Isabellae (2013), Volume 1

June 24, 2019
In this bloody period piece, a katana-wielding heroine leaves a trail of dismembered bodies behind her. Set in 1192 during the Kamakuru era in feudal Japan, the hack and slash adventure features a red-headed warrior named Isabellae who, accompanied by the spirit of her dead father, is in search of her sister, Siuko. While her father was a great samurai, her late mother was an Irish witch, and Isabellae seems to have inherited between them an almost magical ability to cut enemies in half. She gathers a few companions for timely assistance and comic relief, then sets to tracking down her elusive sister. Nifty fantastical elements they encounter include the Night Man, a kind of fallen angel who may be either “god or demon,” and a ghost ship full of zombies. Beautifully drawn by Gabor, moving from one color scheme to another as scenes change, the palette is atmospherically spot-on. And Raule (Jazz Maynard) intersperses the stylized kill scenes with exchanges between Isabellae and her dead father. Text-heavy action scenes are difficult to parse, however, with the book’s oddly spaced font bursting in the word balloons. The sum of these parts doesn’t rise above standard fare, but fans of the genre will find it holds some appeal.