by Cat Seaton & Kit Seaton
Publisher: Image Comics
Publication Date: November 13, 2018
THE BLACK BULL OF NORROWAY is about Sibylla, an adventurous, bold girl who isn’t fazed by anything. And her husband. Who happens to be a 2-ton (I’m guessing) black bull with a horn-span as wide as a full-grown man’s arm-span. The bull isn’t very kind, or very interested in her, but she follows him to the ends of the earth anyways, and meets his dysfunctional family, for the sake of...adventure? That, and to undo a curse that has haunted the land for years.
NORROWAY was supremely chaotic -- I couldn’t tell what was going on half the time, and Sibylla is unfazed to the point of unbelievability, which I feel was due to rushed writing –- but fun. The art was amazing, the character interactions and dialogue were golden, and the plot was really interesting –- based off a classic Scottish fairy tale -- and could’ve been more complete had the writer slowed down and smelled the roses, as it were. Somewhat ironically, the main thing keeping this book together is the illustration. Maire, keeping an eye on Sibylla and her bull-husband Brom from the very beginning, makes for a very unique frenemy. She clearly cares a lot about the well-being of the two other lead characters, but her mission is to separate them and send them through trial after trial. At first, Sibylla is unaware that her older witch friend is the orchestrator of it all, but when she finds out -- again, with very little digesting time –- she immediately starts asking questions without needing more than a few minutes to digest what could’ve been a big twist. Sibylla prefers to get angry about things she doesn’t understand, and immediately desires more information, rather than get flustered for even a second. All in all, I have mixed feelings about this book, but I do think it’s worth reading, for the fantasy of it.
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