by Randy Lander

ROBIN HOOD AND THE MINSTREL Mildly Recommended (6/10) Moonstone Books Writer: Paul D. Storrie Pencils: Rich Gulick Inks: Steve Bird Colors: Ken Wolak & Dawn Grosecwski Letters: Donna Gentile-Karas Editor: Lori Gentile-Strons Price: $5.95 US When folks tackle Robin Hood, they generally retell the origin story that everyone has heard. Storrie and his collaborators have a different take, a post-marriage adventure of Robin and his merry men. The story is original, I'll give credit there, but some problems with the art and production quality left me a bit unsatisfied. In fairness, however, fantasy is generally not my favorite genre, and the work here reminds me quite a bit of Crossgen, perfectly professional but a little bland in my opinion. Storrie is a talented writer, and the plot he comes up with here is a charming fit for Robin Hood as a character. It's not the most novel of ideas, a tale of forbidden love between classes, but Storrie carries it off well with a likable pair of young lovers and a terrific feel of genial camraderie between Robin and his band. The story chugs along in fairly predictable ways, but the dialogue and characterization is charming and gets past the familiarity of the plot. I happened to see some of the original pages by Gulick and Bird and thought they were quite lovely, so I was surprised to find some of the interior artwork a little simplistic and flat. The art is solid, reminiscent of Jim Cheung's work on Scion and with impressively distinctive looks for Robin, Tuck, Little John and the others, but it is colored in a bit of a garish manner. I almost would have preferred to see the book in black and white. It's not that the color is bad, it just seems too bright and primary, lacking the subtlety that I'm fond of in general. Moonstone is a relatively new (and small) company, however, and so I expect a bit of static in the production quality. The lettering suffers from similar trouble, being perfectly legible but crowding the balloons a bit and seeming just a little off. All involved with this project should be commended for taking on an iconic personality who isn't exactly tops in popularity right now, rather than simply jumping in with another super-hero book or tired retread. However, while I have to give an "A" for effort, I'm afraid that I wouldn't grade quite that high on execution. The book is well-crafted, but it doesn't have a spark that makes it great, and it has a few minor flaws which detracted from my enjoyment. Email Randy Lander comments about this review.