I finished reading Battle Chasers and thought I'd just jump straight into the next series. Continuing with the late 90s and fantasy I thought I'd go with Warlands. A Dreamwave Productions book created by Pat Lee and Adrian Tsang.
Before I jump into reading and reviewing Volume 1 however, I thought I'd show some of the previews and talk about Dreamwave Productions a bit.
Dreamwave started out publishing under Image Comics in the late 90s. This was toward the end of the big 90s comic bubble. But their IPs, Dark Minds and Warlands, were really well received. Eventually they struck out on their own and self published. They also picked up a lot of licensed titles after that, like Transformers, G.I. Joe, and TMNT.
When they started publishing the licensed stuff I kind of feel like their original ideas started to get neglected. Pat no longer really did much for them.
Eventually Dreamwave went out of business. They were essentially victims of the bubble bursting and seemingly shady business practices. Pat and Roger Lee are now a bit ostracized due to the stories that came out of this. Not paying creators, not giving credit to creators, etc... Dreamwave and its original properties were purchased at auction by someone that ended up never doing anything with them. Which is a shame.
Another big criticism of their actual work was always that it was not very original. Warlands is accused as being a rip off of Record of Lodoss War and Dark Minds is accused of ripping off Akira and Ghost in the Shell.
I can see the accusations but I also think they are different enough to be their own things. Slightly derivative, not blatant rip-offs, in my opinion.
I've always really loved the Dreamwave properties. Especially Warlands, Dark Minds, and Echo. Probably among my favorite comic books of all time. I love the art. The stories are also great. I enjoyed a lot of the characters.
I loved Dreamwave so much that I periodically try to track down the property owners. Almost always do I fail but sometimes I get close. The latest attempt resulted in me finding Roger Lee's wife selling original art on eBay. She wasn't very helpful in actually finding the property owner though.
If I could get it all cheap enough I always wanted to find him and purchase the rights to the IPs. The name is a double edged sword at this point. A lot of people hate the stuff just from what all went down back then but there are a lot of others, like me, that really loved the stories and would really like to see it brought back. I figured if I could get it all maybe I could start by publishing digital versions of the existing stories. Then maybe if enough interest existed continue the stories.
But alas... it does not seem likely that I'll be able to find the owner.
So I guess I'll just re-read it all again and talk about it here! May as well start with the preview books.
This is the Dynamic Forces preview. It is essentially sketches and some interview like talking. Always fun to hear about the creation of stuff and see the original ideas sketched out.
Three Stories, Chapter 0, and 1/2 were released sometime after the first 4 or 5 issues. But they are basically preludes. Three Stories collects the 3 stories that take place in 0 and 1/2.
In 0 we get Malegen's origin story. He was part of an ancient civilization that practiced magic. He dabbled in the dark magics and learned necromancy but got caught. The rulers blocked him away in a cell with no food or water. He died after about 2 weeks but used his blood to create runes to capture his soul upon his death and attract evil to his dark magic. His expectations were demons would attack his enemies and he would have revenge. Instead, the goddess Tara came and made him a vampire. With the new power he broke free. He turned his allies and together they overthrew the rulers and started the Dataran Empire. They then traveled to the Eastern Kingdoms to attack the other races. The Vampires pretty much dominated them but a Dryad foretold Malagen's defeat at the hands of a warrior of light that uses the Darklyte Armor. Tara the Goddess that gave him his power confirmed it to be true. Malagen retreated out of fear after he killed the King to show his strength and that the retreat is not from defeat. He also turned the strongest warrior into his own loyal general, Aalok. Whom he would later send back to attack the Eastern Kingdoms again and find the Darklyte Armor.
In 1/2 we get the same story told from the perspectives of a Human soldier and Elf Princess. The human version essentially confirms the story but with minor changes. The Elf story focuses more on the split in Elf opinions on helping the other races in the inevitable second attack. Elessa thinks they should help but her older sister the Queen thinks the Elves should stay hidden and let the other races fend for themselves. After an incident that caused the death of 8 of her allies, she decided to leave and travel the other lands instead of cause a civil war.
There was a time I ordered from Dreamwave's website and got this little print as well, so thought I'd show it real quick.
Shrogran is one of Malagen's generals. We'll see more of him later.
That'll be it for today. I really look forward to reading this series again. It is possibly my favorite comic book series of all time. I want to see if it holds up after all these years.
If anyone has any info that might help me track down the owner of Dreamwave's IPs, please comment! I don't know if I could come up with the money... but I'd love to see what it would take to get ownership of some of my favorite IPs ever.
Either way, hope everyone enjoyed my readings of the Battle Chasers books and will follow me into the Warlands too!