Eric Arroyo recommends Head Lopper #1
Head Lopper is a rich and kinetic comic that explores the essence of sword and sorcery.
This opening story follows Norgal, the titular Head Lopper, to Scotland, where his profession of hired decapitator brings him into conflict with a towering beast. But his challenges only begin with feats of extreme violence, traveling through a world of corrupted morals and cursed with the heckling of a witch’s severed head.
Norgal is a mile-wide warrior of few words, and neither he nor cartoonist andrewmaclean has much need for those. MacLean depicts a battle of great combatants and greater stakes with precision and clarity; his streamlined art style breaks each beat of action down to its essential elements, yet never loses any dynamism in the process. Coupled with meticulously laid out panels, the visual storytelling keeps the reader involved with every step of the chaotic battle. Even in the book’s quieter moments, MacLean’s page structure and use of clear icons show a strong sense of visual timing that brings the page to life.
And that world that MacLean and colorist Mike Spicer bring to life is harsh and brooding, ripe with desolate architecture and complicated characters. Spicer’s colors add a haze of dread that grounds the comic’s over-the-top adventure. While the action-adventure storytelling is thrilling and efficient, the carefully curated details of the world surrounding Norgal’s adventure highlight its unique flavor, revealing a place where greedy men are the true monsters, sinister magic lurks behind every pebble, and a man finds his own way to stand for justice.
If the pulp adventure of gailsimone and Walter Geovani’s Red Sonja makes you let out a barbarian roar, or if you’re haunted by the gloomy fantasy in Becky Cloonan’s The Mire, swing for the neck with Head Lopper!
[Pick up Head Lopper #1 here!]
For fans of: comedy, fantasy, mythology
Eric Alexander Arroyo is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist and a Digital Editor at comiXology. He’s probably drawing giant robots or listening to ABBA.