Comic Vine Review

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The Witcher #1 - House of Glass, Part 1

5

Geralt of Rivia takes a break from hunting monsters to converse with a man who hunts animals. But the man hides a strange, dark secret.

The Good

This is a story that is as witcher as witcher stories get! The famed, troubled monster hunter Geralt stumbles upon a man catching fish in a stream and asks to rest his horse. The man offers up his pack of onions and cheese, even offering to split the fish if Geralt can wait for it to be cooked. The witcher is happy to have it, offering his wine in return. It turns out it was more than just cheap fish and veggies that pulled him over, however, as a monster sets upon them, but is quickly dispatched. The hunter, Jakob, however, reveals another monster that has been following him, this one not so much driven by instinct as much as a far more powerful force. One that leads Geralt to question how best to proceed next. Paul Tobin has absolutely nailed the voice of the legendary witcher and the setting that Andrzej Sapkowski set two decades ago in his dark fantasy series, originally published in Polish. The setting is dark and dreary enough for sure, the monsters lurking around every corner of the dreary land, and Geralt is as much of a stoic, needs-driven nomad as he always is. Even Jakob is more than a bumbling, stock character, but is written with a surprising amount of depth, particularly when his tragic story is revealed. Tobin does an amazing job of quickly establishing sympathy for the hunter without resorting to quick and easy tropes.

Joe Querio’s linework is simplistic and gritty, which is precisely the look that a book like this should aspire to. When I say simplistic, I don’t mean it looks lazy or slapdash, it looks entirely appropriate for this world and its cheapness of life. The action and the facial expressions get a lot of credit for carrying so much of the atmosphere and helping to establish the characters. They look like the kinds of things you’d read in a quality version of “Morte d'Arthur.” I can’t talk about the visuals without praising the gorgeous colors by Dave Johnson and Dan Panosian. Again: understatement is the name of the game here and they absolutely get the atmosphere that should be conveyed in a story like this. It takes place at night, everything is subdued and somewhat horrible, but that’s exactly as it should be in this world.

The Bad

How well did you understand my opening few sentences? That’s going to directly correlate with your enjoyment of this comic because there are no two ways about it: this comic is for fans of the Witcher. Whether it be the novels or the videogames, some familiarity with this world is going to help you enjoy this comic enormously and while there’s nothing in it that’s completely unapproachable, there’s very little exposition as to exactly what a “witcher” is or how he knows and does the things he does.

Near the middle of the issue, we’re introduced to a veritable gauntlet of monsters, but most of them don’t have much bearing on the story and could have easily been excised altogether. On in particular, the grave hag, serves only to drive the characters in the direction they were already going. It may be that the encounters serve a greater purpose later, and I hope they do, but for now they seem superfluous.

The Verdict

Even if you’re not a fan of the Witcher media already, I think there’s a lot in this book to enjoy, but if you are, this is a must-buy. Either way, if you’re onboard for a tale of dark, tragic fantasy you’ll find something to enjoy here. The main character may not quite resonate for those who don’t already know what he’s about, but Jakob helps ease things along by giving the reader someone to immediately relate to and the monsters and setting makes this book unlike many others on the shelf.

8 Comments

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Jonny_Anonymous

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I always wished they had kept the proper translation and called them Hexers instead.

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Kondorr

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But Hexer comes from the word Hexe, which is german... english for Hexe is Witch, so a male witch is a witcher...

(do not mean to troll, just saying)

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Jonny_Anonymous

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Edited By Jonny_Anonymous

@kondorr: Yes but the guy who wrote Wiedźmin intended for it to mean Hexer not Witcher, that only came about with the games.

@undeadpool Did you notice what the name of his horse was? lol

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SmashBrawler

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Edited By SmashBrawler

@jonny_anonymous: My personal guess is that they changed to name to differentiate the games (and the English translations of the books) from that one crappy movie.

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Jonny_Anonymous

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Edited By Jonny_Anonymous

@smashbrawler: I honestly don't think that movie would have done any harm, hardly anybody knows it exists outside Poland.

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mak13131313

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So happy to see other fans of The Witcher!

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SMiki55

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If you don’t know too many about The Witcher universe, I recommend to read articles on official Witcher Wiki. It has a lot of informations about lore, characters, story :)

http://witcher.gamepedia.com/Witcher_Wiki

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realcabz

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I really appreciate the comments on the book overall and the colors in particular but I just wanted to point out Dave and Dan did our wonderful cover, not the colors. That was actually me. Again, thanks so much and I'm glad you are digging the work.