Tiger Queen – review of the comic book “Isola”, vol. 2

Isola ‘s creators , screenwriter Brendan Fletcher and cartoonist Karl Kerschl, admitted in interviews that they were not interested in the traditional “Western” approach to plot construction. Instead, their works contain references to the Japanese way of telling stories, where the starting point is the relationships between the characters. However, this experiment (?) Was not entirely successful.

The first Isola was for me a comic, both pretty and problematic. A line reminiscent of Dreamworks animations in combination with great colors were not able to compensate for the not very clear plot. Yes, the relationship between the protagonists was great, but the world invented by the authors left a lot to be desired. Brendan Fletcher, even if he wrote it all up in his head, unskillfully put it on paper. It is worth mentioning here that the meaning of the title “Isola” was in the description on the cover, and not in the comic itself … Is the second volume better in this respect? To a large extent, yes, although it happens somewhat by the way.

Two curses are better than one

What is the best way to avoid the trap of over-complicating the already complex geopolitical situation of the presented world? The answer to this question (at least according to Fletcher and Kerschl) seems to be the omission of this aspect. Somewhere there are mentions of the upcoming war, but it is hard to worry about a conflict when you do not know who and what you want to fight. Isola’s second volumeit pushes the plot forward to a very small extent, focusing instead on an intimate story. The relationship between Rook and Queen Olwyn shone already in the first volume, and here it is even better developed, because she turns the roles and it is the ruler who has to defend her subject (and maybe someone more …). There are even more interesting female characters here. There is also a different view of the curse, much darker and cruel, which interestingly resonates with the tragedy of Queen Maar, who is still getting used to her condition. However, I have the impression that what has been extended here to cover the entire volume, would fit in one or two notebooks.

Tigers

In the second volume, surprisingly few words are uttered, and in many scenes the reader only follows the “beaten” Queen Olwyn. In this way, the emotional burden was transferred to the animal with more limited facial expressions. And yet Karl Kerschl has done brilliantly here, and everything is clearly legible. The colors are still doing great, although the locations are less creative this time, and the color palette has been limited.

Where are you going, tiger?

The problems I had with the first volume have not been fixed here. Instead, Fletcher and Kerschl took history differently. And while the second volume in itself interested me more than the first, I have the impression that this vector change took place too early. For an expensive comic book, too much of a place to stay here. The mythical Isola still looms somewhere in the distance, and I still do not feel involved in this world, so the whole journey, so important for the protagonists, flows over me completely.