blended with the rest of the history, implies that Ronson's apathy is connected with the death of his wife a few years before.Pulling Ronson out of his inertia, he is from time to time
visited by the her ghost. But no matter what he tries to do to keep her with him, she's always pulled out of his sight and reach, much to his despair.
Ronson also finds traces of the ship, and begins searching for it, hoping that he can repair it and leave the planet. As he explores the world, he finds he isn't the only survivor from the accident; those other passengers have the same godlike powers as he, but, unlike Ronson, they use their new powers to fulfill their own desires.
One such passenger is Beyurn, a self-named 'goddess of war,' who seeks to transform the world against its will. Another, Mike, has transformed himself into a super-hero to fight for justice and peace. And the mysterious and sly Bikk has the ambition to gain total control of the world, and become a 'real' god.
Stylistically, Rowles is confident enough to employ some sophisticated tricks. I especially enjoyed a sequence where Ronson uses his powers in a casual, non-presumptuous way, startling his traveling companion. In one multi-page wordless sequence, Ronson protect his companion from all manner of the threats he finds on his path. When Rowles does use dialog (which is most of the time), it is short, concise, witty and agile, promoting a fast-paced reading experience.
Rowles's graphical style is more realistic than cartoony, with a strong personality. The drawing is a little awkward and takes some getting used to, but once you've acquired a taste for Rowles' peculiarities, the pictures tell the story well. Rowles knows how to use the elements of the comics language. He's familiar with this language. The composition and layout of the comic is right most times, he shows some knowledge of perspective and uses facial expressions appropriately. However, I find the backgrounds too schematic and without detailed. But this does little harm to the narrative.
If you're looking for a comic that pushes the envelope... well, search elsewhere. The Gods of Arr-Kelaan is a rather simplistic history, and has its faults and small details that could be done better... but it's narrated with care, features an original premise and interesting characters, and that makes it entertaining.
And, as I said before, that's precisely what I want in a comic.
