Le Signe des ténèbres

Chroniques de la Lune Noire #1

by François Froideval, Olivier Ledroit (Illustrator/Colorist)

Trois personnages se lient d'amitié au cours d'une bataille évoquant un gigantesque jeu de rôle. Une saga d'heroic fantasy épique.

Genres: Bande Dessinée, Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Adventure, Dark Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics

52 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1989

About the author

François Marcela-Froideval is a French role-playing game, videogame and comic scenarist, best known for the Black Moon Chronicles series of fantasy comic books.

Reviews

[Caro the Helmet Lady · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, this comic book looked like it was written by teen and for teens, equally when it comes to its messy art or hurried story line. I didn't hate it though, I actually had some silly fun, because it all was so stupid and stereotypical that I could only laugh. I might even read book 2. Maybe everything will improve later? Also, main character somewhat reminds me of Elric.

[Hosein · Rating 5 out of 5]

این کمیک خیلی ریویوهای افتضاحی داره و تا چشم کار می‌کنه یک ستاره و دو ستاره بهش دادن، در حالی که اصلا لیاقتش این نیست. کمیک‌های فرانسوی رو نباید با معیار کمیک‌های آمریکایی یا مانگا سنجید، کاملا دی‌ان‌ای مخصوص خودشون رو دارن و به نظرم این کمیک یکی از بهترین‌ها توی سبک خودشه. هم داستان جالبه و هم دنیاسازی (که مشخصا تمرکز اصلی این کاره) هم قابل توجهه، طراحی‌ها هم کاملا شبیه همون چیزیه که توی کارهای فرانسویی دهه هشتاد می‌شه دید.
خوندن کمیک‌های فرانسوی اصولا یکم سخت‌تر از اونیه که به نظر میاد، نوع پنل‌ها متفاوتن و باعث میشه متن بیشتری داشته باشن. خوندن یک جلد پنجاه صفحه‌ای این کتاب حدودا اندازه‌ی یک مانگای دویست صفحه‌ای زمان می‌گیره و مشخصا ریتم سریع‌تری هم داره.

در کل جلد اول رو خیلی دوست داشتم، کاملا لیاقت تمام تعریف‌هایی که ازش می‌کنن رو داره.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read in other reviews that this originally started as a Greyhawk campaign and it shows. Those early adventures were over the top, gory and simple fantasy. That tag applies here as well. The characters were unlikable. The art while detailed was ugly and looks like it has been reduced.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a decent start for a seemingly highly-reputed cult classic, if nothing groundbreaking. The characters are one-dimensional and not very likeable but formed enough of a camaraderie by the end for me to sort of like them and want to see how they end up, the art isn't that good but there's a lot of style in the setting and the costumes and some of the cities and such, and the plot and the worldbuilding are a bit weak but not that weak that I couldn't tell what was going on. The main character comes across as a little dissonant with how naive he seems to be, yet also quite skilled from the start.

Overall there's a lot of criticism to be had - some of the other reviews go in more detail of it - but I think I'll be keeping up with it myself. I don't find it too likely it could have kept on going for twenty-plus volumes without improving its art, deepening its characters, and fleshing out its story and setting. So, hopes are high.

Let's say two and half stars.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, I haven't read a comic book that bad for a while now. Where to start? Crappy world-building, no coherence in the plot (at one moment i'm trying to kill you, on the next we are already best friends and life companions-all that in only 2 panels), the story was rushed, the illustration is scetchy and basic at best (with the exception of 2-3 one-pagers). Maybe there was at some point some good ideas but the application on paper is really amateur and bad.

Move on from this title, you're losing absolutely nothing. The are far better epic fantasy tales out there - I guess you could call "The black moon chronicles" an epic fantasy story, but still it gives the genre a bad image. :P

[Diz · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is an amoral adolescent power fantasy that doesn't have anything to say. This isn't really the kind of story I'm interested in reading.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ever so briefly, François Froideval was Gary Gygax's right-hand-man. He could have been a great silver age author at TSR, except he ended up orphaned when Gygax went west: Froideval's Oriental Adventures ended up written by Zeb Cook instead, and his additions to Greyhawk, maybe on a continent to the east, maybe to the west, never appeared.

Jump to 1989. Froideval has been back in France for a few years, translating TSR games, but he's now left the company entirely. One of his first independent endeavors was a fantasy comic that he would write through 2008: The Black Moon Chronicles. This is the first volume.

And here's the roleplaying secret: this could be set in Greyhawk. The prime piece of evidence is a map of Greyhawk's continent of Oerik from Dragon Annual #1, which featured an Empire of Lynn, cousin to the Empire of Lhynn in this comic. Mind you, it's probably just a name drop, like the Blackmoor found in Greyhawk, but if you prefer you can consider this a secret Greyhawk comic.

As for the comic: it feels very much a piece with some of the cartoons in White Dwarf at the time. There's rough and ugly artwork (in its depiction of characters; the art is still attractive), there's brutish, dumb, and/or evil characters. There's a world at war. This first volume is a little too small to be notable, but it introduces some interesting characters and some large-scale events, and makes you wonder what's coming next.

[Rockito · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a comic book with such a cult-status (at least in circles like /co/), this was pretty disappointing. The story is nonsense attempts at edgy and mysterious. The characters have an acceptable depth but they become friends too fast for no reason, even if they were about to kill each other before. Some powers come out of nowhere and the art is ridiculously sketchy.

It got this for free so I'll check out if this is one of those cases when it gets really good later.

[Lorenzo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful art, terrible everything else.
I found not a single of the characters in the whole story in any way interesting, and actually I had the ongoing wish to see them fail.
Would had given only 1 star, but I have to give credit where credit is due for its art style.

[Glen Farrelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have been reading a bunch of European comics recently due to some free borrows this month on HOOPLA, this one included. I have to say I have been quite disappointed by the quality overall, but this one is particularly weak. The art is too tiny and generally messy. The characters are all one-dimensiomal and unlikeable. The story is pretty much non-existent other than pages and pages of fighting gore and pillaging with a bit of sex. Story elements are thrown in without motivation or adequate explanation. Too make a sweeping generalization, I find myself with these complaints for almost every European comic I have read (including Tintin, Astrisk, Dylan Dog, even the Smurfs). Maybe I haven't read the right titles though?

[Geoffery Crescent · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up in a charity shop because it was filled with swords, sorcery and nudity, which are three things I generally enjoy in a story. Sure, my French wasn't quite up to working out exactly what was going on in every single panel, but to be perfectly honest the story was so bonkers I'm not sure I would have understood it all even if it had been in English. The art is very nice and sometimes all you need to carry a story is swords, sorcery and nudity.

[Sourya Majumder · Rating 3 out of 5]

To gaze upon this art is to gaze upon pleasure.

The story is no great shakes, but for sword-and-sorcery fantasy under alien skies with brutal warlords and sinister cults, it'll do. Wismerhill is no Guts, and this first volume does not wallow in its own masculinity as generously (nor critique it as brutally) as Kentaro Miura's epic, but one can think of it as Euro-Berserk. If it helps.

But the art tho.

[Silas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a weird sort of retro fantasy comic with kind of a grotesque art style. It doesn't spend an awful lot of time on exposition, and just starts with some characters and follows them on an adventure with only occasional mentions of their backgrounds when it is convenient. It quickly becomes clear that the one character is destined for great things and has it all. That's kind of cliché, but setting that aside, this story is reasonably well told, and has some interesting imagery that I haven't seen before.

[Ky · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art for this was amazing but admittedly so far the story and characters are so-so, cliched and not that interesting. I wonder if some of it like the names and jokes are flawed due to translation. But dang, the art design here, the designs of characters, armor, weapons, factions, cities, architecture, even trees is all fantastic. I'd say read this if you want some fun fantasy aesthetics reminiscent of a mix between Warhammer, Chronicles of the Black Company, and Elric of Melniboné. Just don't think too hard on the story.

[Chrissy Poo · Rating 4 out of 5]

If a horny 14 year old dungeon master teamed up with a Magic the Gathering staff artist this is what they'd come up with.

It's great.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una fantasía oscura con mucho que contar. Amistad, romance, comedia, violencia,... Las técnicas que aquí presencié no son como las que he visto antes. A pesar de mantenerse estrictamente dentro de los paneles, el equipo se enfoca en guiar al ojo a lo importante y mantenerte atento ante los pequeños detalles.

Sin embargo, todo sucede muy rápido. Esto se siente más como un flashback que la historia principal por la forma de contar todo tan resumidamente. No es tanto una queja, sino una pequeña desilusión, ya que quise haberme quedado en este libro por más tiempo para contemplar el dibujo en lo que la trama se desarrolla más lentamente.

[Couet13 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ce premier tome des Chroniques de la Lune Noire marque les débuts d'une série d'héroic fantasy prometteuse.
Tous les ingrédients sont là : une prophétie, des personnages décalées dont l'un se cherche.
Des méchants bien visibles et reconnus, et d'autres cachés tirant les ficelles en jouant sur le destin des uns et des autres.
Seul petit bémol : le côté fouillis du dessin.
Il ne reste plus qu'à poursuivre la quête.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Une B.D qui a bercé mon adolescence. Aujourd'hui je suis forcé de reconnaître qu'en terme de scénario c'est très léger et un peu convenu. Les dessins sont moins bons que dans mon souvenir, je me rappelais d'un truc brouillon mais plein de details et au final j'en retiens surtout le côté brouillon. Agréable mais surtout pour le souvenir. L'armée de Frater Sinister est quand même bien classe !

[Feirodenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un album d'aventures et de combats épiques dont tout l'intérêt réside dans les grandes scènes de combats. Les événements se succèdent rapidement, c'est une histoire d'apprentissage, de camaraderie et d'amour exprimée de manière très simple en laissant une grande place à l'image.

[AP357 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pas une grande fan des BDs, l'histoire va un peu vite pour moi, mais c'est sûrement nécessaire, pour dérouler un récit en 48 pages...

[Elias Helfer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple, energetic fantasy tale that feels like a role-playing campaign. Fun if taken as such, but not particularly sophisticated or nuanced. Also, certain elements have aged rather poorly.

[Sophie Fourcade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Une bd bien pour nos darons beaufs fans de métal et de fantasy. C’est tout simple comme histoire, rythme un peu rapide, mais j’avoue j’ai passé un bon moment
Ça bz beaucoup 👍

[Renaud Germain · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpO4t...
(Bande-annonce pour la série)

[Joe Deangelo · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. It’s okay but a bit disappointing. The plot seems slapped together and feels like it really needs to be fleshed out. Still it has some cool factor and I’m curious if things will come together. The art is petty inconsistent too, but overall decent.

[Lord Humungus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awesome art. Funny, light storytelling.