The Knights of the Round Table were looking for the Holy Grail. Brave Roland with his sword Durendal tried to stop the Saracens. And what drives the actions of the title "Knight Janek" from the fantasy comic book published by Kultura Gniewu?
The answer is boredom. Dissatisfied with his previous adventure, Janek goes to the witch Rodzanica, who is to pose a real challenge to the protagonist. It turns out to be a journey to a kingdom with a familiar-sounding name: Zacnystaw. Prince Mścigniew, who wields it, faces bankruptcy. What is the easiest way to refill voided vaults? By invading a neighboring land. A giant lock-mech powered by the blood of innocent subjects is best suited for this. Janek accidentally becomes involved in all this courtly intrigue, which is at stake for thousands of lives.
Behind the seven ponds
The comic’s atmosphere resembles Shrek, thanks to a story based on a fairy tale pattern, but at the same time lined with huge layers of irony. There are plenty of winks to the reader and pop-culture references, such as the Ezgoskeleton of Mścigniew, painfully reminiscent of the armor of a superhero from Marvel’s stories. I love absurdity, and there’s plenty of it here. Humor pours out of most frames: both the interactions between the characters and the little flavors placed in the pictures (e.g. cameocharacters from comic books by other Polish artists). Also, some elements of the heroes’ creation are similar. Prince, narcissist, self-centered and wicked, he even looks like Lord Farquaad. Janek, like a green ogre, is an outsider in the kingdom. With the significant difference that the title knight is not like an onion and does not have many layers – he was instilled with the ideals of chivalry, but he does not sin with cleverness. With his good heart and puppy intelligence, he reminded me of Gourry Gabriev from Slayers. Even blonde bangs alike.
Rated R
There is, however , an element that grinds in the Knight Janek : brutality. Almost the whole story is kept in a light spirit, and at some point there are elements whose blood and “fluffiness” do not differ far from the former Happy Three Friends. I don’t mind gore elements in comics, even the colored ones. Though I’m not a fan, I hate fairy tales, this title stuck to the established convention from the beginning to the end. On the other hand, the work of Polish artists could reach a younger reader, if not for some frames, full of guts and missing members. If Mazur and Siennicki wanted to reach an adult audience, the script has too few mature elements, especially since the short summaries of previous adventures (which I have not had the opportunity to read) contained in the appendices do not seem to have such a problem. The descriptions reveal even more interesting stories than in the Instruction on the proper sacrifice to forgotten deities, such as the one in which Janek, having made a household mistake, cuts the innocent party guests into the trunk, or a duel between a knight and Satan in a black Volga. There is far too little such perversity in the new title.
The magic of color
The element that I admire without any doubts is the graphic layer. The world created by Jan Mazur is vibrant with life, and the frames are rich and filled with colorful characters. A very good solution is to use a thick outline, which gives the whole cartoon character. The characters may not sin with originality (with the exception of Mścigniew and his hanging false beard), but they look nice. What stole my heart the most was the splendid and innovative robot lock, with its shape resembling… a grasshopper. All this was brilliantly colored by Spell, who often and densely reaches for saturated colors. It almost looks like a finished export product for an animated Netflix adaptation. A truly masterful level, which has gained a worthy cover in the form of a hard cover and an enlarged format (so large,
Good comic
Knight Janek and the instruction on the correct sacrifices to forgotten gods (long titles are the best!) Do not bring any revolutionary changes in the plot. It’s a solid pastiche with no ambition to redefine the genre. However, I am able to forgive a certain clichédness and I hope that the next stories will follow fantastic patterns in a more decisive way. As long as they were equally beautifully drawn and colored.
