Meticulously Researched Period Intrigue
This is one of those issues that encompasses what makes Arak comics so good. A lot of writers have done life size chess games in their comic stories over the years, but never have I seen it done so skillful in detail and accuracy. To save the life of their companion, Arak and his friends must play a giant full contact chess game between Sharizad and the Caliph of Baghdad. The movement of the pieces can be followed too, by paging back and forth to a two page spread of the board. Not only does the game include action battle sequences, but it follows the real rules of 8th century Persian chess! This fortieth issue rounds out another story arc in the Arak saga, and is really so unique and well researched (and annotated even), that even non-Arak fans ought to give it a look!