(4/5) So it turns out that there’s a prologue to Isola (a.k.a. Isola #0) and I completely missed it, which was almost a tragedy. It was serialized in Motor Crush, which I read, but as a trade paperback. The Prologue was bound together for, as I understand it, a promotional event in Dublin. The only reason I happened upon it was because Brenden Fletcher and Karl Kershl brought some spare copies to TCAF, which they freely signed & distributed. Cheers for that!

Anyways, Isola #0 has more worldbuilding and backstory in a few panels than the first two issues of Isola together. We get a ton of insight into the palace intrigue of Queen Olywn, some cursory geopolitics, and some very illuminating insight into the relationship between the Queen and Rook, newly-minted Circle Guard. Most interestingly, there’re tantalizing clues that Olywn isn’t the only person to get transformed into a beast, and some more positively cryptic stuff about the nature of Isola (which I guess is an island for the souls of the dead?)



The artwork isn’t quite as stunning as the later issues, though it’s much more vibrant. I feel like this makes the issue a little less otherworldly than #1 and #2, but it’s a good choice, given the amount of earthly details that the issue needs to address. All-and-all neat stuff.

See reviews for:

(Isola #1) (Isola #2)