4 out of 5

I was a bit turned off when I started reading ‘Fox Children,’ which seemed to present a much more gabby Geralt than the one that’d be introduced in the first volume, which I’d enjoyed.  I was hanging on to this series as the thread by which Paul Tobin dangled in my collection, having sifted through a handful of titles after Witcher with his name on it and finding problems with most of them, so maybe I was looking for fault, to clear up my feelings toward his work once and for all.  But time has passed, and I can now read the series in one sitting.  And that initial negative impression never came back.

Geralt is still moody, he’s just paired with a capable partner in this series – a dwarf who’s accompanying him on a section of his journey, and who seemingly enjoys Geralt’s company.  And Geralt is still stoic, he’s just got someone to bounce banter off of this time, which is presumably why Paul introduced him.  And in a nice touch, he establishes pretty early on that there’s no lack of trust between the duo, each a formidable fighter, each willing to fight for the other, so we can settle into his part of the story as a truly supporting character, and not worry about some last minute twisty-turn where he backstabs our main man.  They end up boarding a ship with some other questionable characters, though, and these guys have backstabby underlining all of their vague references to Something Geralt Doesn’t Know.  Which our Witcher puts up with for all of a few pages before getting the rundown: that, for the hopes of earning some coin, the ship’s crew have taken the daughter of a Vulpess, a type of shape-shifting fox demon.  Geralt and the dwarf tell them they’re fucked and wish to bid them adieu, when, in a wonderful noir-ish development, a member of the crew accidentally kills the daughter, and events soon make it clear that the Vulpess knows all, ain’t happy, and ain’t planning on letting anybody go home.

Each cover features a new beastie, building interest for what that issue will have thrown at our crew next.  The story could probably have dropped an issue or two, as it becomes a bit of rinse and repeat – Vulpess conjures an illusion of safety, idiots run toward it, idiots die – but Tobin peppers things with some nice character building and further reveals that keep the mood nice and nervy and flesh out the personalities of the various shipmates.  And the ending is wonderfully haunting and complete.

Joe Querio does an excellent job once again of making this fantasy setting fascinating to look at, a dash of James Herren expressionism to his characters with a bit more of a formal, paced paneling, which matches the series.  But it’s colorist Carlos Badilla who really seals the deal, wonderful background blends with harm, purple-ish hues atop, making day and night and land and sea scenes all rich and rewarding to study.

So I guess I’m holding out full judgment of the Witcher comic world until the (hopefully) next volume, but I’m really digging what Paul is doing here so far, and will be picking up that next volume without hesitation.