In Review: The Troll by Martin Flink

The Troll Cover
Accent UK may be better known for titles about zombies and gunslingers but the rise of more family orientated comics conventions has led them to release The Troll  by Danish artist, storyteller and co-founder of the Copenhagen Comics Festival, Martin Flink. This is an unashamedly all-ages title that, being silent, can be read just as readily by early primary school children as by the more mature members of the family.

The story of The Troll tells of a modern day boy who ventures, with his parent’s consent, into the nearby forest. There, as the trees close in around him, he makes for higher ground to see just where he is and inadvertently wakes a giant troll. A rather one sided chase ensues as the boy tries to get away but is inevitably caught by the massive creature – but is it dangerous or just curious?

The Troll Chase
Martin is the creator of Accent UK’s earlier boxing story Man Of Glass but for The Troll he was inspired by his young son, Malthe, whose imagination took hold after a walk in a Danish forest. This 28 page full colour comic is the result and what a lovely result it is. From the safety of his parents and the cabin in the forest, we see the trees close in around the boy and the forest canopy blot out the sky as Martin reduces the size of his panels to emphasise the claustrophobic feeling.

Yet as the boy climbs a grassy hill to see his surroundings the panels open up again until, as he disturbs the troll, they each take up an entire page. The single page of the boy and troll looking at each other for the first time, illustrated from ground level and almost entirely in silhouette, is particularly effective, before the panic of the chase ensues. It would be unfair to give away any more of the story but suffice to say, being an all-ages comic, no one gets eaten.

Being short and silent, other than for a few sound effects as the troll awakens, this will not take you long to read but I assure you that you will go back and reread it.

The Troll is an absolute gem and, at £3, a bargain to boot.

There is more information on Accent UK’s titles on their website and blog.

Accent UK are appearing at the MCM Manchester Comic Con this coming weekend 25/26 July 2015 where they will have copies of The Troll for sale as well as their other titles. The Troll will then be available to order worldwide from Diamond Comic Distributors in the August edition of Previews for October shipping, when copies will also be available to order direct from Accent UK’s website.



Categories: British Comics, downthetubes Comics News, Features, Reviews

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5 replies

  1. Thanks for the great review Jeremy and ‘Down The Tubes’ and perfect timing, The Troll is now available to order in the new August Previews, ask your friendly retailer to use order code AUG150933 !!

  2. Jeremy, could you kindly confirm whether it’s a 28-page comic as you state above? Are they 28 story pages? (And by the way, is it a regular 7×10″ pamphlet?) I mean:

    – Previews says 48-page comic?
    – your review says 28-page comic?
    – flinksblog.wordpress says 19-page story?

    Plus their site seems down. I think it’s hardly going to get pre-orders or build trust if they don’t get it right.

  3. Jeremy, thank you for the info and taking the time.

    For what it’s worth, I had already decided not to pre-order it (it looks nice but there’s plenty of non-kiddie books to eat my pre-order budget), and that sort of creative typo in Previews doesn’t exactly help to decide to squeeze it in the order. Oh, well.

    On a more positive note, I think your review did its job of letting people realize whether an item is for them. Also, I found this page while googling for advance reviews of this comic, and I’ve added your site to my list of those I scan via Google for the monthly Previews chore!

    (And along such as PaulGravett and SamQuixote, BrokenFrontier and DigitalSpy, ForbiddenPlanet and Page45, I find it especially useful for items already shipped in the UK once they’re in the int’l Previews. For instance, when Ilya’s ROOM FOR LOVE was listed in 2015, plenty of 2014 UK reviews were available, but only if one knew where to look for!)

    • Thanks for your interest Simon and to Jeremy for clarifing the page count – Diamond have been informed of the regretable typo 🙁 And yes review sites such as Down The Tubes are great at doing their job to, as you say, identify if a book is for you or not and to promote British comics which otherwise may not get wider attention beyond these shores.

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