posted 08-27-2001 11:07 PM               

Full disclosure: Battle of Kar Dathra’s Gate reprints part of an article that originally appeared on This Is Not News. Assume that this review is discussing everything except pages 138-139, which it goes without saying are sheer genius.

Battle of Kar Dathra’s Gate is the 4-part prologue to Christian Gossett’s epic Red Star saga, a science fiction/sorcery drama set in an analogue to the former Soviet Union. To give you a sense of the scale here: this book is the climactic battle in the allegorical equivalent of the invasion of Afghanistan, and it’s just the prologue to the larger story. As such, it leaves many questions unanswered and ends with a setup for the next major arc; at the same time, there is a complete story told within this book, and a fine story it is.

The story opens nine years after the Battle of Kar Dathra’s Gate, the climactic battle in the United Republic of the Red Star’s invasion of Al’istaan. Maya Antares, a sorceress and military veteran, visits the grave of her husband Marcus, who died in the battle. In a tram car over the seemingly endless cemetery, she meets a veteran of the Great Patriotic War (the URRS name for the equivalent of World War II), and recounts the apparent victory of the URRS forces and their sudden reversal of fortune. The framing sequences between Maya and the old soldier are nice character moments that get across the inherent warmth and nobility that Gossett and Kayl ascribe to the citizens of the URRS (as opposed to their leaders) and should dispel any heldover Cold War tendencies for Western audiences to view Russians (or their allegorical counterparts) as enemies and nothing more.

Of course, no single character could observe everything there is to tell about a large-scale battle; indeed, Maya is unable to convey any of the events that comprise the second part of the book – her husband Marcus’ final fate. Separated from the rest of the army, mortally wounded, Marcus encounters Troika, a monstrous armored spirit, an apparent embodiment of the military nature of the people of the Red Star who wanders the battlefield and collects the souls of the fallen soldiers. Marcus, however, is a unique individual, and there are other forces that will not allow Troika to take his soul without a fight. As Marcus passes out, he sees this battle joined.

This sets up one of the book’s few storytelling weaknesses. The point of view shifts from Maya’s recollections to Marcus’ dying thoughts to the historical records of some future society. The captions that convey the final shift seem superfluous to the story at hand, and while they may set up some important elements for the story down the road, they distance the reader from the story at hand.

I should stress, this is a minor quibble. As I said, it’s a fine story. The characters right now seem more like archetypes than individuals, templates on which the reader can project the grief, sorrow and resignation of an entire population. But at the same time there are strokes of individual characterization; Maya’s letter gives us a glimpse of the personal losses that make up the horrors of war, and as she kisses the letter and places it in the bouquet, you can see the romance and love that have not yet been totally conquered by cynicism and despair. The fatal hubris of the URRS is also made vividly clear – even as they embrace magic, they try to deny its mystical nature by calling spells protocols, and they dismiss the threat of opposing magic as mere religious superstition. Gossett and Kayl manage to tell us what this society is like and how its people think in a relatively short period of time.

The visual element of the storytelling is equally strong, in both the quiet character moments and the spectacular action sequences. The Red Star utilizes a breathtaking combination of traditional pencil art and computer-generated 3D models which are then composited and colored in Photoshop. Gossett uses large panels and two page spreads to open up the story and convey the scale of the ships and armies; when appropriate, he will let a single event spread over several panels, which almost creates a slow-motion effect. This is a case where words truly can not convey how beautiful these pages are – and this collected edition showcases the art in a special oversized format, which is a real treat. (I should probably mention here that because of those large panels, this book can seem like a rather quick read; at the same time, the beauty of the art and those smaller character moments I mentioned earlier mean that the book rewards multiple readings.)

The collected edition also features interviews with the creative team (which is where the aforementioned Not News article appears) and an extremely well-designed sketchbook section, which is really more of a behind-the-scenes production art showcase. We get a glimpse of the character design process, page layout and composition, and the blending of Gossett’s pencil art with Coulter and Moberly’s 3D work. The book designers did a tremendous job here, packing the pages with sketches, drawings, storyboards, finished art, captions and other elements without overcrowding any of them.

posted 11-09-2001 05:56 AM               

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Originally posted by Earl Green:
If it weren't for the fact that I'd have to trash the book to do it, I'd frame some of the spreads in this book, particularly the "money shots" where you have to turn the book 90 degrees to read it.

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This is why, even though it increased the price substantially, I'm glad the Team Red Star folks went with the oversized format for this book.