Brandon Sanderson's DARK ONE - Graphic Novel Review
Brandon Sanderson’s Dark One is out in November 2020.
By Zack Quaintance — Vault Comics — the rising indie publisher putting out the most interesting and literary work in all of monthly comics — is exploring new territory. This, of course, is not unusual for Vault. Nearly every book Vault publishes offers a fresh take on sci-fi or fantasy, be it via a new voice, a new twist, a new approach to well-tread territory, or simply a new and deeper focus on well-done conventions. This time, however, Vault is exploring new territory off the page, doing so with its first full entreaty into the booksellers market, the graphic novel, Brandon Sanderson’s Dark One.
As its title indicates, Vault has teamed here with some mighty powerful company to explore this new ground. That company is Brandon Sanderson, a best-selling fantasy author who first came to my attention as the writer who finished Robert Jordan’s fantasy series, The Wheel of Time. In this instance, Sanderson has a “created and story by” credit, as well as his name on the title of the graphic novel, and I’m glad Vault has such a marketable companion here, because Dark One is a book so good it deserves as wide of an audience as it can get.
To me — someone who’s read every comic Vault has yet published — Brandon Sanderson’s Dark One is the realization of a supremely ambitious Vault Comics ideal. It’s a literary comic that blends high concept storytelling interests across genres without sacrificing any of the craft, structure, or character development needed to make narratives compelling and immersive. In the pages of this title (which are beautiful…we’ll get to artist Nathan Gooden’s mammoth achievements in a moment), readers will find a strong interest in metafiction as it applies to fantasy conventions (the narrative!), they will find characters grappling with mental health in engaging ways, they will find expert world-building, they will find prickly relations and dynamics, they will find precise choices made with what to reveal and when…the list of what works in this book goes on, but the bottom line is this is a supremely well-executed graphic novel.
Thematically, what I mean by that phrase the “Vault Comics ideal” is that the book is subtly a story that is actually about all stories. I find that most of my conversations about Vault with people who know the work eventually break down to — Vault just cares about good stories. This much is true through all Vault titles, which is why I found this to be such a towering culmination of everything the publisher has done to date, like an event comic that emerged from a shared Vault universe where the only thing that passes between continuity is love of creative expression. Phew.
Not to give too much away, but the true villain of this book (or maybe the true hero?) is the narrative, the fantasy conventions that determine who is the Dark One, who is chosen to defeat the Dark One, who will remain abused and subjugated, and who will live happily ever after. The way I interpreted all this is that the actual obstacle in the way of the characters of this world is lazy, cliched storytelling. And when that realization landed on me, my brain tingled with thoughts of how perfect it all was for this to be Vault Comics first ever graphic novel. Beyond fitting.
As for the individual facets of the book, anyone who so much as flips through these pages will be stunned by the artwork of Nathan Gooden, who is colored here by Kurt Michael Russell. Gooden drew one of the early Vault books that first endeared the publisher to me — Zojaqan — and I’d been waiting (anxiously) for his next project ever since. Zojaqan was a loose and at times abstract fantasy story of escapism that really allowed Gooden to flex the full extent of his artistic vision. What we get in Dark One is teases of that grandiosity interspersed perfectly with a mix of a grounded real world and a gritty fantasy realm.
Gooden’s work in this book knows exactly where to lean into conventional fantasy aesthetics, which he must do in service of the narrative (ironically enough), and he does it well. Sometimes, he must also bounce back into relatively dry and much more familiar settings, like jail cells and courtrooms, which he also handles with aplomb — if he has a preference for drawing one or the other, it never comes through in this book, which is remarkably consistent and meticulous with its quality. And in Kurt Michael Russell, Gooden has found a perfect set of shades to compliment his work, especially in the fantasy realm scenes that easily become dark and vivid without ever tipping into muddy (always a risk for dark scenes of the fantasy variety).
Combine all of that with a patient and precise script from the writing team of Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly (who collaborated with Gooden on Zojaqan), and the end result is a story that is perfectly-paced, as well as layered with interesting questions, thoughts, surprises, characters, and dynamics. What I’ve long appreciated about Kelly and Lanzing’s work — be it in Star Trek comics or a tragically abbreviated run on Green Arrow — is that the duo is thoughtful about its choices in a real organic way. In their writing, characters are never moved around for the sake of serving future happenings. They feel like real people with unique-yet-familiar motivations that make the whole thing retable. This much is certainly true in Dark One, which features a concept that requires sympathizing with both heroes and presumed villains.
The story stands on its own well, even without having the luxury of wrapping up neatly, because it’s designed to launch a larger narrative as is basically standard within the heavily-serialized fantasy genre, where first books world-build, thrill, satisfy, and then end with something big to lead into the next one.
So yes, I absolutely loved this book and I’m excited to see what happens when it rides into the book market armed with the recognition and big ideas of Sanderson as well as the comics passion and love of craft that has made Vault such a thrilling industry story over the past four years. Things may look dark with everything happening in the industry (and wider world) right now, but I foresee nothing but good things when this book makes its debut.
Brandon Sanderson’s Dark One - Graphic Novel Review
Brandon Sanderson’s Dark One
Created & Story By: Brandon Sanderson
Written By: Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly
Drawn By: Nathan Gooden
Colored By: Kurt Michael Russell
Lettered By: Andworld Design
Publisher: Vault Comics
Some worlds are made to be broken. Paul Tanasin is a young man haunted by visions of a dark and fantastic world―visions he initially believes are hallucinations. But when he discovers they are prophecies from Mirandus, a world in which he’s destined to become a fearsome destroyer, he’ll have to embrace the fear, rise up as the Dark One, and shatter everything. Dark One examines the dual roles we often take on in life—the ability to be a savior as well as a destroyer.
Release Date: November 2020
Pre-Order It: Brandon Sanderson’s Dark One
Read more great writing about collected editions and graphic novels!
Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.