Deepstalker Crow (Indiegogo – here)
Writing – Antonio Cooper
Art team – J. Travis Smith, Edgar Tavitas, Bill Simpson
Creator blurb – Mercy awakens on the doorstep of the infamous Crow Manor scared and confused. Crow Manor is home to the most skilled and brutal monster hunters in all the land. When Mercy finds herself drawn into the Crow clan, she is forced to push far beyond her limits and risk her life, values, and sanity all in the name of family duty.
Will Mercy be able to push beyond her physical impairments to stay alive, save the citizens, and find a place in her new family? Read and find out!!
The world is a rough place right now, and even if it is just for a little while, it is helpful to have an escape. Very recently, I was introduced to a fantastic escape – the world and mythos of Deepstalker Crow.
This is an atypical take on the very traditional fantasy setting. All of the fantasy elements that D&D fans would expect to be there are present, with some very well-thought out homebrew aspects to races (elves, dwarves, etc.), monsters, themes… with just the right amount of arcane technology.
With the first volume, readers get thrown right into some great combat-centric action and then are slowly introduced to this rich, developed fantasy setting. Author Antonio Cooper introduces characters that are likeable and fleshed out enough that they feel familiar to the reader, while giving them his own flavor. Cooper expertly does this in the context of the story without having to bombard the reader with pages and pages of text. Between multiple connected storylines and fun characters, in a mere twenty two pages, Deepstalker Crow has me sucked in!
The art team holds up their end and delivers a brooding yet colorful backdrop. The colors give just the right amount of anxiety. In both structure and movement, the visual design of the characters reminds me a great deal of pulp heroes, I was half expecting the Shadow or a member of the JSA to join the quest. The overall graphic feel is unique and worth looking at. This isn’t always the case, but with Deepstalker Crow, the quality of the story is amplified by creative page layout and gorgeous splash pages.
Bottom Line: I wish I had 220 pages of this and not just 22.
Grade: 11/13
