 Today, we're going to talk about Isola. Hey everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of A Week in Geekdom here on YouTube. My name is Devon Menendez, and yeah, like I said at the beginning of the video, Brendan Fletcher and Carl Kershals' Isola. This is an interesting image book. I gotta be completely honest with you guys. I have some mixed feelings about this book. If you don't know what Isola is, basically it is a story about this Captain Guard that is tasked to protect this tiger that is supposedly a queen and sacred and all that stuff. And as the adventure progresses, you start learning tidbits of information about who that tiger is, who the guard is, why is she protecting the tiger, and why are they headed to this place called Isola, which is basically like a land of the dead or something like that. It is a volume one, so not everything is explained, actually a whole lot of mysteries pop up in that book. And it's more of an atmospheric, beautiful journey through a lush, beautiful backdrop. The art in this book is absolutely insanely good. Like for real, one of the best looking books I've read in a long time. I love the art so much. Every panel is just brimming with personality and just looks absolutely beautiful in my honest opinion. However, the narrative structure of this book is pretty great. I'm usually a fan of this. It's non-conventional. You're taking the middle approach. Like the story begins right in the middle of things and you're just dropped off and you have to figure things out as the plot furthers along. That can be a little bit tricky because we're introduced, we're bombarded to a lot of terminology, a lot of world building that we simply have no idea what any of it means. And I get it. That's sort of the point. I was expecting something completely simpler, I guess, I don't know. Without spoiling too much about this book, basically we follow Rook the guardsman in charge of protecting this tiger, which we find out is royalty. I wish I could give you all the answers, but I really don't. Eventually they find this like Hermit sage type character that he seems like the drunken master, if you will. And he starts talking about the tiger and the kingdom and it just goes off from there. And I wish the book would provide a little bit more, but it is a volley one. So the story does continue and I assume we are going to get the answers eventually to everything. And I'm probably exaggerating. There are moments in the book where things are explained and you do sort of understand what's happening. An earlier moment when our main protagonist, she finds a former, I'm gonna say, squad mate or something, there's a lot of exposition dialogue where they go over some of the things that is happening in the world and the various kingdoms and whatnot. So you do get some explanation to what's happening. But for the most part, the main appeal for a lot of people has to be that fantastic gorgeous artwork just casually browsing here. You can already tell just from looking at this preview how amazing the art is. Okay, so you're probably wondering what was so bad about the world building and why am I so confused by all the technical stuff that they're talking about. What I'm trying to get at is that you have a character saying, I'm gonna read something off from the book. One of the villains is saying, you know, considering what happened to your mother when she broke from the circle. And then one of the other characters replies, you don't know a thing about my mother. And we don't either. You're just thrown vague things that have happened. And you would think as the conversation is moving along, you will get a resolution but you don't. Instead, you're presented with more dilemmas and more issues and it just keeps piling on and on. It gets to a point where I start to lose interest and I get it. It's probably just, it depends on the reader probably. But I don't know, I wish we could have gotten a little bit more time to flesh things out and for it to be not as rushed. It's like seven or eight different incidents bundled together by this escort mission that this character is trying to do to save this Tiger Queen character. I do like Rook's inquisitive nature and that she's asking about why is this happening and she's not getting the answers that she wants and that's part of the story. That's part of what I like about it. And I am very much looking forward to seeing how everything gets resolved, especially her relationship with the Tiger. I'm trying not to spoil things because there is a lot more to that when you eventually find out and it's really interesting and I loved it. I thought it was really well done but the way everything ends, it ends on a pretty interesting cliffhanger and I cannot wait to see what happens with our main characters because we do get some interesting reveals near the end and the Queen Tiger's backstory, which is pretty interesting. I definitely want to find out more about said person and what looks to be the main antagonist of the series. I'm very interested in that. Most of the panels, they're just really interesting. Even if they have minimal dialogue, you understand how naturally the story flows and how beautiful this world is. It is a dark world, but it is beautiful to look at. Character designs are very lively. They remind me of an early 2000s Disney cartoon movie. It just looks really cool to me, especially when you get to scenes that involve like forests and like dungeons. There's a huge corpse of an animal and it just looks disgustingly awesome. The color palette that's used in this is just breathtaking. This is, yeah this is what I meant. A little gruesome, I know, but the detail in this is superb in my honest opinion. And yeah, this is a really good looking book guys. I really love this so much and I'm trying not to pick out the spoiler heavy pages but look at that. That attention to detail right there is really impressive. I'd love how expressive this world and how vivid it is. It's just a shame that to me at least it's a little bit muddied by the chaotic nature of the story. I mean, like I said, I'm probably exaggerating. It's probably just me, but I do find it pretty interesting. Like each page, you know, it has a very unique tone when it comes to the coloring and all that stuff, just really awesome stuff. At the end of the book you get some variant covers, not a whole lot. I wish we could have gotten character sketches because I know this is a type of story that would benefit from having hefty extras and character sketches or studies, backgrounds, all that stuff. But instead, we only get variant covers, which they're okay. They're fine. I like them. Some of them spoil the story, so I'm not going to show them off. But here's that crazy dude. I didn't understand half the things he was saying, but I agreed. I think that's my main complaint with the book. And the pacing is fine too. The story, you know, the characters go through. It's very quick to read and you understand everything. Everything flows. It's just the world building. I wish, in my honest opinion, and the book is still excellent, and I do recommend it. I just wish the story, the plot, or the world building and all that stuff. I just wanted it to be a little bit more precise, a little bit more clearer. But again, it is a volume one, I get it, or chapter one. And we'll have a volume two explaining things. And I will be, you know, they'll shut me up. But just, if you can check it out, please do so. It's a fun, interesting world where you don't get all the answers that you're looking for, but you're still mesmerized by the amazing ride. The visuals are insanely great. The character of Rook is really badass. I really like her. It reminded me of reading a lighter version of Horizon Zero Dawn, except without the robot dinosaur animals, and more about the tribes and all that stuff. That ambiance, if you will. It reminded me of that somehow. Rook is a pretty interesting character. She's pretty headstrong, a true badass. The tiger, I love the scenes with the tiger and it's, you know, when you can convey emotion through an animal and the way it moves and stuff, you've done a really good job. So yeah, Isola, I know this review is a little bit off because I didn't truly enjoy it 100%, but I would still recommend it. The art is insanely great, like I've mentioned already. The characters are really interesting, and it truly is a fascinating world. I just think I needed more to fully grasp the world I was immersing myself in. You know what I mean? I don't know. Maybe it's just me. Maybe you liked it. Let me know in the comment section down below what you thought of Isola Volume 1 from Image Comics, Fletcher, and Kershal. They do a really cool job in my honest opinion. So yeah. That's it for now guys. Thank you for liking, commenting, subscribing to A Week in Geekdom. That is very awesome, and I thank you for it. Thank you so very much. Follow me on your favorite social media platform, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that fun stuff. I've got to go. I've got more stuff to read, watch, play, and review here on the channel, so I will catch all of you on our next episode.