Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Paul Tobin
Artists: Joe Quiero
Colourist: Carlos Badilla
Release date: May 6, 2015
Price: $3.99

Based on the CD Projekt Red role-playing hack and slash video game, which is based on a book series by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher: Fox Children five-issue mini-series is the sequel to 2014’s The Witcher.

Witchers are mercenary monster hunters, in this case Geralt of Rivia. Riva unwittingly joins a sailing group who has captured a Vulpess, a she-fox changeling. After their captive is killed in a tussle they try to escape by sea. But the queen Vulpess uses her powerful magic of illusion to trick the band into sailing into a nightmare swamp. (In Latin Vulpes means fox).

The pacing is fast and the dialogue rises above just moving the story forward. And the hardened sailors cuss like, well, hardened sailors. The characters The Witcher: Fox Children are bit two-dimensional; the hero is a badass, the dwarf is a drunk, the ship’s owner is a coward. And that is about as deep as the characters get.

Joe Quiero artwork propels the story along and helps take some of the strain out of the writing of Paul Tobin. Quiero is relative newcomer besides penciling the first Witcher series Quiero penciled two issues of B.P.R.D Hell on Earth. Quiero’s faces are expressive, and  Quiero is not afraid of detail either.

The artist and the colorist were made for each other. Badilla is one of Dark Horse Comics best painters, and has worked on Dark Horse Comics EC Archives. It won’t be the best thing you’ve ever read, but it will engage you.

Reviewer: Joe Lovece
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker