This week, Dark Horse released the latest issue of “The Guild” comic books, based on the wildly popular internet series about a group of gamers. This issue focuses on the group’s youngest member, Bladezz, and was pure fun from front to back.
Fans of the show already know that when he is not gaming, Bladezz is a teen model, a fact that he is not really happy about the world knowing. This issue tells the story of how Bladezz began his career.
Although this character is usually more in the background, Bladezz is one of the more interesting ones in the series. He leads three lives in reality; in addition to being the rogue Bladezz when he plays the game, he is also the young man Simon, dealing with family problems, and when he is modeling, he is Finn Smulders, Model Extraordinaire! The concept of the opening page of the comic is really fun, with Finn portrayed as a superhero of sorts.
I absolutely love the story of Finn’s origin. It is a little depressing that Simon and his sister Dena are dealing with their parents divorce, but it is great how from that came this hilarious story of how Simon came to be a model. I’ll let you read the rest for yourselves, but his first job is definitely a highpoint of the story for me.
As usual, we see glimpses of the other members of the Knights of Good in this story, and most of them are small drop-in panels that are very nice additions. However, the scene with Bladezz and Vork surprised me a bit, and I think the more serious part of that scene really didn’t belong in this story. It was important that Vork give Bladezz the advice, but perhaps there was another way to do it.
Being the creator/writer and director for “The Guild” the writers for this issue, Felicia Day and Sean Becker, are perfect. They know all the characters very well, and it is likely they are using the pages to tell tales that they cannot on screen for various reasons. Other writers simply would not work (except for the times the actors themselves are involved). Andrew Currie’s art is excellent, and he does a nice job capturing the three varying worlds of the game, Simon’s regular life, and Finn’s career.
In September, it is Clara’s turn to shine in her comic. It will definitely be interesting to see her and learn more about her family. I hate that we will soon see the end of these comics. But, you never know…perhaps we will see these characters in comics again in the future.
