2 out of 5

Unless you’re being allow to build your own castle in a given sandbox, video game comics… generally don’t work. These are promotional things; trying to get you interested in a game – not full stories. Such comics straddle a weird line between assuming you know the subject matter to a degree, and also needing to hold your hand. Any promotional comic feels like a rough for-hire task – you’re writing a commercial, essentially – but there’s something specific to these video game ones where the two different mediums just don’t quite work with each other.

In the case of Epic Tavern, some type of fantasy Sims game, even in the inside cover feels conflicted in terms of what it’s presenting me with, telling me to check out specific quests with specific characters, before I have any context on that. And the bulk of the story is an exposition dump with ADD, trying to jam in as many tidbits about character and lore, while circling around a loose story where “Fantastical Crimes Unit” detective Victor Marshall is trying to track down a missing centaur.

Shawn French does an acceptable job managing the info + story, although the buddy cop humor between Marshall and the rogues with which he works isn’t timed very well (again, trying to replicate something from the game, I’m assuming), but that’s a bow on a poopy assignment in general, and not one I’m really clear why it went to the Black Caravan horror imprint instead of Scout.

Steve Mardo’s art has a kind of Avatar house-style to it – somewhat stiff, flat figures – which isn’t a bad thing per se, but more to suggest it doesn’t have its own flavor, necessarily. The extra visual gags dotted about are appreciated; the book is more detailed than it likely needed to be. Steve Lavigne adds a professional precision to the colors; I was admittedly impressed to see a book like this look so good, then I saw Lavigne’s name and realized we were dealing with an old pro.

Not quite sure what the demo for this book is. I bought it as a collector of BC stuff, but unless this is a stepping stone to an ongoing series, but otherwise, it’s a pretty clunky standalone, and not a very encouraging ad for a game.