I tend to have an unfortunate predisposition towards harshly judging new stories when their lead character has an obnoxiously precious sort of name (and the same goes for the name of the comic itself, because I can’t bring myself to read that book called Trish Out Of Water). Umbral, the new fantasy tale from Antony Johnston and Christopher Mitten, nearly triggered that bias with a spunky, wrong-side-of-the-moat protagonist named Rascal. But I pressed onward, and found a mildly refreshing take on the genre – namely because Rascal is a young-adult heroine, but also a foul-mouthed criminal.
In the Kingdom of Fendin, King Petor and Queen Innaline are bickering about ceremonial business coinciding with a solar eclipse – or “twice-dawned day,” as Petor refers to it. Meanwhile, their son, Prince Arthir, is aiding his secret friend Rascal with her task of stealing a mystical orb called the Oculus, out of some sort of spite towards his own status. But when they enter the trophy room to nab it, they find it’s already been stolen, and eventually learn that shadow creatures have killed Arthir’s family. When the two interrupt the dark ritual being performed, Rascal manages to steal the Oculus back, but loses Arthir in the process – and then she escapes into a twisted world she doesn’t understand – the world called the Umbral. When she finally makes her way out, it’s as if nothing has happened – the king and queen are alive and well, and it might have all been a crazy nightmare. But no. Creepy tooth shadow wraiths (also called The Umbral) still abound, and they’re after her – and they may be working with her mentor Gearge, Master of the Thieves’ Guild.
It’s a very purple book. Much of it takes place either in an eclipse-shadowed land or in the strange underworld dimension, and it’s awash in shadowy black and violet. The fantasy genre has never particularly been where my fiction interest lies (I appreciate it but rarely gravitate towards it), but Johnston manages to pierce some hooks through the inky hues with modern speech (mostly profanity, no ridiculous internet slang or anything, rest assured). The Umbral look really disturbing, with their eerie red orifices and ethereal forms, so kudos to Mitten for bringing that out. Johnston says in the afterword that this project is him writing towards what Mitten wants to draw, so we’re likely to see some really frightening stuff out of the artist.
Johnston’s story keeps you guessing – you don’t really expect things like Arthir getting zapped out of existence, leaving Rascal holding the bloody stump of his arm – and he wastes little time in getting the story in gear. The first issue is a full-on shadow-jerk invasion, after all. If magic and toothy things what go ‘boo’ in the night trip your trigger, you shan’t go wrong with Umbral #1.
