The My Little Pony Legends of Magic Omnibus is a big book! So big, you might want your pony around to help you carry it home from the bookstore or comic shop.
Having said that, if you are a seeker of legend about the previous generations of Little Ponies, this is your book!
Inside this IDW Omnibus are collected the complete 12 issue series of Legends of Magic, plus the 2018 annual.
And inside THOSE issues are countless adventures of Starswirl, the legendary (sorry) Pony of olde. A self-aggrandizer he may indeed have been, but a storyteller nonetheless. Plus Rockhoof, Mistmane, Flash Magnus, Somnambula and Mage Meadowbrook.
The whole kit and kaboodle is written by Jeremy Whitley (Princeless, Raven Pirate Princess, Unstoppable Wasp, Future Foundation, Rainbow Brite, etc). Brenda Hickey from Prince Edward Island Canada (Tatian in Halls of the Turnip King, and Ward’s Valley) illustrated issues #1-6 plus the annual, and Tony Fleecs (Jeff Steinberg: Champion of Earth, etc) illustrates #7-12, also collected here.
This massive volume can actually be a little overwhelming, so best to unravel it gradually. The dialogue is frequently thick and dense, with formal construction throughout, such as this comment from Starswirl: “If a Pony does not possess the power to control which door they open, a more powerful force may choose for them. Many of those worlds contain evils worse than you could dream, evils that have devoured the light of their own world, and hunger for a taste of a new world.” It’s perhaps best read aloud by an adult to younger readers, where the adult can explain in simple terms what it all means.
The drawings by Hickey and Fleecs are mostly small figures, black outlined, with heavy colour. Most of the action takes place in long shot, where we clearly see the Ponies and their surroundings. Better for younger readers to navigate. While colourist Heather Breckel (Godzilla Half Century War, Peter Panzerfaust, Number 13 etc) gives us wall-to-wall luscious tones, at times the full intensity of the purples, mauves and blues all compete for our attention. It’s super saturated and dramatic.
All in all, a big strong book of Legends to take the imagination where it has seldom cantered before!
IDW My Little Pony Legends of Magic, $24.99 for 324 pages of content. All ages
@jrome58 @TonyFleecs @angienessyo
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