Great start.
After reading through this a few times, the first issue of Eternal Descent has really renewed my interest in comics. The first issue was such a great entrance for this new IP that Llexi has been developing, and I cannot wait for more.
The design and art work really is fantastic. The colors are vivid, the buildings and environments all look like they have a personality of their own. The looks of the characters match their personalities pretty well too. Sirian is dressed in a fairly simple manner, and he has that "no nonsense" attitude about him. Loki has that smartass personality to him, he looks rather messy, because why should he care?
The action starts off rather quickly, as Lyra finds out that there is much more going on in the world around her than she initially thought. She stumbles across something completely out of the norm and it sets off this chain of events. The dialogue between the characters gives you little hints about past events, and makes you want to learn what exactly happened to the people and places mentioned. There isn't too much that happens in this issue, but I think it sets up future issues nicely.
I can see how some people might be turned off by the branding, but as a guitarist I like having a real name to the instruments. I may be a bit biased because of it, but whatever, it's neat. And it's not like the pages have "OMG LOOK AT MY ESP GUITAR" written on them, it's just the name on the headstock that you would expect a normal guitar to have.
I can see this turning into a love it or hate it kind of thing, but it seems to me that most of the good stuff in the world falls under that category. I haven't read too many comics lately, so I may not be an "expert", but this first issue took me back to that time where I spent hours reading through old issues I was given by family. It sparked an interest in this medium that I had forgotten. All in all, I'm happy with this as an opener. It tells you enough, but not too much and makes you want more. It's the classic good vs. evil, stoic hero vs. smarmy villain, that some people may find tired. But I feel that when done well, that doesn't matter.
