Scabbards & Gods Review

Scabbards & Gods

writers- Dan Littlefield and John Doudican

artists- David Nguyen and Dan Dussault

Scabbards & Gods is a web comic about a small band of talented but wayward freedom fighters. The story is set in an undetermined time period but has the flare of Fist of The Northstar meets the old west. However, the time period isn't something readers really dwell upon when flipping through the comic's digital pages. They're thinking about the sword fighting, the martial arts, and the culmination of a long thought out story and ever changing artistic style applied on the internet.

The story is set up on the website in chapters. Chapter One introduces our heroes and gives us an idea of their motivations and their potential for the chapters ahead. We see that they're good at what they do, but also that they're sometimes a little bungling, stumbling into trouble when it should be avoided. The truth is that these guys, The Fallen Corps, are heroes and they'll help anyone who needs it, no matter how great the challenge.

As writers, Littlefield and Doudican seem to have an idea of where they want to go with this story. They really do leave the impression that this is a story that comes from years of dreaming and planning. Readers can spot the definite influences from animated films like Fist of The Northstar as well as storytelling elements from classic samurai films such as Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo. Admittedly, I was skeptical about how much I'd like Scabbards & Gods when I first came across it, but the writing is consistent and those influences make it nostalgic and fun for anyone who's a fan of those movies.

One of the things that made me not so sure about the book at first was the art. It certainly looked to be influenced by that anime style, but it felt uneven and awkward. I'll be honest, the first chapter wasn't easy to get through. The artist's rendering of characters' anatomy seemed far from natural and almost painful to look at. Then I read Chapter Two. As this story is published pages at a time, we actually get to see the creative progression. We see the mistakes the creators made early on but we also get to see them improve. There's even a statement on the site's “About” page, that explains how the art improving a third of the way through Chapter Two is due to inker, Dan Dussault's now full-time involvement. I think it's helped tremendously and I'm looking forward to watching it as it progresses even further.

Scabbards & Gods gets a good thumbs up from Comic Reviews Outside the Cube. If you find it shaky at first, stick with it and enjoy the latter part of the ride. And maybe we can even convince the creators to go back and smooth out the early rougher pieces of the big picture.

Check out Scabbards & Gods at SCABBARDSANDGODS.COM