This volume was actually just released in February and continues the adventures of the Great Champion and the dog-wizard Dusty. Separated from the other wizards, Dusty and the champion make their way through the wilderness and come upon an ancient temple that's been inadvertently poisoning the land with dangerous magic. At this temple, they discover a number of robot-like constructs designed to look like human females who have kept the temple for generations. This, compounded with the arrival of a curious human deity only raises more questions for Dusty and the Great Champion as they search to re-spark the dying magic that has become crucial to the survival of the anthropomorphic creatures of the Autumnlands.
I read through this so fast! I fell in love with the first volume back in January, everything about the series is so beautifully done, the world building (which is set in a far off future where animals have become civilized and able to control magic, albeit a dwindling magic), the artwork, beautifully rendered by Ben Dewey and Jordie Bellaire, the story, written by comic veteran Kurt Busiek, the characters! There's just so much goodness packed into this comic. I've said in previous blogs that I was never really a big comic book fan. As a kid I read a lot of Star Wars comics, but I never really got into any others– mostly because of my dislike of superheroes. I'm also a huge fan of fantasy. Fantasy books, films, television shows, comics, and I never thought I'd find a fantasy comic that was well fleshed out and that did the genre justice. But The Autumnlands has definitely proven that the weight that comes with fantasy stories can definitely be tackled with comics.
Though for as much as I've praised The Autumnlands, I didn't like this second volume as much as the first. I was kind of confused about the plot, it left more questions than answers, and I realize the series is ongoing, but literally nothing was tied up... I was left so confused as to what happened, what was going on, and who these new human characters were. While it was nice to see more of the world of the Autumnlands, including a sheep town in the mountains, which was SO well-done, I missed all the different anthropomorphized animals of the previous volume. There was one little scene that addressed some of the characters from the first volume; a warthog wizard and her giraffe lover, and an owl wizard who served as the main antagonist of the first volume, but that was it. And I missed them! For all the characters in this series, the Great Champion is probably my least favourite. He's the human that's meant to open the well of magic to resupply the dwindling stores of magic. He's just... well, he's not an animal. And in a world populated by anthropomorphized animals, I want to know more about the different animals than a human plunked in the midst.
Still though, this series is definitely one I'll be keeping my eye on and will continue to read as they put out compiled volumes. I definitely recommend checking this one out, especially if you love fantasy and want a rich, detailed story with some of the best artwork I've seen.
