Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Road of Knives by Zak Smith and Shawn Cheng
Road of Knives is a print version of Zak Smith, Shawn Cheng,and Nicholas Di Genova’s excellent battle blog, Road of Knives. In the foreground of the first panel, Zak drops in a nightmarish beast hunched over with an absurdly large axe. Underneath in the next panel, Shawn draws a pair of ominous-looking, ferociously armed serpentine warriors – and a much less ominous little guy. This little dude looks totally out of place. He’s definitely outclassed by the other menacing figures on the page.

On the next page the battle begins; coiled figures unload on each other as swords slice through flesh. On page 5 the little dude is almost crushed by a severed head. He disappears after that as the battle heats up. Later on page 11, you see him hauling ass away from the battle site. At this point, both artists’ canvases expand. The monsters grow to terrible heights, filling the page with their swollen and grotesque bodies.

Both artists excel at this type of subject matter. And this format allows unfettered imagination and a ridiculous game of one-upmanship.

Road of Knives features 16 pages of beastly carnage underneath a gorgeous silver screen printed cover. Get your copy for $2 from the Partyka online store.

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