A Graphic Novel by Cab & Federica Di Meo
I was able to obtain the rest of an interesting comic that I started reading relatively recently, and wanted to see if I could get the rest of Book one read and reviewed before the end of the month. Today’s subject is Oneira – Part 2 – Retribution, by Cab & Federica Di Meo which is a new fantasy comic series from Europe Comics. As I pointed out in my previous review, I was fairly impressed with how this book started out and as of chapter two, I am still impressed. While this book is a Western book by definition, it is done in the style of Japanese manga, and not just in a superficial way. The artist behind the book, Federica Di Meo, specifically trained in japan and does everything in the same way as done out East. Her artwork is VERY reminiscent of Kentaro Miura’s Berserk at times, and captured the stylings and tone of mid-90’s to 00’s manga very well, which is great news because that happens to be one of my favorite periods for the medium. This book continues the story of our heroine, Arane Heos a.k.a The Banshee, in a chapter that pumps the breaks a bit and does some world-building.
“Call on her when nightmares become a reality! In an obscure world gripped by terror, our worst nightmares have come to life, becoming monsters that resemble humans. Faced with this threat, the Epeires corps, an armed wing of the Ordo-Sancti, a powerful religious group, becomes for a ray of hope in a world of darkness. By vanquishing the creatures coming from their own dreams, the Epeires awaken within themselves remarkable occult abilities. They’re able to free those who are imprisoned in their own nightmares and destroy the powerful beasts that have been terrorizing them with magic spells. Arane Heos, a cold and dispirited woman, is a member of the Epeires. A skilled swordswoman, she has slain more beasts than anyone can remember. But a burdensome secret, one that she has only confided to her friend Bastione, is going to put them on a collision course with the zealots of the Ordo-Sancti.”
While the previous chapter showed a snippet of exactly how fearsome Arane Heos can be, this chapter takes a step back and shows her beginnings. Once a proud and reliant member of Ordo-Sancti, Arane obviously feels guilt about one particular episode of her life, something called “The Sancti Bar Tolmay“, which appears to be a church-led massacre or war of some nature. As a member of a militant arm of the church, known as Epeires Corps, it seems like she was put to doing all manner of vile things in the past. At this point, we just see a flashback rather than a full explanation, so I’m just piecing it together here. In the present, she has a travelling companion named Bastione that has been by her side for a number of years, and we see here that he was a victim of this event, and specifically is seeking her out due to her connection to those events and her powers. It’s interesting to already see the two versions of Bastione, and how much different he appears to be through the years.
That’s basically it for this chapter, and there appear to be three more that I can currently peruse. This book is basically structured as a five chapter manga volume as far as I can tell, and this has been split into five digital files that can be purchased one-by-one on the Europe Comics website or Amazon for less than a dollar a pop. If the website for Europe Comics is any indication, the price for every issue of this is VERY reasonable at just $0.75 an issue, and I think Amazon has them for $0.99 each! That’s an absolute steal if you ask me! Assuming this was a full manga trade, you would expect to pay something like $9.99 to upwards of $14.99 for something sitting at well over 200 pages, so you really can’t go wrong. Stay tuned, as this is something I will keep reading! If the writing and art stay at such a good quality mark, this could easily end up one of my surprise top picks of the year!
If you are interested in this book, click HERE
Amazon has it listed HERE
For additional titles by the same publisher, Click HERE
