Legends of the Dark Crystal: The Garthim Wars: Volume 1

by Barbara Randall Kesel and Heidi Arnhold

Book Overview

This Manga prequel to Jim Henson's fantasy tale is set 100 years before the film. Centuries before, the crystal cracked and the dominant race called the urSkeks split in two: the gentle Mystics and the evil Skeksis. The Skeksis are bent on dominating the weaker peoples, including the elf-like Gelflings.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1598167014
• ISBN13: 9781598167016
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: TokyoPop
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 7.4"
• Age Range: 13 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 8 to 12

Customer Reviews

Legends of the Dark Crystal Volume 1: The Garthim Wars (Legends of the Dark Crystal: The Garthim War

I enjoyed this version of the Dark Crystal. It allowed you to look at this world in a different prospective than that of the movie. I did find it lacking the magic aspects which was why the prospective was different. Looking forward to see what the next volume will be like.

A beautiful work of art

This is an excellent work of art, and the manga has some amazing story potential if done right in future iterations. I agree with others that the story seems relatively simple at the current time, but future volumes may fill this in more. I guess I see this more as a character and setting introduction piece but feel that the real meat of the story is yet to come. Definitely Recommended!

Good graphics, mediocre story

Graphically this one is much better than RETURN TO LABYRINTH. Good job on rendering the Garthims and the Skeksis. Quite detailed stuff! However I found the story to be too simple. I would have preferred more about the Mystics, Skeksis and Aughra.

Exceeded my expectations! Worries relieved.

I was very worried that this this prequel comic had no chance of living up to the quality of the story of the original movie. I had previously skimmed through the couple of Labyrinth sequel comics that had come out in the past year, and they were pretty horrible, and I expected this to be similar. Fortunately, though, this volume of the Dark Crystal comic ended up being great. I was not disappointed at all. Additionally, I feared that this thing was going to have a "fan art" section like the Labyrinth comics had, which were additionally offensively awful. I said very openly that if this comic for The Dark Crystal had a terrible fan art section I was going to tear those pages out and throw them away. ...And the Dark Crystal comic did have a fan art section, but I was actually impressed by the works contained in it. This gives me much more hope for the movie (which seems to have been pushed back now to 2009). If a similar quality of plot-writing and attention to detail is achieved for the movie as was for this comic, perhaps it will not give me the pain that sequels made decades after the original movie tend to give.

don't miss the debut of miss heidi arnhold

this long-awaited book, written by barbara randall kesel, features an imaginative and impressively crafted "untold tale" from the world of jim henson's THE DARK CRYSTAL. it also showcases the first professionally published comics artwork of newcomer heidi arnhold, a recent graduate of the savannah college of art and design. chapter one is pencilled by the very talented max kim, but heidi's wonderfully detailed illustrations are the main attraction here. fans of THE DARK CRYSTAL will be happy to see that heidi's art style faithfully recreates the "feel" of the classic film. in addition, her dramatic page layouts and solid storytelling skills exhibit a degree of sophistication far beyond many of her peers. admittedly, her art isn't as "manga" as some purists might have preferred, but that didn't bother me any (especially in light of all the other tokyopop american non-manga books). i was so hoping this book would not prove disappointing (i knew just how hard heidi had worked on it) and it was quite a relief to finish reading it and realize that i can absolutely recommend LEGENDS OF THE DARK CRYSTAL without any reservations whatsoever. this entertaining graphic novel is a must-read for fans of the film and for fantasy fans in general. by the way, be sure to check out the second volume of RETURN TO LABYRINTH as well...and SEA PRINCESS AZURI volume two is finally out, too (a charmingly sweet story for younger manga/fantasy fans).