Lucas Blogs About Lake of Fire

Remember Cowboys and Aliens? No? Me neither.

 So, what's this book's deal?

I thought you'd never ask, Hypothetical Reader. The deal with Lake of Fire is that it's a comic book written, colored, and lettered by Nathan Fairbairn and drawn by Matt Smith. The pithy synopsis is that it's crusaders vs. aliens.

Perhaps a less pithy synopsis is in order.

Yeah, okay, have you heard of the Albigensian Crusade?

You mean the twenty year campaign of extermination against the Cathars in the Languedoc region of France in the early 13th Century?

Yes, that Albigensian Crusade. Lake of Fire takes place in 1220, about halfway through. After a couple of pages showing a spaceship crashing, we cut to Theo and Hugh, two teenage boys who have set off to join the crusade before the campaigning season is over. However, when they arrive they discover that a family friend, Count Henry, has been dispatched to bring them home and has overtaken them on the road. Sensing an opportunity to get multiple problems off of his hands at once, the commander sends Theo and Hugh off to a village called Montaillou in order to investigate heresy. They are accompanied by Henry, as well as the Dominican Friar Brother Arnaud, and several other knights led by Sir Raymond, a battle-scarred and jaded knight who can no longer find purpose in the midst of the chaos and bloodshed of war. When they arrive in Montaillou, they find that the villagers have all retreated to the keep and tell of bestial demons that have dragged away townsfolk. Arnaud is quick to blame their tolerance of a young Cathar woman named Bernadette who lives outside of town, but when the party goes to arrest her, they are waylaid by tusked, exoskeletoned, monsters. Are these demons from Hell? Will Hugh and Theo learn that war isn't a glorious undertaking? Will Arnauld repeatedly attempt to murder Bernadette for heresy? Will Raymond find a sense of purpose?

Let me guess: No. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Well, go ahead and take all the fun out of it, why don't you?

I mean, given what you've already revealed about the plot those do seem like the most obvious answers.

Fair enough.

So, did you enjoy Lake of Fire?

I did. That said, if you had asked me what I thought of it as a comic book, I'd say it's only okay. There are a lot of things it does well, but there are also things that hold it back. But let's start with what's good.

I'm game. What's good?

Well, let's start with the art. Matt Smith's illustration-style falls nicely in line with my tastes. Just stylized enough to be interesting while still maintaining realistic proportions. He also does a good job with character designs, creating faces distinct enough that they can still be recognized even when most of the characters are knights wearing similar clothing and helmets that obscure parts of their faces. The characters also aren't idealized, they have scars, ragged hair, splotchy complexions, little imperfections that help distinguish them from each other. I will say that the designs on the alien spaceship (spoilers?) and of the alien monsters themselves aren't particularly unique or original. They aren't necessarily bad, they just don't stand out as memorable. But with that said, I also like the way that the book visually communicates that the aliens that our main characters are fighting aren't the ones that were piloting the ship.

Oh?

Yeah, when they're exploring the ship, the characters discover the mutilated corpses of the crew, and they belong to a more visibly humanoid alien species. So, the red monster aliens are more like an infestation that caused the crash. And since there's no way to communicate this to the characters, it ends up just being a visual detail in the artwork. So, both Matt Smith and writer/colorist Nathan Fairbairn did a good job with that.

And speaking of the writing, is that any good?

That is one of the weaker elements of the book. Not that Fairbairn is a terrible writer or anything, but I'll be honest, the alien monsters story doesn't quite mesh with the story about the knights. But let's start with what works. The characters, while mostly types, are well-drawn. Fairbairn's dialogue allows them to have believable motivations and even small moments of humanity amidst the horror. For example, when the otherwise gruff Raymond sits down and talks to a villager about his missing son in order to calm him down, or the respect that develops between Hugh and Bernadette in spite of the fact that they both initially view each other as heretics. And Fairbairn also doesn't pull any punches when it comes to casualties among the main characters, most of whom are dead by the end of the book, and many of these deaths are genuinely emotionally affecting. However, like I said, I do feel like certain story elements are in tension with each other, so let's talk about that a little.

You're the blogger.

So, there's really two sections of the book. In the first half, the knights are sent off on a wild goose chase to get them out of the way. They're either too young, too old, or too insubordinate to be useful. It seems like it's going to be a pretty standard story of young men going off to war and becoming disillusioned. Oh, and of course about a religious zealot using his authority to push people around. And then the second half is a horror story about alien monsters terrorizing a town and a small group trying to save them. Sort of like Seven Samurai but with the bandits replaced by xenomorphs. And on their own, neither is a bad premise for a story, but somehow together they end up becoming less than the sum of their parts. Sure, the characters learn lessons about the costs of war and the dangers of bigotry, but most of them die in the end, and their deaths aren't necessarily related to the lessons they need to learn. The exception to this maybe being Raymond, who finally finds a purpose he can believe in after ten years of slaughter. But on the whole, I'm just not quite sold on the whole thing.

Okay, so what's the verdict?

It's okay, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but I also wouldn't say that it's a complete waste of time.

Lake of Fire written, colored, and lettered by Nathan Fairbairn, illustrated by Matt Smith, Image Comics trade paperback edition, February 2017, 140 pages, pairs well with campfire stories and harsh realities

Links:

Here's the writer's website, if you're into that kinda thing.

And here's the artist's website, if you're into that kinda thing.