Thieves & Kings: The Blue Book

Thieves & Kings #3

by Mark Oakley, R. Oakley Mark (Illustrator)

From the dream garden of the Sleeping Dragon, to the tower of the Lost Wizard, the thief Rubel and young Heath make their way. The third volume of Thieves & Kings collects eight issues of the original comic book series into one story, focusing on Heath's journey to find a new home, to explore her calling as sorceress and uncover the riddles of magic.

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Canada

184 pages, Paperback

First published November 20, 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]

Another delightful volume in this series, and now I've hit the books that for whatever reason I never read back when I bought them. This volume is primariy about Heath, and her largely frustrated attempts to learn magic from the ever distracted and mostly absent Quinton, along with revelations about her ties via previous incarnations to Rubel, Katara, Soracia, and a new character Trisha Ringlet. As in the previous volumes, Oakley displays unusual imagination with the strange creatures like the Gorgon Klachilies and his odd version of a troll. The writing is witty, human, and endearing, and the characters are complex and layered. The action sequences are exciting and perfectly paced. The artwork is the same high quality as previous volumes.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another terrific volume in one of my favorite indy comics, and the collected editions are really a fine way to read these. While these in no way are "written for the trade", because of the serial nature of the comic and the long planned nature of the series, it works very well with few awkward transitions.

Oakley moves the story forward well here and there's some really wonderful bits, like the dragon's dream garden. I've always loved how well he manages the art framing his text pieces (they're descriptive and related to the text without simply repeating it, the two work hand in hand very nicely), but things like the map drawn in here is a delight, with fascinating little aside and wonders that are completely extraneous to the main storyline but make you wonder even more about just what this world is like and making you eager to find out more about it.

This series is a gem, and the re-read is even more fun now that Oakley is working on bringing it to a conclusion again.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third book in this unique text/graphic novel combo continues in just as exciting form as the previous two books. The story focuses mainly on sorceress-in-training Heath, including also, the young thief Rubel, accompanied by the imp Varkias. Of course the bad guys show up but the princess and wizard are only spoken of in this volume. The story becomes much more involved and layered at this point bringing in many side stories and the world building is intricate spanning thousands of years as time travel, magic and reincarnation give many characters a history which is proving deeply satisfying. This series is one of my best finds this year and I am greatly enjoying it. This volume really brings the story to a much deeper level and finishes on a note of great anticipation. The author includes a brief endnote giving us an expectation as to where the story will be proceeding from this point leaving me virtually panting to get my hands on the next volume. Looking for a new quest fantasy series? I'm highly recommending you look no further.

[Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best parts of the series.