‘Barbaric Volume 1: Murderable Offences’ – Moreci, Gooden, Duke & Campbell (Vault Comics)


Last weekend was mostly split into either catching up on my reading or buying more books to catch up on at some point yet to be determined. Drinking beer was equally divided between these two activities… 😉

During my cull of books in my flat, I built up quite the pile of comic books that I’d had every intention of reading but somehow, yeah… you know how it is. ‘Barbaric Volume 1’ was one of those comic books (recommended by the ever reliable @AnthonyPerconti, a man who really knows his stuff) and I took the opportunity to finally crack it open, over the weekend, and get stuck in…

How can a man sworn to do good indulge in so much violence…?

Owen the Barbarian has been cursed to do good with what remains of his life. His moral compass is a bloodthirsty axe with a drinking problem.

Together, they wander the realm, foredoomed to help any who seek their aid, avoiding witches at every turn. Because if there’s one thing Owen hates more than a life with rules, it’s witches. But what happens when a witch is in need of aid and there’s something evil lurking in the abbey at the top of the hill…?  

‘Murderable Offences’ wasn’t a bad read at all, certainly very easy to stick with once I started reading. Most of this is down to the dialogue from Axe, a weapon that has the happy knack of being able to get drunk off the blood Owen spills while doing the right thing. Some of us have to pay for our beer but I guess that’s ‘doing the right thing’ too so I shouldn’t complain. Either way, Axe holds things together for me and while it works very well, I wouldn’t have minded seeing the same effort from Owen himself. Our barbarian ‘hero’ is good in a scrap but hasn’t quite got the presence (yet) to take centre stage. Even Soren, the witch side-kick, has more presence. And maybe that’s how it needs to be at the start, you know, let Owen develop and grow into his own character a bit before pushing him to the forefront? I don’t know… The jury is out and I’d have to see how it pans out in the next volume at least.

The good news though is that if Volume 1 is anything to go by then I will absolutely be there for Volume 2. The plot is very simple but Moreci, Gooden, Duke and Campbell all pour everything they have into it and the end result is a really powerful piece of storytelling (words and visually) that just steams along like it’s out of control but it isn’t. Moreci knows exactly what he’s about and ‘Murderable Offences’ ends up exactly where it needs to, all ready to go again in the next volume.

‘Murderable Offences’ could have done with a more commanding lead (at least from where I was sat) but what we get in terms of how the actual story is told more than makes up for it for now. And you know what? I’d probably read a comic that was just about Axe… 😊

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