By Zack Quaintance — Ogres #1 hit this week, launching the second volume of writer Bob Salley and artist Shawn Daley’s ongoing fantasy comic with Source Point Press. The first volume spanned three issues, telling a largely complete and well-done story that was rich with themes relating to having no true winners in war, violence only begetting more violence, and the power of us vs. them pathologies. The second volume seems to pick up right where the first left off, at least thematically anyway. 

This new book does what a good second volume should always do, especially one that hasn’t had a name change, managing as it does to fell like both a continuation of what’s come before and an easy entry point for new readers. It does this, in my eyes, by keeping the world and the aesthetic and the interests familiar, while at the same time giving us a wholly new set of characters. If there are connections to the folks we followed in the first volume, they somehow managed to slip right by me.

In brief, I appreciated both the familiarity and the newness of this fresh volume. I’ll start by discussing the familiar. Both writer Salley and artist Daley seem to have taken a step forward with their craft since the last go round. Salley established himself in the first volume of this comic as a writer largely unafraid to lace his work with flourishes in prose. We see that ability on full display here from the jump, with the first page giving what feels like both the most substantial and poetic bit of narration Salley has written in either volume of this book. 

Daley, meanwhile, has taken a serious step forward with his artwork. There are shades of Dustin Nguyen here, with colors that look like watercolors (and may actually be? I’m not great at identifying that). Daley has also taken a step forward here as it pertains to one of the trickiest asks in comics — illustrating coherent crowd scenes. That’s not all though, everything from the character designs to the action sequences feel more assured in this volume than in the one prior. It all has me really excited for what’s to come.

What’s totally new here is the new set of characters that we start to follow after the first third of the book. They are new people, new species, new dynamics, and a new set of priorities. In the first comic, the vast majority of characters (quite possibly even all) had a single priority — to survive the war, be it physically or financially. Now, things are a bit grayer, with characters looking to get free, characters looking to keep prisoners, and characters in search of other characters for help getting revenge (perhaps even righteous revenge). Although, the themes so expertly built in the first volume seem to remain, albeit a bit in the background.

It’s all a really interesting (and action-heavy at times) setup, and I’m excited to see where it goes. If it’s anything like the first volume of Ogres, we’re in for many surprises on this journey. 

Overall: This is a really interesting (and action-heavy) setup for a new volume of Ogres, and I’m excited to see where it goes. If it’s anything like the first volume, we’re in for many surprises along the course of a satisfying journey.  8.5/10

Ogres #1 Vol. 2
Writer: Bob Salley
Artist: Shawn Daley
Publisher: Source Point Press
Price: $3.99

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.