Sparrowhawk is published by BOOM! Studios. It is written by Delilah S. Dawson with art by Matias Basla.
I’ll admit I haven’t read a whole lot of Delilah S. Dawson’s books, but after I read every issues of Ladycastle (if you haven’t read it, you need to because its fabulous) as it was coming out I fell in love with her writing and now I’ll basically pick up anything with her name on it. And I mean, just look at that cover. How could you look at that and not want to immediately see what’s inside? Big props to Miguel Mercado.
That being said about the cover, it is a bit weird when you open the book and the art is completely different from what you were expecting. Now, Matias Basla’s art is great, it’s just not what I was expecting.
I wasn’t sure what I thought about Basla’s art at first but I really grew to appreciate it the more I read. Its more cartoonish but it still has this sharpness to it so it doesn’t feel overly childish, and it does work great with this fantasy-filled world. When I first saw Crispin, I thought “wow, I don’t know what he is, but he’s perfect”. The cute things are cute and the monsters are monstrous and the things in between, like Crispin, can shift to either side.
I guess I could actually tell you about the book, huh? Well, our heroine, Artemesia (I love that name) is the illegitimate daughter of a Naval Captain. Her father and the rest of her family are high class, leaving Artemesia as on outcast and target for anger and discrimination by her peers as well as her own family, except her younger sister, Caroline. She just wants to escape and be free.
Well, the Faerie Queen grants her wish, by taking her place in the human world and sending her to the Faerie Realm. Despite the hatred the human world has shown her, Artemesia must kill or be killed, gaining power along the way the more and stronger creatures she kills. It was pitched as “Victorian teen fairy fight club” and I thought, “how is that going to work” but here it is working perfectly right before my eyes.
Something I’m always confident Delilah S. Dawson will give me is a solid, strong character. I have to say, she continues to not disappoint. I like Artemesia a lot. Even though she was transported to another realm and talking to basically the Cheshire cat, she did not take any crap from him.
She was forced to make a deal though, and he only took her happiest memory, but I’m very curious as to what the memory was and how it will effect her as she continues. The way she reacted afterwards I have my worries that this is a Rumplestiltskin in Shrek situation where her one memory actually caused her to forget a whole lot more. Yes, I made that reference. It was the best comparison I could muster, cut me some slack.
OVERALL SCORE: 8.5 / 10
Make sure you pick up a copy of Sparrowhawk #1 from your local comic shop! Happy reading!
