3 out of 5

Bearing the tag of being part of ‘The Foreworld Saga’ – and seeing as how I’ve only read two out of the many books of that series – it’s highly possible I’m missing some context regarding the characters and world of Cimarronin.  To that extent, I poked at some other reviews to see if people considered that a barrier to entry, and on the whole it seems like we’re agreed: some of this feels confusing, and in the later chapters of Cimarronin that distills a bit of the urgency, but the main characters and concept are absolutely defined enough between the covers to merit a good read.  A great read, at times, really only hampered by what I’ve just mentioned… as well as the fact that these boys, to my knowledge, ain’t comic writers, and so any seasoned comic reader will pick up on the failings in the narrative; things that would make more sense in a novel but feel jumpy when told via sequential art.

It’s 1632.  Longtime friends from different worlds Luis – a Jesuit priest – and Kitazume – a disgraced samurai – get embroiled in a chase to find or stop or help a Manchu princess on her quest to get to Mexico and kill some Spaniards.  The motivations are a bit murky, and our writers toss us in head first, but we get a history lesson to set the stage, telling us about the flow of silver from Mexico to Ming that the Manchu wish to spoil.  Though it’s still a bit murky as that is, truly, just the stage, with our Manchu princess having her own agenda spin, Luis having his own, and a batch of slaves with which the princess travels having their as well.  But it boils down to an extended chase, told across two mini-series that are collected here, and that we can easily get on board with.

The first mini, A Samurai in New Spain, is brought to us by Robert Sammelin, who illustrates the Foreworld’s writers obsession with swordplay excitingly, as well as imbuing our leads with full personalities which can be seen at a glance.  Fall of the Cross complete the TPB, now illustrated by Dean Kotz.  The order is important, as the tone established by Sammelin is carried over into Kotz’s art, which is much more rough.  It has its own sense of flow, which still maintains the action scenes’ energy, but panels do feel a bit more crowded and stiff in his hand.  The uncolored art at the end, included as a bonus, is a nice touch, then, as it shows how complete Sammelin’s pages are just at the inked stage, and how much more solid Kotz’s stuff looks – and how much more detail it carries – when it’s not suffused with word balloons or colors.

The story tends to jump a bit, scenes and concepts cut that may have been less jarring when filled in via inference in a book, and we do run into some talking heads moments, that our artists deal with to the best of their ability.  But Cimarronin isn’t boring, even if historical fiction ain’t your forte, and has a little dash of everything – mystery, drama, action – to appeal to a wide range of readers.  It would be cool to continue adding to the Foreworld world via this medium, and it’ll be even cooler if practice gives our creatives the ability to more properly take advantage of the format.