By Chris Schweizer
Publisher: ONI Press
ISBN: 978-1-934964-40-8
It’s not often you come across a book that incorporates adventure, history and a striking cartoon style, told with intelligent storytelling and a respect for the period, and all wrapped up in a nicely designed hardback edition. So, when you do, it’s a book worth grabbing with both hands.
This is the third Crogan book, but because each book features a different Crogan ancestor – and they’re not told in historical order anyway – you could quite easily start here and be none the worse off.
The story is bookended by the modern day Crogans off to the funeral of Crogan senior’s mother and a confrontation with an estranged brother. The children want to know about their mysteriously absent uncle which reminds their dad about another pair of Crogan brothers who fell out during the American Revolution.
We then jump back to 1778 and William Crogan, who has taken against the Crown, scouting through the woods and coming upon an enemy soldier, only to discover it’s his brother Charles, saved by a misfire before this fact sinks in. After a scuffle, brotherly love beats other allegiances and they find themselves spending time together when other loyalties suggest they shouldn’t. All they need to deal with is a tomahawk wielding rogue Indian, Charles’s senior officer, and the girl William has his heart set on.
This is touching without being sickly, the history is respected and the ideologies are balanced, so the story is very much one about what pulls the brothers apart and thrusts them back together. The black and white art is fabulously dynamic yet touching and thoughtful when it needs to be, making this one rather splendid book and a welcome addition to the series.
And if you liked that: Grab a copy of Crogan’s Vengeance
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