Last Siege

The Last Siege (single issues) #1-8

by Landry Q. Walker, Justin Greenwood (Illustrator), Eric Jones (Contributor)

Game of Thrones warfare meets spaghetti western storytelling in this epic medieval saga - THE LAST SIEGE. The blood runs deep as one castle stands alone against the might of a warlord. For those caught within, it is not a question of survival, but instead the hope for a good death. An explosive new series by New York Times bestselling writer LANDRY Q. WALKER and critically acclaimed artist JUSTIN GREENWOOD, The Last Siege begins now!

Collects THE LAST SIEGE #1-8.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Comic Book, Ebooks

208 pages, Paperback

First published March 12, 2019

About the author

Landry Q. Walker is a New York Times bestselling author of comics and books. His work includes Star Wars stories, Batman and Supergirl comics, and the Project Terra series of novels. He also co-created a Saturday morning cartoon called Scary Larry. He likes castles and robots and also pop-tarts. Most days he sits in his office and pushes buttons on a keyboard until stories somehow happen.

Reviews

[Relstuart · Rating 2 out of 5]

Using the f-bomb as your go-to profanity in a period comic is boring.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish there were more works of historical fiction in graphic form just like this one. It's a rare treat and one that is well-done especially in American comics. The setting is somewhere like England post-Norman invasion. It is a narrowly focused tale with the final two issues composed of the final (and mostly wordless) big battle.

[Wadi Hisham · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good graphic novel. It's nothing revolutionary, but everything here is decent to good. The art style is quite nice. The story, while nothing mind-blowing, is good and told very well. The dialogues are a bit on the nose but you can look past that.
All in all, underrated.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. Its a really good page turner, not wholly unique but it has plenty of energy as a story and the characters are great.

[Alex Sarll]

You know the sort of very low fantasy which can't even find room for dragons or elves or silly hats, and seems mainly like a way to do mediaeval stories without troubling yourself over the least bit of research? Yeah. I mean, I did briefly wonder if it was meant to be the Croatia-Hungary wars around the tenth century, but if so, it's strictly the Hollywood version. On top of which, there's not an original idea to be seen here – the last bastion against the evil king, with a mysterious wanderer leading rag-tag defenders, and a secret weapon, and a guy you know is going to betray them from the minute you see the oily fucker, and so on and so forth. And yet the writing is just about lively enough, and the art in particular is evocative enough of the rain and mud and blood, that I found myself quite enjoying this in a junky, Ironclad sort of way. At its best, the action sequences recall Frank Miller at his best, even if here there's nothing substantial underpinning them.

(Edelweiss ARC)

[Mars Dorian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid fictional medieval story about a stranger arriving at the last castle defying a conquering king.

Solid story with bloody melee action, earthy and dirt-brown colors with warm flames and sparks, and a loose drawing style with just enough detail to differentiate between all the key players. I would have hoped for deeper characters and twists, but I loved how the background story was told in an old fonter and stylized panels.

The climax and resolution are so-so. I'm no fan of using prose (just text on a page) in comics--stay with the medium!

If you dig comics in a fictional medieval setting WITHOUT fantasy, this is a solid read.

[Brad Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read, interesting story and amazing art! The action was a little hard to follow at times and I had to go back a couple of times to study character design to make sure I knew who was doing what, but very good other than that. It certainly didn’t hurt that this was a Wonderland purchase and I read it in a hammock 🤭

As for spoilers, I really enjoyed the reveal of the identity of the two lords. The king being Istvan and the stranger being Tomislav was very cool to me. I wondered if the stories of those two were just world building or if something else would come out of it, and when they revealed that the main characters were actually THEM, I was genuinely surprised

I really liked the one scene with the actual battle. Showing no dialogue and watching as the chaos happened and the black powder barrels exploded was really neat. I just wish the bishop underground had a little more to do. For almost 5 pages after he dropped his lantern, I excepted to turn the page to a super massive explosion, but it kept taking longer than I expected, all while the fire from the lantern burned next to the buried barrels. It didn’t make sense to me that it took so long

Overall, solid read and very fun story. Dark but not trying to do too much. It felt very good as a medieval story

[Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cliche. There's potential in the seams probably when the ideas were being thrown around during storyboard (if there was a storyboard). Chapters one, two, and three are a ping pong ball during a match between amateurs. Bop-Bop-Bop- whiff, or fall off the table. It's a back and forth story with no development for characters or plot.

There's a reveal at some point. If you took the time to read the page-long excerpts between chapters that is where it is building up. Not in the comics, we're still busy with amateur ping pong. Something didn't come together during planning or execution or both. As I said, there is potential that suffocates under whatever circumstance squeezed out the air for The Last Siege.

It looks like other reviewers are optimistic about this creative team. Mayhaps this was one mark against them and simply a learning experience to improve upon. Quite frankly you can't get much worse. I will shut up. Better luck next time!

[Andy Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last Siege, Walker, Greenwood
Brilliant, intriguing, engaging, original story of medieval lordship and allegiance. Battle of the Alamo meets Game of Thrones. One of the best graphic novels I've ever read, and I've read thousands! ****
#1- "By the time he arrived at the battle it was already too late."
#2- "It's called black powder... and it will change EVERYTHING."
#3- "This is MY castle!"
#4- "I will be no man's bride. NEVER. And we WILL fight your king.. WITH EVERY LAST BREATH."
#5- "And a king who claims a throne with daggers in the night doesn't sleep soundly, I would imagine."
#6- "You still DON'T UNDERSTAND. You're already DEAD. And this is your HELL."
#7- This entire chapter has no words but striking imagery and a stunning story. Brilliant.
#8- "Because you're RIGHT. You were ALWAYS right. We need a NEW WAY. A new rule .. just not YOURS."

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decently earthy mediaeval fantasy graphic novel, with two opposing men trying to best the other, control a castle, and do what they will (marry and breed with, or protect) a tweenage princess. It reads well, with quite a lot of silent panels and supposedly gritty action. If only it had been made obvious early on that both men were acting treacherously and against the intent and opinions of their opposing regions. That is only really clear after three or four monthlies' worth of introductory notes, by which time the plot has shifted to something else. As others have said, the prose extracts that close each monthly are essential yet a little pointless. The whole isn't bad, but doesn't have the extra oomph or novelty to make it stand out.

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty standard medieval action movie plot. The Lord of a castle is dead, an upstart wants to marry his daughter and heir, a stranger comes with a strange message and a King is marching in this direction to claim the land for himself. If this sounds like a plot you'll like, then by all means, read this. It's well done. In particular, I appreciate that the artist does a good job of designing characters I can tell apart, which I've found to be a problem in this genre. But, while I think this was good for what it was, it was too generic for me.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The highlights of this one include tremendous details in the fighting scenes, and some very good illustrations.

Overall a decent story that reminds me a many medieval fantasy books I’ve read. If you’re looking for quick graphic novel with some strong characters, pick this one up.

For my full review: https://paulspicks.blog/2019/04/15/th...

For all my reviews: https://paulspicks.blog

[Art · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was odd. The story was really only to be understood through the prose "chapters" at the end of each issue. Without them to fill in the backstory, the tale would have been hard to understand. The story itself was fairly standard. The artwork was well done. There were not a lot of surprises here.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much of the actual story is done in prose so the last two thirds of the comic pages turn into pretty much one long fight sequence. It's a shame because the first issue was pretty intriguing and the art was a great fit for the time and tone. There's just not much of actual substance.

[Jipi Perreault · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very looking forward for this one, but The Last Siege is an unequal revenge story. The very decompressed style let us with not much in the end and allows itself some not welcomed cliches. I definitly feel the effort and the potential though and hope to see the team on something else.

[Huzefa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would recommend borrowing the book from a friend or library or not bothering at all. Pretty standard by the numbers story. Nothing interesting and nothing you haven't already read or seen in the story.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's ok.
Squeezing a full page coda of exposition into every book gets old quickly and shows a lack of trust in the material, I think.
If those eight pages were really necessary, they could probably have been made into a short-run series as well, and to better effect.

[Sarospice · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started as an interesting mystery but the reveal ended up in prose not the comic which ran out of steam in the end, including a wordless chapter.

[Chris Levine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing special. A lot of flash, no filler. Quick read so I'm not mad and I got it at the library for free.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent story, decent artwork.

[Jason Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

decent

[Paul Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stylish, well-told, not hugely inventive.

[Nathaniel R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

95% of the time the art is great. The story and mystery have an interesting development with a nice reveal, and with the way this was written and how it was ended, it makes me wish for a sequel.

[Jonathan Crabb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This graphic novel had a lot of castle / medieval action with ravens to boot. Lots of things that I like, but nothing substantive beyond that in terms of wider overall story arc. One and done.

[Eran Weiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat uneven, with steady graphics turning sometimes confusing and good writing that falters at times.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast read, great art, not too much dialogue.

[Grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

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