Sparks Volume 1:Portals TBP Review
Summary: The least motivated (yet powerful) student gets paired with the hardest working classmate and find themselves far from home. Will their efforts to return bring them close together or create a bigger rift?
4
Portal Pairing
The world has suffered from great destruction and the human society thrives via a complex alliance with magical Satyr. The academy trains Satyrs for their future, teaching them to hone their magical skills. Philo has a lot of power, but lacks the skills and motivation to make much of it. Atlas works hard and has great skill but is a mystery to his fellow classmates, when the two get paired in class… things don’t go as expected.
Writing
There’s a fun playfulness to the writing here. No doubt the setting, a number of young students learning their place in the grand scheme of things helps… but there’s also a general sense of wonder. Though to some extent what happens between Philo and Atlas is expected… how we get there provides a lot of fun along the way.The core dynamics are nothing overly new but as I tend to say, it’s not whether a story is completely new that matters… it’s how it’s told and Sparks is told with a lot of joy and care involved. There are hints at the wider world and life outside the Academy (quite directly at some points)… but there is clearly a lot more of this world to learn about and the glimpses we are given create enough interest to make readers want to know more.
Artwork
The art is very stylized, I would say heavily influenced by Manga. I would say it’s the sort of art style you find in a lot of fan art. That’s not a good or bad thing… it’s just a given style and if that happens to be your cup of tea then dive right in and enjoy. The panels are all nice and clean and easy to follow (something some more established artists sometimes fail at). The line work is nice and solid and despite being in black and white… you would almost swear the pages were in full colour. The atmosphere and the shading just hint at the vibrant colours that I suspect would be abundant in this world… certainly around the Academy.
Final Thoughts
Sparks Volume 1: Portals is a fun read. It’s not too serious though some notions are touched on that suggest there could be some darkness lurking for future stories to go into. The characters are likable and the hint at romance is tantalizing enough to keep readers eager to see what happens next. Grab a copy if you like fantasy stories, even more so if you like a bit of queer romance.
Publisher: Dark Horse
Writer: Revel Guts
Artist: Revel Guts
Genre: Fantasy
Format: 176pgs, B&W, TPB
Release Date: 17th July, 2024
About the Author
Chris O'Connor Father of four, husband of one and all round oddity. Gaming at home since about 1982 with a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Moving on to the more traditional PC genre in the years that followed with the classic Jump Joe and Alley Cat. CGA, EGA, VGA and beyond PC's have been central to my gaming but I've also enjoyed consoles and hand helds along the way (who remembers the Atari Lynx?). Would have been actor/film maker, jack of many trades master of none.
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