BOOM! Studios release a fantasy graphic novel where a modern human being from another world lives his life in a world of magic and monsters in Folklords.
So, here’s what I’m expecting to have a story that is more of a dream and that is when someone jumped into a different world. It’s no hallucination whatsoever, but it’s every kid’s dream to go on an adventure in a fantasy world filled with magic and monsters. The story is written by Matt Kindt and illustrated by Matt Smith, I mean is there any Matts around just to create this graphic novel is like making a comic with two heads is better than one.
The front cover shows a village that is filled by different people and creatures which is much more explanatory, to begin with. There’s the main character with his school uniform or something walking down the stairs, the dwarves as well and one of them is carrying a goose and one of them is having the boar carry his stuff. While the townspeople looked more than normal, to begin with. The giant in the middle is standing by the houses, and the red hooded people are very suspicious. However, I’d say that this front cover is worth as the Joker stairs in The Bronx. The story starts when the narrator interrupts with a usual “Once upon a Time…” cliché and changed to a different text panel which is “No.. Just this one time.” Well here comes another fourth wall breaker people. There’s a kid named Ansel who came from another world who actually invents some gadgets that don’t have electricity in this world, however, the narrator claims that his knowledge is a curse. The problem is that everyone in this town is wondering about the boy’s appearance for wearing his suit or something but his quest is to find the folklords. The quest for finding the folklords is strictly prohibited by the Guild of Librarians which is more like the cult people. So later on, he and Archer are going on a quest to find the folklords by themselves.
The thing is this quest is becoming more cursed than a legend since the Librarians have them right under their noses. But finding the folklords never said that it’s an easy quest for them, they encountered some obstacles from other fairy tale stories. There he met an ogre-like human being who is being cursed from the candy house helped him escape their torture and told him about the folklords quest which seemed to him that he’s a fan of futile causes and suicide missions at the very least. So Ansel and the Ogre reached the branch library of the banned book which is actually a librarian’s stronghold who is guarding the forbidden books of the sacred realm. On the way to the library, you’ll see one of the most cliched realms that you’ll ever visit, there’s a room with thousands of books vast in their collection, and there’s a fancy dressed dwarf sitting there reading a book while drinking tea. And another one which relates as a detective story and some other world that looks like Jim Henson’s Storyteller series. Seriously, there are many doors that take you to different dimensions, maybe if Ansel goes to New York, where he’ll meet the ninja turtles fighting the foot. But right until they reached the light at the end of the tunnel, there he meets John Ronald who is actually the Folklord. A folklord who poses as an old man with a suit from another world. Even for that matter, he acts like he owns the library, heck he OWNS this world. This counts for anything that happened in this world, however, the folklore is just another story to be told.
The story itself shows such a metaphor of how the world existed when the folklore is around and the whole library as well. The quest for finding the folklord is more than such a legend from the beginning. Ansel made a brave decision to find the folklord and somehow the world seemed different where he comes from because there are many objectives to learn from this world. The art is more creative as usual, the characters are out of this world because they interact very well, and the creatures are more realistic, like the gorilla who always likes Ansel’s goat-curry pie, the ogre, and even so the comic shows some flashback when the main character is having visions of the real world out there which is foreshadowing to the readers. The librarians are more aggressive as before when they informed the townspeople that the quest of the folklord is strictly prohibited. And to know that the knowledge is turning into a curse, what fate lies to Ansel? So, Folklords is an interesting graphic novel to read if you like fantasy knowledge. Well anyway, if you rather want to read another fantasy adventure comic where every knowledge in this world is a curse then this is for you.
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