The Red Star

[The NZA]

This is one I've recommended to Bacchus & TopDawg, a tad hard to explain but I'll try.

The Red Star is a somewhat popular comic that recently switched from Image imprint to CrossGen. It's about a number of things, but the plot revolves around a number of soliders defending large city-states of Russia in a mythical future. The story involves an interesting mix of modern weapons & a hint of Final Fantasy-esque magic & summons employed in warfare. The book takes itself quite seriously, and even early on gives the feeling that the tale is is told from a large scope, with tons of backstory behind it.

Attention to detail is one of its strenghts, both in plot and art - the art is actually slightly controversial because, along with Warlands and a few others, its largely done via CG...some traditional artists frown on the method, but nonetheless, its very impressive.

The book is undoubtedly confusing at first, with so many plotlines and characters (with difficult names, at that) to keep up with, nevermind its sporadic schedule of coming out. Fortunately tho, there are trades now of the first story arc or two, and the switch over to CrossGen all but garuntees it'll show up with more regularity soon.

I recommend it to fans of the genre, as much like in good war films, the tale is told from many perspectives - soldiers, leaders, citizens and slaves.

 

Here's the book's webpage, with a great deal of information on the series

 

 

PS fans of the war genre should also be sure to check out Garth Ennis' War Story, a mini-series of oversized one shots about tales from almost any war within the last century or so...brilliant stuff, with 7 collections so far.