“Go not the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
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Let’s be clear, there is one author, and only one author, who does elves right. And that author is Tolkien. I could be a little biased, because Tolkien introduced me to elves (aside from Santa’s little helpers), but in all my years delving into fantasy books and series and authors, I’ve never come across the grace, intelligence, depth, and history that Tolkien crafted for elves. I’ve always been mystified by Tolkien’s elves, and their still some of my favourite characters - Galadriel (who I strongly identify with), Thranduil (from the movies, I was always interested in him before the Hobbit movies came out, and say what you will about the films, but Lee Pace brought an exceptional performance and depth to the character), Thingol, Maedhros and Fingon (who were TOTALLY lovers, you can’t convince me otherwise). Okay, now I’m all caught up in Tolkien. The point of all that, is to say that I love Elves. Even my World of Warcraft main is a Blood Elf (go Horde). So naturally, when I came across this graphic novel volume in Chapters, I had to own it.
Elves is an ongoing fantasy comic series by Jean-Luc Istin, a French comic artist and writer who primarily writes heroic fantasy. It was only recently translated from French to English, and there is a hell of a lot of content for us Anglophones to catch up on. This first volume is made up of the first two stories in this mythos. The first story, The Crystal of the Blue Elves, tell’s an epic tale of betrayal and corrupting power as one young elf is called to undergo a dangerous test in order to secure an ancient artifact. The second story, The Honour of Sylvan Elves, sees a race of xenophobic elves rejoin their ancient human allies in defending the city of Eysine against Ork mercenaries. I don’t know too much about Istin’s work, and I’m not sure if these two stories take place on the same world or even in the same universe, but I imagine that continuity will be touched on in later volumes.
Despite my love for elves, I’ve had very mixed feelings about this series. Where it excels is in it’s artwork. I still cannot get over the artwork in these volumes. I’ve never seen a comic with such detailed beauty before. Each panel feels like it received an insane about of love and attention, and it really helps to build this fantasy world visually. I caught myself starring at the images, completely lost in the details and the world, having forgotten to continue reading. The artwork is the definite strength in this graphic novel… but it alone is not strong enough to compensate for the stories.
I understand that in comics and graphic novels some of the meat of the story has to be sacrificed. You only have so many pages to tell the story, and want to fill it rich illustrations. After-all, a picture is worth a thousand words, am I right? Well… The older I get, the less I believe that. Sure, an image can convey a lot of meaning, but mostly, an image is static. It’s telling you the story of that particular moment with only slight hints as to the past and future therein. Something written, like a novel or a story, is constantly moving forward, constantly giving you more information and carrying you somewhere. But when your driving force is images that take up a lot more space than words, you can’t add as much weight to your story. And that’s the unfortunate part of Elves. The stories are very rushed, and the characters are incredibly underdeveloped. The world that Istin has created is so beautifully illustrated, but lacks the literary weight to make you care.
That being said, I am definitely planning to continue on with this series. There are currently two more volumes out in English, and I can’t wait to dive into them, if for no other reason than for the visual feast Istin has laid out for his readers. I’m learning, that with comics and graphic novels, that I can’t approach them with the same state of mind that I do a novel. I need to suspend some of my expectations for a weighty, well-developed narrative, and instead enjoy the medium as something separate from written literature. Thats a mind set I need going forward with medium… I just wish everyone else had the artistic talents of Istin and his team.
