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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hurray for Dante!, 2 Aug 2008
Excellent, excellent, excellent. 'Sword of the Tsar' is fantastic stuff.
The book opens with two all-time classic Dante romps, 'How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been A Liar All My Life', set in the not-so-swinging London of mad monarch Henry Windsor McKray, and 'Primal Screams', set in an African casino run by talking humanoid animals, which put a great big happy smile on my face at the outset that still hasn't faded several hours later.
Most of this seventh volume of the Dante chronicles, however, is devoted to the conclusion of the pirate storyline started in 'Hell and High Water', and a triumphant conclusion it is. I found the seafaring stories collected in the previous book to be somewhat sedately paced, certainly by Robbie Morrison's standards. Here, though, it all comes together and builds to a rip-roaring climax. Dante's tortuous relationship with his pirate-queen mother, which I thought was harped on slightly too much in earlier installments, works brilliantly here and becomes genuinely moving.
John Burns's artwork is simply astonishing. Well, it always is, as far as I'm concerned, but this book contains some of the very best work he's ever done. And Dante co-creator Simon Fraser is also bloody excellent on the title story.
Nikolai Dante is the best fun in comics today and will surely rank among the immortals. The loveable rogue himself is a classic character and is ably abetted by a remarkably broad and vivid pantheon of co-stars and supporting players: beautiful feisty women, colourful villains, scoundrels, schemers, waifs and buffoons.
For those who are new to the saga, this book is as good a place as any to start. Once hooked you'll certainly want to catch up from the beginning, but I almost envy any new readers being plunged straight into the middle and discovering the incredibly rich backstory, wide cast of characters, and lovingly detailed world.
Pirate queens! Animal casinos! Leopard women! Petulant princesses! Voodoo pirates! Mutants with shark teeth! Sex, romance, hilarity and swashbuckling derring-do! To hell with graphic novels, to hell with what passes for entertainment in TV, film and books nowadays, this is why a grown man reads comics.
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by Robbie Morrison
by Pat Mills
by Dan Abnett
by John Wagner
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