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Lost Fantasy Volume 1
144 pages, Paperback
First published November 18, 2025
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28 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 24, 2025
Lost Fantasy takes a premise I should fucking adore: mixing high fantasy, secret societies of monster hunters, and a magical "World Beneath" with a modern, gritty, urban setting. The main character is a cynical hunter whose constant, explicit exasperation with his job perfectly captures the desired tone, with just about everyone screaming "Fuck this" and "Fuck that" every other line. When the comic focuses on the central mystery of the mass killing in Montana and the immediate monster threat, the quickly paced main story can be a ton of fun and is genuinely engaging, providing glimpses of the dynamic story the creators are aiming for.
But sadly, the comic's execution is constantly hobbled by an intrusive and poorly managed delivery of its lore. Every time I start to get into it, Curt decides to throw a shit ton of exposition and history lessons at you. This gives you the most DULL way to tell background imaginable. This jarring shift in pacing, moving from thrilling action to a static, dry, history lesson about the Great Hunters and the "Schism," severely breaks the flow of the book. Furthermore, the artwork, while featuring some cool monster and character designs, contributes to the feeling of being held back, as faces are often sketchy to the point where you can barely see their eyes.
Ultimately, Lost Fantasy Volume 1 is an assembly of promising, cool ideas that suffers from a lack of polish in its execution. The core concept and the foul-mouthed attitude of the protagonist are strong enough to keep one invested, but the uneven pacing from the constant, poorly delivered exposition and the visual struggle to convey dynamic action prevent the comic from reaching its full potential. The execution is lacking, but the intriguing foundation earns it a slightly above-average score of 3 out of 5.
But sadly, the comic's execution is constantly hobbled by an intrusive and poorly managed delivery of its lore. Every time I start to get into it, Curt decides to throw a shit ton of exposition and history lessons at you. This gives you the most DULL way to tell background imaginable. This jarring shift in pacing, moving from thrilling action to a static, dry, history lesson about the Great Hunters and the "Schism," severely breaks the flow of the book. Furthermore, the artwork, while featuring some cool monster and character designs, contributes to the feeling of being held back, as faces are often sketchy to the point where you can barely see their eyes.
Ultimately, Lost Fantasy Volume 1 is an assembly of promising, cool ideas that suffers from a lack of polish in its execution. The core concept and the foul-mouthed attitude of the protagonist are strong enough to keep one invested, but the uneven pacing from the constant, poorly delivered exposition and the visual struggle to convey dynamic action prevent the comic from reaching its full potential. The execution is lacking, but the intriguing foundation earns it a slightly above-average score of 3 out of 5.
March 15, 2026
I enjoy the color scheme, this is such an autumnal comic it makes sense it uses these yellows and oranges throughout. It looks really nice!
The story is just fine. Another dark (but modern dark) world building- there’s another world of magic beneath our world. Characters swear, characters drink and have sex. It is just ok. It doesn’t feel different enough to be its whole new world, its whole new thing. It’s very similar to a handful of other newer fantasy comics that are at the tip of my tongue. I’m not saying DON’T read this, but it isn’t something I’d go out of my way to recommend. I’m not a hater though, I’m happy original comics are being made and Image always takes chances with new stuff!
The story is just fine. Another dark (but modern dark) world building- there’s another world of magic beneath our world. Characters swear, characters drink and have sex. It is just ok. It doesn’t feel different enough to be its whole new world, its whole new thing. It’s very similar to a handful of other newer fantasy comics that are at the tip of my tongue. I’m not saying DON’T read this, but it isn’t something I’d go out of my way to recommend. I’m not a hater though, I’m happy original comics are being made and Image always takes chances with new stuff!
December 14, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley and Image Comics for the ARC.
I guess it's okay? Nothing really stood out to me. Even the reveal of a betrayal within the monster-fighting group didn't stand out; of course the guy that looks brooding and evil is hiding something, he looks like the stereotypical bad guy. The art is fine, but the whole thing doesn't hook me enough to want more.
I guess it's okay? Nothing really stood out to me. Even the reveal of a betrayal within the monster-fighting group didn't stand out; of course the guy that looks brooding and evil is hiding something, he looks like the stereotypical bad guy. The art is fine, but the whole thing doesn't hook me enough to want more.
March 6, 2026
Great world building but the artwork kinda lacks the same boldness of the premise. I liked the idea of a Men in Black bureaucracy operating between worlds.
January 31, 2026
A whole lot of mystical, magical bull crap is going down in southern Montana. A massacre at a forest cabin. A stone golem. Mindworms. Bigoted locals. The usual. Now, if only the dysfunctional team of magic users, warriors, and heir apparents could quit bickering long enough to do their dang job.
LOST FANTASY is an urban high-fantasy story that tries really hard to sell readers on the urgency of its central crises but doesn't put a lot of energy into crafting a suitable superstructure of believability along the way. Perhaps the council of immortal heroes who live in the magical world beneath the Earth's crust would be more credible if their primary delegate wasn't designed to look like Mick Jagger. Perhaps the crack team of sword-wielding, magic-intuiting fighters would be more engaging if they couldn't, improbably, wake up from a bender and instantly teleport halfway across the country and start investigating a murder like it's just another day. Perhaps the narrative's inevitable bend toward organizational conflict and betrayal would feel less obvious if the book's dialogue didn't so cloyingly telegraph its characters' motives.
At the center of the comic rests Henry Blackheart, a sad sack of a fellow who is the adopted son of one of several heroes who emerged from a fantasy realm to help save the Earth more than 100 years prior. The fissure in reality that beget those supernatural threats never healed. And those heroes have since divided the Earth into sectors of oversight, to ensure otherworldly threats are quickly quelled. Henry, for his part, is a powerful magic user. He mostly plays the part of an FBI investigator of supernatural issues and oddments, but his lethargy, abrasiveness, and all-around debauchery hardly make him a suitable scion to protect the planet.
And so, in southern Montana, magical crap goes down, and with it comes the investigative instincts of Henry, as well as those of an assassin for hire (Valyrie) and an old fighter-friend (Nihlas). These three were probably partying all night last night, but come the daytime, their petty grievances (and whomever signs their paychecks) often puts them in opposition to one another. LOST FANTASY is a swift-moving and sometimes chaotic story whose characters are both achingly transparent and devoid of any meaningful background. The contradiction isn't one of the book's strongsuits. For example, is Valyrie an irrelevant fling who adores quick cash, or is she a lonely young woman with a maturing morality (who also adores quick cash)?
LOST FANTASY wields a warm, old-school visual style reminiscent of Alex Toth's work from the late 1960s: pinched drama that blossoms and grows increasingly messy; flat colors and leisurely inks; manic action scenes. For some, the comic might feel like an affectation, compared to the over-rendered fare of superhero books. For others, it's a long, patient exhale (e.g., Nihlas' fighting style is both acrobatic and aggressive, which benefits from fuzzy speed lines and bright splashes of background colors).
Is the story good? It's okay. LOST FANTASY moves quickly, but not so quickly that any individual character or subplot is left behind. Magical wardens of the modern world are hardly in for an easy ride when the local sheriff is a jackass and one's ageless father half-apologizes for raising him from birth to fight monsters from the deep.
LOST FANTASY is an urban high-fantasy story that tries really hard to sell readers on the urgency of its central crises but doesn't put a lot of energy into crafting a suitable superstructure of believability along the way. Perhaps the council of immortal heroes who live in the magical world beneath the Earth's crust would be more credible if their primary delegate wasn't designed to look like Mick Jagger. Perhaps the crack team of sword-wielding, magic-intuiting fighters would be more engaging if they couldn't, improbably, wake up from a bender and instantly teleport halfway across the country and start investigating a murder like it's just another day. Perhaps the narrative's inevitable bend toward organizational conflict and betrayal would feel less obvious if the book's dialogue didn't so cloyingly telegraph its characters' motives.
At the center of the comic rests Henry Blackheart, a sad sack of a fellow who is the adopted son of one of several heroes who emerged from a fantasy realm to help save the Earth more than 100 years prior. The fissure in reality that beget those supernatural threats never healed. And those heroes have since divided the Earth into sectors of oversight, to ensure otherworldly threats are quickly quelled. Henry, for his part, is a powerful magic user. He mostly plays the part of an FBI investigator of supernatural issues and oddments, but his lethargy, abrasiveness, and all-around debauchery hardly make him a suitable scion to protect the planet.
And so, in southern Montana, magical crap goes down, and with it comes the investigative instincts of Henry, as well as those of an assassin for hire (Valyrie) and an old fighter-friend (Nihlas). These three were probably partying all night last night, but come the daytime, their petty grievances (and whomever signs their paychecks) often puts them in opposition to one another. LOST FANTASY is a swift-moving and sometimes chaotic story whose characters are both achingly transparent and devoid of any meaningful background. The contradiction isn't one of the book's strongsuits. For example, is Valyrie an irrelevant fling who adores quick cash, or is she a lonely young woman with a maturing morality (who also adores quick cash)?
LOST FANTASY wields a warm, old-school visual style reminiscent of Alex Toth's work from the late 1960s: pinched drama that blossoms and grows increasingly messy; flat colors and leisurely inks; manic action scenes. For some, the comic might feel like an affectation, compared to the over-rendered fare of superhero books. For others, it's a long, patient exhale (e.g., Nihlas' fighting style is both acrobatic and aggressive, which benefits from fuzzy speed lines and bright splashes of background colors).
Is the story good? It's okay. LOST FANTASY moves quickly, but not so quickly that any individual character or subplot is left behind. Magical wardens of the modern world are hardly in for an easy ride when the local sheriff is a jackass and one's ageless father half-apologizes for raising him from birth to fight monsters from the deep.
August 30, 2025
Was looking forward to "Lost Fantasy" and it deserved my hype. Been seeing alt covers that give homage to some of the inspiration. Really like the Devil May Cry alt by Alex Diotto.
Writer - Curt Pires
Artist - Luca Casalanguida
Letterer - Micah Myers
Colorist - Mark Dale
Bit over 100 years ago a natural disaster was used as an excuse for a magical incursion into our world. Since then the slayers of those monsters have worked with world leaders to obfuscate and contain magical threats. But things break through the cracks. In Montana something laid waste to a party of teens and the lone survivor is in a coma. Henry Blackheart is called in, things are going to get bloody.
Reasons to read:
-Based on just the first issue I feel like I could geek out on so many topics with the creators
-The magic we have seen is not a win button
-Big sword makes good brain chemicals
-The meta plot is going places
-Ominous foreshadowing
Cons:
-I prefer volumes so it means waiting longer to continue stories...
Writer - Curt Pires
Artist - Luca Casalanguida
Letterer - Micah Myers
Colorist - Mark Dale
Bit over 100 years ago a natural disaster was used as an excuse for a magical incursion into our world. Since then the slayers of those monsters have worked with world leaders to obfuscate and contain magical threats. But things break through the cracks. In Montana something laid waste to a party of teens and the lone survivor is in a coma. Henry Blackheart is called in, things are going to get bloody.
Reasons to read:
-Based on just the first issue I feel like I could geek out on so many topics with the creators
-The magic we have seen is not a win button
-Big sword makes good brain chemicals
-The meta plot is going places
-Ominous foreshadowing
Cons:
-I prefer volumes so it means waiting longer to continue stories...
October 29, 2025
thank to netgalley and Image comics for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review
all four issues present in this first volume of Lost Fantasy were also released in public, as of writing this review
This reminds me of Tynion/Werther Dell'Edera's Something is Killing the Children, but no matter how tried that series fluctuating from good to bad for me. This series by Pires and Casalanguida has a way faster pace and we have lore of the different groups/families in just the four issues. While I liked the worldbuilding, it wasn't really enough to hook me and no characters really interested me, it's been only a month after I read the four issues but nothing really pops up - controlling the bullet is cool, I guess reminds me of Children of the Sun game.
Don't know if I'll continue reading this series...
all four issues present in this first volume of Lost Fantasy were also released in public, as of writing this review
This reminds me of Tynion/Werther Dell'Edera's Something is Killing the Children, but no matter how tried that series fluctuating from good to bad for me. This series by Pires and Casalanguida has a way faster pace and we have lore of the different groups/families in just the four issues. While I liked the worldbuilding, it wasn't really enough to hook me and no characters really interested me, it's been only a month after I read the four issues but nothing really pops up - controlling the bullet is cool, I guess reminds me of Children of the Sun game.
Don't know if I'll continue reading this series...
Read
February 9, 2026Bruh moment: the comic. Almost exactly Something is Killing the Children (monsters are real, a secret society exists to neutralize the threat, they have monster totems/spirit animals that help them, inter-clan rivalries galore, the main hunter has white hair and one eye showing in most layouts), a comic I already have a love/hate relationship with, run through a gritty-fication engine (*poe dameron voice*: they say fuck now!) with some bonus shit added for the greasiest of comic readers (video game homage alt covers, blue ocarina cameo, the two main hunter guys use a Berserk sword and a lightsaber (lol) as their weapons). dumb!
September 27, 2025
Thank you netgalley for this graphic novel. I enjoyed this one and all the action moments and fight scenes as well as this novel had a good storyline and some fantasy elements to it as well and im trying to branch out to more genres when it comes to graphic novels so at times i was a little confused but i still enjoyed the artwork and the plot i really enjoyed the werewolf aspect in this novel. Overall it was a good story and a quick read
February 3, 2026
I really had fun reading this and urban fantasy is one of my favorite genres. Across the first four issues, the first arc was wrapped up with lingering plot threads. I assume those will be addressed throughout the run. I felt the 4 issues to be a tad short which is crazy because each issue is approx. 40+ pages but would've loved the story to be stretched out more.
I will be adding to my pull list and continuing the series.
I will be adding to my pull list and continuing the series.
August 28, 2025
I haven’t read a graphic novel in quite some time and I had a lot of fun! This really flexed the strong attributes of quick short prose with magical whimsy that best comes through with images. If you’re into a dark, sci-fi, cop-show, thriller sci-fi then this is for you! This was so good it really got me excited to read more. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC.
October 6, 2025
This had a very promising start, and for a little bit, I was shocked at how low this series was actually rated. And then the dragon thing came out and truly screwed everything over. I could not care less what happened, and flipped through the rest. I'm giving this two stars, mostly because I didn't fully read it, so maybe it gets better? I received a free copy from NetGalley for my honest review.
January 16, 2026
A lot of reviews not feeling so hot for this comic but I dug it. It's basically a teenager's notebook of things they think are cool and Luca Casalanguida's art is 100% in synch with that.
Is it "high art"? No. But sometimes I want a Final Fantasy character and a lightsaber-wielding Blade hunting werewolves in modern day Montana.
Is it "high art"? No. But sometimes I want a Final Fantasy character and a lightsaber-wielding Blade hunting werewolves in modern day Montana.
November 11, 2025
Meh – fantasy where one fight causes another fight, which causes another, and we're just left watching them all, trying to work out who is who and why the fights are supposed to be interesting. One of those questions is almost answered – the second not nearly enough.
November 21, 2025
This wasn't great. The art was not that good and the writing was mediocre. The concept is kind of interesting though. If they ever make a vol 2 its possible that this series could be saved. Going to have to get yourself a good editor though.
2.6🌟
2.6🌟
November 25, 2025
Concept is fantastic, love the secret kingdom high fantasy nature of the book. The realism of the small town back woods cop looking like Sam Elliott in the art is neat. The dragons looked cool. But it just didnt wow me. Maybe i need to read it again sometime.
December 8, 2025
Been wanting to read this for a while since I kept seeing the single issue covers but had to wait for the tp, and to me it did not disappoint. A beautiful mix of fantasy, action and mystery that works perfectly to create a great story and can’t wait to see what comes next.
March 20, 2026
There's monsters. And a society of monster-hunters. Yes, it's basically Something is Killing the Children, but without as skilled of writing, and without characters we care about.
DNFed because it wasn't worth the 15 minutes to read the last two issues. Not terrible, just not particularly good.
DNFed because it wasn't worth the 15 minutes to read the last two issues. Not terrible, just not particularly good.
August 28, 2025
Unfortunately this wasn’t for me. There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with it, it just didn’t excite me but I know some people who’d love this.
💕 thank you for the arc 💕
💕 thank you for the arc 💕
October 6, 2025
Finished issues 1-4. Can’t quite tell how into it I am yet, but the breadcrumbs are starting to add up, and I am intrigued on where it is going.
December 19, 2025
7.25/10
January 1, 2026
A simple, fun action fantasy story with a modern setting and ok art. The story has a lot of mysteries and starts to pick up in the later issues.
February 5, 2026
its not bad, but it feels like it wants to be something is killing the children so badly.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews