From Aspen Comics, Vince Hernandez, Vincenzo Cucca, Mark Roslan, Emilio Lopez, Josh Reed.

I wont lie about this issue.  There is a lot of set up here for the rest of the series.  But its really good set up.  How good?  Magical giant lion made of fire and magical energies good!

There are many wanna be writers who ask successful ones, “how do you come up with your ideas?”  I’m a creative person and have never thought such a thing but sonofabitch Vince Hernandez blows my mind with this series.  There’s the aforementioned giant magical lion, Torgan to his friends.  Huge evil spider-scorpion things, sprites, possessions and of course the entire Earth being destroyed by magic run wild.  Its such a huge story but he manages to keep it simple by focusing on our beloved and well known leads.  Hank, Sudana and Sparkles are experts in this magical world but the story always progresses with just the right amount of unforced exposition.  Explanations and introductions flow naturally and with purpose for the larger story.

The entire artistic team deserves so much credit for making these characters loved.  Hank and Sudana are portrayed with some of the most expressive eyes ever on the comics page.  Hank looks up with a text book example of worry.  Cut that panel and put it in a how to make comics book.  Then Sudana who I always want to put at the top of the list for great Aspen Comics women.  Not a short list either.  She’s drawn so beautifully and then her face shows so much power and confidence.  She gives Hank some incredible bedroom eyes.  Her look screams, lets save the world then I’m going to rock yours.

Plus the glow of magic courses through from pencils to inks to colors to letters.  The pages crackle with energy and readers should ready a counter spell in case any of that magic spills off the page and turns your dog into a cat or something.

I strongly recommend picking up the first volume of Charismagic so these characters can live in your heart and bring forth the joy in volume two that the rest of us long time readers are feeling.