Quixote #1 [Small Press]

Quixote #1 (AndWorld Design): I’d read some of Deron Bennett’s Eisner-Nominated lettering work previously in strong Archaia offerings like Cyborg 009 or Tale of Sand, but what really grabbed my attention was his recent work on Hacktivist, with Alyssa Milano, Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Marcus To, and Ian Herring. That said, I was eager to check out his scripting ability on his first self-published writing venture, Quixote #1. Bennett creates a swift-moving plot with cool sounding names, like “The Port City of Berona” and “Castle Morran,” weaving a tale about a lost artifact called the Anima Stone which may grant power to the bearer to unite and rule the Nine Continents. He does use a bit of a standard “Chosen One” narrative trope as a protagonist throughline, but I was engaged by the fabled backstory involving a race of Lemurians who lost their culture right along with the disappearance of their supposedly adversarial “Giants.” Dan Mora’s art has some isolated instances of awkward contorted poses, or issues with limb proportion, but overall it suits the tone of the story quite well. I particularly enjoyed the excellent hieroglyphics sequence that visually tells the story of the long-lost Giants and the ancient Lemurians. Quixote almost feels Disney-esque in nature, with likeable light-hearted characters, nicely designed robot suits, mythic storytelling, and evil afoot, all culminating in a tale of fun high fantasy. Grade B+.