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A review by ederwin
Brass Sun: The Wheel of Worlds by I.N.J. Culbard, Ian Edginton
4.0
Pretty nice world-building. The story basically boils down to "visit a bunch of exotic steam-punky locations to find pieces of a 'key' while escaping from bad guys." The real draw is the art. The architectural details in the various locations is of a similar quality to the works of [a:François Schuiten|573160|François Schuiten|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1280109949p2/573160.jpg] in the series "Cities of the Fantastic", but the stories here are more understandable. I only know the artist from his work on [b:Wild's End|23492430|Wild's End, Vol. 1 First Light|Dan Abnett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1434419967s/23492430.jpg|43082680] (a version of "War of the Worlds" told with anthropomorphic animals standing-in for humans). While I enjoyed that work, the art in this one is several levels more complex, so that I never would have guessed it is the same artist.
Some reviews complain that the human characters are not well-drawn and are difficult to distinguish from one another. I don't agree, but I understand the feeling: the backgrounds outshine the characters.
At one point the main character has a sort-of dream and visits the Moon and talks with "the maker", who looks alternately like Mark Twain, Rod Serling, and Kurt Vonnegut. I can't help but think that is a winking reference to the several times when [b:Cerebus|198464|Church and State II (Cerebus, #4)|Dave Sim|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389626930s/198464.jpg|191979] ascended to the moon and met his maker (played mostly by Jules Feiffer.) Anyway, it makes more sense in this story than it did in Cerebus.
This story could have more chapters, but doesn't end on a cliffhanger, so could be read alone.
Some reviews complain that the human characters are not well-drawn and are difficult to distinguish from one another. I don't agree, but I understand the feeling: the backgrounds outshine the characters.
At one point the main character has a sort-of dream and visits the Moon and talks with "the maker", who looks alternately like Mark Twain, Rod Serling, and Kurt Vonnegut. I can't help but think that is a winking reference to the several times when [b:Cerebus|198464|Church and State II (Cerebus, #4)|Dave Sim|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389626930s/198464.jpg|191979] ascended to the moon and met his maker (played mostly by Jules Feiffer.) Anyway, it makes more sense in this story than it did in Cerebus.
This story could have more chapters, but doesn't end on a cliffhanger, so could be read alone.