By Zack Quaintance — We try to review most notable new #1 comics, with a heavy heavy emphasis on creator-owned books. As such, this year it has felt like every other week, I’m sitting down at my computer and typing, OMG this is crazy but we have yet another stellar first issue for a truly scary new horror book! Wow wow wow...what are the odds! I’m hyperbolizing a bit, but it really has been a strong year for horror comics. Off the top of my head, I’m in love various degrees of love with The Plot, Resonant, Cult Classic: Creature Feature, Pandemic, Basketful of Heads, The Mall, Bad Reception, Something is Killing the Children, You Are Obsolete, Gideon Falls, Ice Cream Man and the list goes on.

All of these books have had some truly polished debut issues, combined with stellar new concepts that instill confidence of a satisfying and complete series to come. I have any number of theories why this horror boom is taking place, ranging from current events being pretty scary these days to a heavy influence on today’s artists by ‘90s and early ‘00s Vertigo. But I digress. All of that is simply to say that I had a refreshing feeling while reading Folklords #1.

This issue was every bit as polished, immersive and complete as any of the debut issues from the excellent series mentioned above, but, here’s the thing, it was a fantasy comic. Now, we’ve had some strong fantasy books this year, to be sure, but rarely any that have felt as clean and promising and assured as Folklords #1. The execution of this first issue is basically flawless, from writer Matt Kindt’s pithy and genuine scripting, to artist Matt Smith and Chris O’Halloran’s bright visuals and taut panel layouts. Start to finish, this is a well-executed book.

On top of that, Folklords #1 is also a fantasy comic that has managed to find new and idyllic ground in a genre where the biggest recent hits have all aired much closer to outright deconstruction (blame the generational phenomenon that was Game of Thrones for that one). This is a fantasy story where the lead character is both bright-eyed and totally free of fantasy story cliches, and that accomplishment is owed almost entirely to the concept. I won’t spoil anything here and will instead stick to what’s already available in the previews — but the lead character in this book is a reverse of most fantasy tropes.

We’ve seen so many fantasy stories where a youngster from our real world is tossed into an anachronistic fantasy realm. What this book does is give a kid born into a fantasy realm visions of our modern world instead. It’s simple yet ingenious, and it just starts these storytellers off on such strong footing. Fortunately, they also execute nigh-perfectly from that strong result, and the end product is what feels like one of the best and most memorable fantasy comics I’ve read all year. Throw in some metafictional hints, and you’ve got a book I expect to be very very into moving forward.

Overall: Folklords #1 is one of the strongest new fantasy comics of 2019, blending as it does nigh-perfect execution from the creators with what feels like a wholly new take on the genre. Kudos. 9.8/10

Folklords #1
Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Matt Smith
Colorist: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
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.