Review - The Dark Crystal!

[Overread]

Title The Dark Crystal Creation Myths
Published by BOOM! - Archaia
Written by Brian Holguin and Brian Froud
Art by Lizzy John and Alex Sheikman
Number of issues 3
Pages per issue 98-106

Any who have not yet seen the fantastic film Dark Crystal should go do so right now; no stop reading this and go watch the film!

For the rest of us this series of 3 volumes of comics presents a background to the mystical world of Thra and the events that take place in the Dark Crystal film. This story sets the tales of how the world was born, of the relationship between the people and the crystal; of where the urSkeks came from and of how the crystal became shattered.

This story plays out the very early days and adds some significant depth without treading on the lore nor toes of the film; whilst at the same time introducing us to characters that we've already met through the film. Indeed its no spoiler to say that, as she's on the front cover, we meet Aughra and learn of her history. Of how her eye was lost and of her importance within the world.


Interestingly the series chronicles all the way up to the shattering and a little beyond, so there is still much mystery at the end as to the events that fully lead to the rise of the Skeksis and the fall of the Gelfings.


There's a lot here for fans of the original film and its well worth reading. The series is complete with the publication only semi-recently of the 3rd volume; although with 1000 years between this and the film there would be ample chance to return to the world of Thra again

 

[Brian G Turner]

Just curious - why does the comic have Brian Froud's name credited to it?

 

[Overread]

Because he was part of the writing/overseeing team for the series. The various volumes have some variation in writers/draft writers; but it seems that Brian was a major unified element in the series overseeing/writing it. More than that I can't really say

 

[Brian G Turner]

I was just hoping that he might have been involved in the artwork, or design in the comic, I guess.

 

[Frost Giant]

If they adapt it to film hopefully they'll go CGI and avoid the whole muppet thing. The original was a weird flick, sort of LOTR meets Sesame Street, and as I recall a high level of intoxication was beneficial while watching it. Similar to Labyrinth.

 

[SilentRoamer]

If they CGI it and don't do it well they will ruin it.

I personally liked the puppets and think it gave it a dreamlike quality.

Dark Crystal is without a doubt one of my fave films from childhood.

 

[Overread]

They would have to use outstanding CGI to beat the puppets! Esp after decades more puppetry learning and mechanics; they could really do a fantastic bit of work if they kept to the original themes and style.

 

[Frost Giant]

I think they could do it pretty well. In my opinion the CGI Yoda was an improvment over the puppet in Star Wars and General Grievous was pretty well done. The Gelflings seemed pretty wooden to me back when I saw the film. Puppetry has it's place, I guess, but even Farscape (a show that arguably made very heavy use of puppets) didn't hang it's hat exclusively on puppets.

 

[the_evil_ted]

They have a sequel in development hell, possibly even stopped now. It's been years, but I remember seeing artwork.

The planet is hollow, and a little person comes from inside. Something's wrong, she needs a shard from the crystal to save her world...

uh oh...

But, as said. Didn't happen, I think Mirror Mask failing to make enough money had something to do with it.

 

[Overread]

I think its one of those projects that has been in the background for so long that teams have formed and fallen apart; it likely needs a huge money injection that just isn't there.