In Review: The Lady and the Lost World

The Lady and the Lost World - Cover

Written and lettered by Ian Sharman
Illustrated by Hakan Aydin
Cover art by Loles Romero
Published by Markosia – out 25th June 2018
101 pages – Full Colour

The Story: Emmaline ‘Emmy’ Harcourt is prone to wearing twin sets and pearls. She is posh totty and an adventurer to boot. She is looking for her fiancé who went missing in mysterious circumstances five years ago. His name is Henry Tremayne who is, on occasion, called ‘Hooray Henry’.

The book opens with Emmy at the British Museum in London, looking for an American chap and someone without a ridiculous sounding name. She fails in this second part of her day’s ‘To Do List’ by meeting one Trent Bridgestock (told you) who she describes as:

“A renowned charlatan, thief, spiritualist, alleged murderer and worst of all, an American.”

It turns out though that Trent is just what Emmy is looking for and she arranges to travel to Mexico the following morning to investigate an ancient map that may hold the secret to the location of good old Henry. To celebrate her trip, our heroine decides to go on a night out with pals who wish her bon voyage (as well as probably the odd “toodle pip” and “have a smashing trip, old girl”). She returns home, however, to find that her flat has been turned over – someone presumably looking for the aforementioned map, she surmises. Luckily, it was in her pocket the whole time.

As Trent and Emmy begin their trip from Heathrow airport, we see that a secret organisation/ sect/ Masonic lodge/ posh cricket club have gathered in a musty basement to discuss killing Emmy (and probably how cool they look in their magicians cloaks).

So, the stage is set. A dash across the world’s archaeological wonders in search of Henry. What will happen next? What cocktails will they drink? How will they survive? Will the missing fiancé become the husband of Emmy’s dreams?

You’ll have to read it when it comes out now, won’t you…

The Lady and the Lost World - Sample Art

The Review: I got sent a preview copy of this book by Markosia and can tell you that it is an impressive looking comic. The full colour treatment throughout looks great and there are quite a few visually breathtaking moments. I would put artist Hakan Aydin somewhere between the Luna Brothers, Leo and Thomas Legrain in the art stakes. His landscapes and buildings/ monuments/ pyramids (etc) work is outstanding. You can see the care that goes into giving this story scale and placing it geographically exactly where the reader needs to know it is placed. But some of the figure work on occasion looks a little stiff and the colours, at certain points, seem a little flat. Everything is a little clean and immobile for my tastes and I’d like to have seen more detail in faces and clothes.

The Lady and the Lost World - Sample Art

The story takes place in issues and distinct chapters that are collected into this volume. They can be recognised through the points on the globe that Emmy and Trent visit. Antarctica, Mexico, Egypt and more are laid out and adventures had. It seems more Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard or Arthur Conan Doyle than Tomb Raider – a grand tale of exploring more than it is an action flick.

I’ll be honest and say that I found the first two thirds of The Lady and the Lost World a little dry. There is a lot of travel, a lot of talking but not enough drama and action for my tastes. As I read I was mentally begging the writer to get on with something that I could get my teeth into, some tension, a good old punch up maybe? Emmy needs to be fleshed out a little more, in my humble opinion. She is on occasion something of a cliche, and that crime to beat all crimes, a little dull.

But it is fair to say that the series takes an unexpected and welcome turn in the last act. I can’t spoil what happens but it does amp up the action and the strangeness on a book that seemed to promise so much for eighty pages and not deliver until this final sequence. The book ends on a cliffhanger that you would not in any possible way see coming in chapter one.

Those last few pages want me to grab the second volume as soon as possible.

The cover work by Loles Romero is a real high point for me with some interesting storytelling techniques used in a single gorgeous looking cover image.

Give it a go. The art is clean and crisp and whilst somewhat traditional to start with it evolves beyond what you might suspect.

• Find out more about Markosia by following then on Twitter @Markosia or looking at this and any of the multitude of other books they have for sale at www.markosia.com

• Follow writer Ian Sharman @idsharman

• Hakan Aydin is on DeviantArt at https://hakan-aydin.deviantart.com– his gallery there includes some pages from this title, including his preliminary work. He has a blog at hakanaydinart.blogspot.com. Follow him on Twitter @HakanAYDIN86 or on Behance or Instagram

• You can find Loles Romero at www.lolesromero.artstation.com or on Twitter @lolesromero

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