Slogging Towards Destiny:
Tales of Pylea, reviewed by Anthony R. Cardno

I have a friend who abandons almost every webcomic project he starts, complaining that his latest awesome idea has already been done by someone else, that he can’t seem to find a truly original concept he can call his own.  I’ve told him several times that, as the saying goes, there are no “new” story concepts – that what he needs to worry about is putting his own spin on a concept and exploring where it takes him.  That’s what webcomics (and novels) are all about now: finding a twist to an old story rather than finding a new story to tell.

Tales of Pylea is an excellent example of how hard that can be.  At its most basic, it’s just a reiteration of a story that has been around as long as spoken language:  the Quest of a young hero to find something or someone, which leads him to his destiny. In this case, the young hero is F’Nor.  At sea on a more personal quest (to find his long-missing father), he has a chance encounter with the beautiful Arianhod. The young lady is being chased by a powerful being named Uthnar.  It only takes a few pages to set up the core triangle, as F’Nor’s personal quest becomes a subplot to a larger quest (for three powerful artifacts).

Pylea is a fairly standard fantasy world:  medieval-level society and technology (the fastest form of transportation is still a horse; the longest-reaching hand weapon is still a bow and arrows), replete with walled villages of thatch-roofed huts, open farmland and dark forests with dangerous creatures.  Magic exists but does not seem to be commonplace (although all three main characters and several supporting characters appear to have strong magickal connections).  Series creator and artist Aimee Chow has developed Pylea over a number of years and pretty much hits all the standard tropes as far as world development goes.  She veers a little from the standard by making the worst monsters in the physical world a band of vampires (who seem to be able to walk in daylight with no problem,) a nice change from orcs.  There are Elves, but they seem more warrior-minded than ethereal.  There are also gods who seem to be more real than they are myth.  And of course there’s a larger threat that will put the good guys to the test and help the bad guys to succeed – in this case, a race of demons from another world.

And there’s the twist, of a sort: what starts out as a standard fantasy of good striving against the return of a Big Evil begins to evolve facets of Judeo-Christian story (the big bad is a fallen god, aligned with demons; the young hero has a mysterious past and demons are afraid to speak his name) that may lead the characters, and the reader, in some unexpected directions.

The art, unfortunately, is hit or miss.  More recent pages fare better thanks to the coloring work of Alice Fox (such as this sunset), a strong addition to the team of creators.  But many of the pencilled pages look rushed (and Chow admits as much in quite a few author’s notes).  When she takes the time to really strengthen her initial pencils, pages pop with energy.

The story itself drags a bit.  Chapter One is way too long considering how much shorter the subsequent chapters are.  Part of this seems to be the result of a rotating crew of script-writers that Chow has brought on board to help her with dialogue, which seems to have resulted in quite a few long sections of exposition.  Exposition is necessary sometimes, of course.  Current writer Matt Summers seems to have a stronger concept of how to get information across while allowing his artist to do what she does best: draw scenes that are more than just talking heads.

I’m going to give Tales of Pylea three stars, mostly on the strength of where it could go than on where it’s been.  F’Nor is slogging towards his destiny, Arianhod is moving towards hers, and Uthnar is … well, he’s got an agenda too.  If the creators can pick up the pace and put together some more consistent art, TOP could be a series to watch. Rating:

Tales of Pylea

http://talesofpylea.com

by Aimee Chow and Matt Summers

review by Anthony Cardno

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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Andy Samberg once inspired a country to consume Red Vines and Mr. Pibb in celebration of Chronicles of Narnia. For today’s review of Aimee Chow and Matt Summers’ Tales of Pylea, you might want to go a little downscale: Sam’s Choice licorice and root beer, perhaps. Instead of a dreamworld of magic, Pylea brings us weak sissy fights, absurdly pointless scenes about eating eggs at a tavern, and the world’s least threatening demonic creatures.

You know it’s fantasy because of preponderance of pointy ears and the tongue-twister quality of the characters’ names: F’nor, Gobenhock, L’Shun, and a slew of others that sound like they were lifted wholesale from the Eye of Argon. (Coincidentally, not unlike Argon, this comic is best read in the company of two sassy robots.) Tales of Pylea is a little bit of a misnomer, since it only follows one tale, two at best. The B-story is a trite tale about a scantily clad female elf named Arianhod and her strict warrior training regimen, which — I kid you not — mostly consists of how long you can stay balanced on one hand.

In the main story, our hero, F’nor …

Crow: Isn’t that some sort of Hungarian dish that goes great with spatzle?
Tom: I’d really love to buy a vowel right now.

… is approached by a mystery woman who entrusts him with a relic. In a plot twist that in no way recalls The Lord of the Rings, the MacGuffin holds some sort of ancient power that the bad guys want to get a hold of. Then F’nor gets into a couple of gentle scrapes with aforementioned baddies. I admit I enjoyed these somewhat, but for my own reasons: I imagined the characters spitting out every line with the hyperkinetic inflection you’d find on Dragonball Z. Otherwise, the fight sequences are confusingly paced. I was genuinely caught off guard when one fight came to an abrupt end.

F’nor finds his contact, goes to sleep at the inn, eats tavern food, and finds out that his relic is a sword with a butt-ugly handle. And… that’s about it. Whew! How were Chow and Summers able to cram so much story in only four years? By the way, for a guy who’s supposed to be the story’s leading man, F’nor is as bland as a box of saltines. I’d say he was one-dimensional, but that may be giving him too much credit. There’s nothing much to define him beyond his pretty face, hair to die for, and a skin-tight outfit stolen from the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. His companions fare worse, and from time to time, I had a hard time telling them apart. (It’s hard to distinguish characters who have boring, lifeless hair.)

And then there’s the antagonist, the vampiric villain Uthnar, who, for some reason, looks like a mulleted Aquaman. I wager that he’s supposed to come off as frightening and menacing. Instead, he comes off as a huge tool. The guy yells every other word he speaks, even when he’s ordering drinks, of all things. He talks in hilariously clunky syntax, making empty threats straight out of a 1980’s Saturday morning cartoon. (Example: “We shall meet again, and next time, the relic, as well as your head, will be mine!”) In what may be the goofiest mannerism of all, he walks around without a shirt. Why? Perhaps his vampiric state requires a greater degree of heat transfer than normal humans, but personally I think he just wants to totally show off his fabulous rock-hard six pack.

It seems strange, though, that Uthnar spends most of the story trying to find out people’s names. (Again, I kid you not.) I guess villainy isn’t all about fun things like looting and pillaging; there a less thrilling, bureaucratic side that the movies never show. Bonus dialogue: “Take the name to the Witchkin, I want ANYTHING and EVERYTHING about this name DIVINED, I want to know WHO he is, WHERE he’s from, EVERYTHING.” Naturally, I enjoyed reading about “The Adventures of Uthnar” more than anything else in Pylea. He’s so campy, pro wrestlers would take this guy aside and ask him to tone it down a notch. But, you know, that’s also like saying I enjoy acne more than I enjoy cholera.

The art is fine, but nothing spectacular. It’s a manga house style that’s indistinguishable from other wannabe manga artists. (Compare that to anything done by webcomic contemporary Remy Mokhtar.) I think Chow and Summers were aiming to tell an action packed fantasy story that’s easily accessible. A sort of Lord of the Rings with all of the trappings but none of the encyclopedic backstory, if you will. But you know, there’s fun and light-hearted, and then there’s cheesy and empty — the webcomic version of a Sci-fi Network Original Series. I’ll let you guess which category Pylea falls in.

Rating:

Tales of Pylea
by Aimee Chow and Matt Summers
http://talesofpylea.com/
review by Larry Cruz

(4 votes, average: 1 out of 5)

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This was a hard one to write a review for, namely because overall, the comic held very little appeal for me. Unlike other comics, however, it was not due to being un-family friendly, or horrid artwork, or vulgarity. Quite the contrary I found the artwork to be quite good (if not somewhat familiar - I think a lot of the webcomic artists out there went to the same courses and learned their trade). The lines are clean and crisp, and the comic itself well laid out and smooth. On that note, though, I have to say I didn’t care for the dialogue lettering. It looked far too much like someone had taken a comic strip and did cut/paste from a word processor. Something about it just didn’t match up with the artwork, and that kept drawing my eye away from the comic proper.

The second negative for me (which was NOT the artist’s fault by any means) was the sheer volume of comics to go through. There’s a lot here, and since most of it seems to be exposition and setting, that translated into a lot to slog through.

Would I recommend the comic to others? Absolutely. I didn’t find anything to not recommend it. Would I go back and re-read it or follow it? Probably not. I’m more of an action type, myself.

All I can say is, give it a go and see what you think!

For things about the comic that I, personally didn’t like and were mainly attributed to my own tastes, I give the comic 3 stars. Rating:

Tales of Pylea

http://talesofpylea.com

by Aimee Chow and Matt Summers

review by Jay Slay

(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Tales of Pylea is a fantasy comic with a very lengthy story. The stage is set for some dramatic events but we’ll see how things progress.

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