I have to admit it here and now—I don’t always like fantasy stories. Just like with magic, the fantastic stories don’t always follow their own rules. For instance, you’ll find a magician who comes up with some spell out of the blue that enables him or her to escape from a trap that person had never heard of before. I just HATE that!
But Bob Salley and Shawn Daley have told a much more realistic, if I can use that word, tale in Ogre, a four-issue title that explored a “fantastic” world that apparently existed before our current time, and it was a great read complete with consistent storytelling that surprised me and entertained me tremendously!
Well, those creators are going back to that universe, and have made available to MajorSpoilers.com a preview copy of the sequel called Ogres and, like that first series, it’s something very special!
OGRES #1
Writer: Bob Salley
Artist/Colorist/Letterer: Shawn Daley
Editor: Travis McIntire
Published by: Source Point Press
Cover price: $3.99
Release Date: September 27, 2019
SOLICITATION: After a band of marauders called the Taesh’aar destroy their village, a group of young ogres hire an exiled dwarf to help track down these creatures and avenge their kind. The bickering crew is not alone as the dwarf has a prisoner of his own and a horde of savages hunting him down. Bob Salley and Shawn Daley bring us back into their fantasy world and show us the human condition in the harshness of decaying times for all mystical creatures.
MORE FANTASY, MORE EXCELLENT STORYTELLING
Not every creator can tell a story in every genre well. However, Salley and Daley have more adventure in mind in Ogres, and you can preorder the debut issue of the second series now at your local comics shop. The order number will be SEP191977. And fans of Alien/Aliens will get a kick out of the title! I know I did!
Unlike that first miniseries, this one focuses on not one, but three ogres who are trying to survive in a world where man is intruding on their lives. This story is a prequel to Ogre, and it takes place at the beginning of man’s appearance in the world.
The interesting thing to me about this tale is that the mythical creatures who in habit this world can be just as nasty and calculating as the men they fear, as shown by the mother who leads the Taesh’aar raiders. She promises safety for the family of one ogre, but doesn’t deliver on her word when the time comes.
This sets off a trio of ogres who discover the carnage left behind by the Taesh’aar, and they seek a dwarf named Rett Lyti, a strong warrior they feel could help them since the dwarves are believed to have defeated the Taesh’aar in the past.
The truly fascinating thing that happens at this point is that several humans find the remains of the ogres, and even they are horrified at it!
When the ogres catch up with the dwarf, he’s on the bad end of a whooping from a barbarian named Grimloor and his group because he won’t turn over his human prisoner. Fortunately for Rett, the “dwarf who has nothing to lose” receives support from an unexpected source, and it’s on!
The three ogres are very different from one another. The biggest of the group is Tugho, who is much less violent than his size and appearance may lead others to believe. The female of the three is called Meika, and she’s the action-oriented one. She orders the others around easily, so she’s obviously the leader. The third is Cron, a male who is pretty average in size and demeanor. He’s very willing to follow Meika’s lead even though he may not physically be up to what she demands.
I really enjoyed the way these characters interacted with each other and those around them. It goes to show that ogres and dwarves and humans (oh, my!) have lots of variety even among their own kind. I also liked that the name of the language the ogres speak is “Ogrish.” Great name!
The balance of drama and action is a strong one, and this issue is a serious page-turner! The plotting is quick, and things don’t stay still for very long. It’s a great read!
FANCIFUL ART
When an artist follows up a successful series, it’s always tempting to do things in a way that’s radically different from that initial experience. While there are several strong steps forward, the art and coloring in Ogres #1 pulls us along just as powerfully as it did before, keeping us engaged on several levels. It once again helps us get into the mood of the tale since both are a little sketchy and painting-like. The colors remain subdued, and the drawings make us understand how hazardous the situation is around us as we read the story.
One of the best things about Daley’s art is that we can easily tell the ogres and the members of the other species apart from one another. I also enjoyed the action sequences, which are clearly defined, something that made the comic once again very easy to read.
BOTTOM LINE: An Ogre-iffic Sequel… Or Is It Prequel?
This debut issue does what we need to get us into the story by increasing the danger level and by creating new ogres and other characters we care about from the moment we see them. The creative team does a stellar job of grabbing the reader by the short and curlies and not letting us go, even when we reach that last panel of the final page in this issue! Well done!
I did have to smile though because, while reading this book, my radio played “Addicted to Love” by Robert Palmer, and I remembered the video which had a few girls in a particular outfit. When Palmer’s second video came out, the number of girls in the band behind him had at least doubled. Following that trend, the third video had a small screen FULL of girls dressed accordingly. Does that mean, if Ogres is as big a success as I expect it to be, that the next miniseries will have lots and lots of ogres? Maybe a hundred or more? I’ll just have to wait and see! I bet Salley and Dalley could make it work well, though!
Be sure to order Ogres through Diamond as soon as possible, so you will get it in your local comics shop! Not every shop can order everything cool, so please call them today! We need more Ogres, after all!
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Ogres #1 of 4 Review
This debut issue of Ogres does what we need to get us into the story by increasing the danger level and by creating new ogres and other characters we care about from the moment we see them.
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