Thieves & Kings: The Green Book

Thieves & Kings #2

by Mark Oakley

The second volume of Thieves & Kings collects ten issues of the original comic book series, detailing the story of the young thief, Rubel and the Shadow Lady who seeks to capture his soul. Introduced also in this volume is the wizard, Quinton and his young apprentice, Heath Wingwhit. Between these four, demon traps are built, poisonings endured and dragon dreams journeyed, while mad princes and monsters of every ilk challenge the way for all.

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Canada

210 pages, Paperback

First published November 25, 1998

About the author

Mark Oakley, born in Montreal in 1970, has lived in cities all over eastern Canada and currently calls Halifax, Nova Scotia, home.

Oakley’s early background was in commercial animation, and he is today best known for his work on the independently published all-ages comic book fantasy adventure series Thieves & Kings, which he spent more than 10 years creating and publishing from his home studio.

Reviews

[Baal Of · Rating 5 out of 5]

The various plot lines get rolling in this volume, with the connections between the Quinton / Heath storyline and the Rubel / Shadow Lady storline slowly unfolding. Oakley also shifts the Shadow Lady from being a simple villain into a more complex character, introducing a background that gives me much more sympathy for her. The interactions between Heath and the various secondary characters, all children, come across as quite realistic in the way they communicate, with silly bickering, and irrelevant asides. A lot of authors make children sounds either like little adults or nonsensical babies, but Oakley manages to make them sound like actual kids without being maudlin or writing them down to complete foolishness. Oakley also strikes a lovely balance between the adventure and danger of the various situations while injecting doses of humor (for example the trapping of Jurid). Oakley's artwork continues to develop as well, with the not-overly cartoonish style of the characters, and the richly detailed backgrounds. I am thoroughly enjoying my return to the world of Thieves & Kings and I'm looking forward to actually reading all those volumes that have been sitting on my shelves for a couple decades now.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m always torn about the narrative choice of throwing the reader into the deep in along with the POV characters, because it’s a great way to allow the worldbuilding to grow naturally and to keep the reader on their toes. But in a complex, serialized story, I almost always hate it, because it’s usually an information overload with very little context. Paper Girls was infuriating because it took a few YEARS of publication before the story was allowed to slow down enough for the girls (and by extension, us) got any answers to what the hell was going on.

And that’s my problem with the issues of Thieves & Kings collected here. While Rubel is still trying to grasp who the Dark Lady is and want she wants from him, he’s also close to death and on the run from the prince’s soldiers in the middle of a coup. While all this is going on, the story alternates to events that happened 1000 years in the past, which are far more straightforward, and eventually become cleverly tied to the main narrative, but the constant switch between the chaos of Rubel and the pastoral calm of Heath is jarring. And then we’re thrown into a dreamscape held within the mind of a long-dead dragon that requires a lot of unnecessary exposition, where it turns out that the Dark Lady maybe isn’t evil, Quinton isn’t necessarily good, and everyone alludes to a lot of important things that they’re inconveniently hurried away from before they can actually say anything meaningful at all. If this was an epic fantasy series spanning multiple thick installments, rather than bimonthly comix releases, I’d be a bit more forgiving. But as it stands, it just makes my brain hurt, and it may be a while before I can find a copy of volume 3.

All that being said, however, I’m complaining here because I’m already reinvested in this series and just don’t wanna WAIT.

[Mark Schlatter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing a reread of the series. You start to see, in these issues, the more confusing aspects of the storyline. Oakley hasn't created a villainous character he couldn't turn sympathetic. It's an admirable quality for a person, but can create a bit of whiplash in the reader.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not unusual for for an author to take a little while to find their stride, whether it's a comic book or novel, and The Green Book proves it here too. Oakley seems to be on a bit firmer footing for where he wants this story to go and just sort of lets it all fly.

The addition of Heath and seeing Quinton from 1000 years ago also helps things out; partly because Heath is a likable protagonist, but also because you get to see more about what Quinton is like. He's a bit bizarre and and baffling, and certainly seems to be a mostly harmless sort of crazy person...most of the time. But the moments of clarity also really help show how much deeper a game there is that's being played, and the contrasts between the 2 Soracia's is interesting too.

There's a sort of in media res approach to this story and its a bit confusing...but not enough to make it a problem. You can kind of infer enough about what's going on to go along for the ride and keep an eye for when someone is going to explain a bit more to you. (Like Quinton, in moments of lucidity)

The art is nicely done again, and Oakley does a fine job in showing movement and action. What makes this book particularly special is the use of text pages framed by art, and they are done incredibly well. The art is always evocative and the prose is interesting and together they fit like a key in a lock.

Really enjoying revisiting this series, an indy gem.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reason for Reading: I'm visiting family in Edmonton and I asked my 14yo niece if she had any graphic novels I hadn't read and she pulled out the first three books in this series. This is the next in the series; unfortunately I won't have time to read the third book before I go home :-(

I love this graphic novel series! Even better than the first volume! The fantasy/quest becomes much more involved as two very important characters are introduced, the wizard Quinton who has been mentioned in the first volume but is missing, and his apprentice the young girl Heath Wingwhit. Rubel's story and Quinton & Heath's are separated by 1,000 years introducing a time paradox element to the tale. One character common to both stories is the Shadow Lady and much information is slowly revealed leaving the reader curious, confused and scrambling to piece the mysteries together. I had started to form an idea as to who someones true identity might be but was proven wrong towards the end of this volume when a particularly splendid reveal caused the story to become even more engaging. The new character's are funny, Quinton is a boy but someone who is thousand's of years old and is the quintessential bumbling and mumbling albeit incredibly intelligent wizard. Heath is a girl with no fears and a take no prisoners attitude who is loyal to her mentor, even when everyone else is positive he is off his rocker. Great dynamics between these two make for fun reading. I still think the story is suitable for middle grade and up, though unfortunately the word "d*mn" has been added to the vocabulary and overused without any need except to perhaps make the story appear more grown up to older readers. I'd label the story for YA but suitable for older and younger. I can't wait to continue on with this series and hope once I get home my library will be able to supply the remaining five volumes for me.

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reprints Thieves & Kings #7-16. Rubel tries to speak to the king but ends up on a different journey when shot by a poisoness arrow. Heath works with Quinton in the past and learns that there is more to her life than she remembers. Thieves & Kings is a strange comic book. It seems very random when you first pick it up, but starting with this book the randomness seems to be ending, and it appears that a big picture is forming.

[John Maresco · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author takes the unique style of combining comic book panels and pages of text. The combined style describes actions, explains background, and helps to gain insight into characters that would not be done by pictures or words alone. More thrilling than the first volume.