The ruler of a kingdom dies leaving the courtiers squabbling over who should take over. Then a sorceress appears, scattering everyone, and whoever makes it back to the castle… becomes ruler, or something?
Geis (pronounced “gesh” - it’s Gaelic for “curse”) is a crap comic. The setting is generic fantasy, the story is poorly told and nebulous - if the sorceress wants to rule the kingdom, why scatter the court? Why not just kill them? What are they making it back to the castle for? - and the characterisation is minimal. I can’t recall any of their names, even the girl on the cover who I think is meant to be the main character. No idea who she is or what she’s doing at court.
The artwork is as bad as the writing. The painted art looks like it was drawn using half-dried-out felt tip pens and coloured with the most muted colours. Alexis Deacon can clearly draw but I still didn’t like the look of this book.
As I got nearer the end I began to wonder how Deacon would conclude her story given the dwindling page count and then the book just ends. Apparently, even though there’s no indication on the cover or title page, this is the first book in a trilogy, hence the abrupt ending! Well I’m definitely not coming back to see what happens next.
Maybe young readers might be taken with this comic - I think that’s the target audience anyway - even if I don’t think kids will find the washed out wavy art very appealing. Everyone else can continue ignoring Geis - you’re not missing anything special.
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