Post by Dizzy D on May 30, 2014 3:11:35 GMT -5
So the next random issue as said before:
The School of Arsamia (1997)
by JAC and Marc Bati
About the authors: JAC (also known as JAG (no, not the TV-series), which would make more sense as his real name is Jean-Paul Appel-Guery, but the cover of my comic has a clear C at the end of the name), I can't find little about apart from his real name. He's written few other comics, but a bit of googling finds a lot of New Age style books written by him under his real name.
Marc Bati is most known for his work on the series "Altor", together with one of my favourites: Moebius. Bati has worked with Moebius on various titles and his art style is definitely influenced by the master himself. One of the reasons I picked up this comic. He's also a writer of comic books, mostly on the series Sylfeline.
About the series: As far as I can see, this issue is the only one ever published in this series, which is a shame as it's definitely intended to be part 1 in a larger series.
About the story: The story starts with the discovery of a large rock that looks like a face on Mars. The media thinks so far that it's probably just coincidence (humans are programmed to see faces into anything), but one of the viewers phones somebody and from the conversation its clear that they know more about this face. The scene switches to Mars itself and the creation of the face: using the power of her voice and several strange machines, the sculptress Ganira creates the large stone face. A speech afterwards gives us a large information dump: The face represents Okalar the 1st, emperor of Arsamia and the statue was created to celebrate the anniversary of 1000 years of peace on Arsamia/Samaria (the comic never really explains the difference, as far as I can tell Arsamia is the nation, Samaria is the planet). The speech also introduces the School of Arsamia: despite the 1000-years of peace, the Arsamians are still masters at warfare and this is their source of wealth: the whole galaxy comes to Arsamia to be instructed in the various arts of war.
The next scene shows the difference between Arsamians and regular humans: they have dual vocal cords that allows them to create specific sounds that can shatter rocks and reshape matter, as two combatants, standing on rocks in a lake try to shatter the rock between their opponent's feet.
The main characters are Lamo and Orlia, the heads of one of the four Schools. The 4 schools introduce themselves later in the story to the new students. Lamo and Orlia's school is the school of Gnosis: disabling any opponent without weapons or even touching him. Otomo teaches unarmed combat, Astet teaches (heavy) weaponry and Orgon teaches the use of WMD (Planetary Defense systems as he calls it). The last 2 schools are usually the most popular among the new students, but we're quickly shown that many students don't always get to pick: a man wanting to learn about WMD's is sent to Otome's school of unarmed combat, so that he may learn discipline needed to control his agression.
The rest of the story is setup for the main plot: the years of peace are about to end as one planet's project to change its own atmosphere would influence the climate on Arsamia as well.
All in all, it's an interesting setup with great art, but as it's only this single story, nothing will get resolved
The School of Arsamia (1997)
by JAC and Marc Bati
About the authors: JAC (also known as JAG (no, not the TV-series), which would make more sense as his real name is Jean-Paul Appel-Guery, but the cover of my comic has a clear C at the end of the name), I can't find little about apart from his real name. He's written few other comics, but a bit of googling finds a lot of New Age style books written by him under his real name.
Marc Bati is most known for his work on the series "Altor", together with one of my favourites: Moebius. Bati has worked with Moebius on various titles and his art style is definitely influenced by the master himself. One of the reasons I picked up this comic. He's also a writer of comic books, mostly on the series Sylfeline.
About the series: As far as I can see, this issue is the only one ever published in this series, which is a shame as it's definitely intended to be part 1 in a larger series.
About the story: The story starts with the discovery of a large rock that looks like a face on Mars. The media thinks so far that it's probably just coincidence (humans are programmed to see faces into anything), but one of the viewers phones somebody and from the conversation its clear that they know more about this face. The scene switches to Mars itself and the creation of the face: using the power of her voice and several strange machines, the sculptress Ganira creates the large stone face. A speech afterwards gives us a large information dump: The face represents Okalar the 1st, emperor of Arsamia and the statue was created to celebrate the anniversary of 1000 years of peace on Arsamia/Samaria (the comic never really explains the difference, as far as I can tell Arsamia is the nation, Samaria is the planet). The speech also introduces the School of Arsamia: despite the 1000-years of peace, the Arsamians are still masters at warfare and this is their source of wealth: the whole galaxy comes to Arsamia to be instructed in the various arts of war.
The next scene shows the difference between Arsamians and regular humans: they have dual vocal cords that allows them to create specific sounds that can shatter rocks and reshape matter, as two combatants, standing on rocks in a lake try to shatter the rock between their opponent's feet.
The main characters are Lamo and Orlia, the heads of one of the four Schools. The 4 schools introduce themselves later in the story to the new students. Lamo and Orlia's school is the school of Gnosis: disabling any opponent without weapons or even touching him. Otomo teaches unarmed combat, Astet teaches (heavy) weaponry and Orgon teaches the use of WMD (Planetary Defense systems as he calls it). The last 2 schools are usually the most popular among the new students, but we're quickly shown that many students don't always get to pick: a man wanting to learn about WMD's is sent to Otome's school of unarmed combat, so that he may learn discipline needed to control his agression.
The rest of the story is setup for the main plot: the years of peace are about to end as one planet's project to change its own atmosphere would influence the climate on Arsamia as well.
All in all, it's an interesting setup with great art, but as it's only this single story, nothing will get resolved
