Dungeons the Early Years 2: Innocence Lost

By Lewis Trondheim; Joann Sfar; Illustrated by Christophe Blain
NBM, $12.95, 96 pages

NBM continues its reprints of the Trondheim/Sfar anthropomorphic fantasy comic series Dungeon with two story arcs continuing the early story of Hyacinthe, a medieval adventurer who has taken to being a hero dispensing justice as The Night Shirt. However, being a hero isn’t always easy, and often has repercussions that reverberate in your regular life. In the first story, Hyacinthe saves Alexandra, a female assassin he’s been pining for with disastrous consequences. In part two, Alexandra comes back years later to find Hyacinthe, only to discover he has married. So that leaves her no choice other than to eliminate Hyacinthe’s wife to create a place for herself. At the same time, Hyacinthe’s home of Antipolis is falling apart and he has to try and correct the damage done by poor political choices.

Blain’s artwork suits the story well, from the quiet pages with no dialog to the humorous pages with plenty of action and conversation. Even though this is part of a longer story line, there is little that a new reader cannot figure out.