Another winner and I lan on buying it soon.

I am always looking for gn for different reasons this one being mostly an art buy

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an eARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this grim fantasy graphic novel, and I will be not-so-patiently waiting for the sequel.

What really made this experience great was the art style and the illustrations. They are fantastic and fit the story’s aesthetic well. I don’t think this story could have been visualized any better.

TWs - animal death, domestic abuse, child abuse, confinement, parental neglect

At the start of this graphic novel, it definitely seemed like it was just going to be a very generic 'Princess in the tower' fantasy story with the twist of she's cursed but as I got further in the book I began to see this graphic novel had SO MUCH more to offer.

The art style isn't the most original style but it is beautiful and I think it works beautifully with the plot and is very fitting for the vibe of this story.

This graphic novel offers a blend of medieval fantasy with Macbeth-eque elements that makes a dark and intriguing graphic novel that I'm hungry to read more of!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me an eARC of this graphic novel

Great story, wonderful art style, and very engaging! Always nice to see French graphic novels adapted to English. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the series.

A dreamy medieval fantasy that evokes myth, magic, and redemption. Vincent Mallié's is particularly striking-- beautiful linework renders humans and monsters in gorgeous detail. This book is a dream you won't want to wake up from.

This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Arzhur, a disgraceful knight searching for a second chance at chivalry and honouring his oath as a Knight, comes across 3 mysterious women who offer him a job.

He accepts it in hopes of getting a favour from the king as he saves Princess Islen from demonic creatures that have held her captive.

But soon he realises he has been played and Princess Islen wasn't in any danger and the 3 women planned a grand scheme to awaken her inner otherworldly powers.

Arzhur journeys back with Princess Islen to her father's kingdom to pay back for killing the creatures. Along the journey Arzhur and Islen will discover truths and secrets of who they are, they are challenged by their own fears and that of the people in her father's kingdom, and importantly challenged by their past stories.

The landscape in each panels are beautiful and the character designs is really good. It portrays the emotions each character is experiencing well. There is significant character development and advancement of the plot.

This comic has everything, secrets, magic, otherworldly beings, love, betrayal, and so much more.

4/5 stars, a fast but very interesting fantasy graphic novel, with very cool art

I found this cute little graphic novel when I was just scrolling through netgalley, and I figured I would try it out as I want to read more of these! It's hard at least for me to find fantasy ones that are really entertaining, and this totally measured up. The art style really reminded me of "Bone" the graphic novels series, which I read a lot of when I was younger so that was a welcome surprise.

It was a fairly short graphic novel so I won't have a long review here, but I don't really have anything bad to say about the story. From the very first page, it's entertaining and has mystery, while developing the few characters that you do see. All of the elements from the magic, knights, and hags as well as other unique creatures was super fun to experience! However, it was not an entirely light story and should be read by those who can handle both the trigger warnings and a light sex scene (you don't really see anything but it's there).

There are probably so many more layers to the magic that will be seen in coming graphic novels if more are published, and I hope they are. I would greatly look forward to them and try to read all of them. The classic story of a knight having to save a princess being turned a bit on its head was very fun too.

[TW: banishment, manipulation, gore and blood, death of a baby]

In Shadows is an epic fantasy graphic novel that plays with the tropes of the genre. It was a very pleasant fast read, with strong female characters and a mysterious fallen knight. Mallie's art will remind you of the beloved Loisel, voluptuous and fantasy rich, a joy for the eyes. The story might not achieve being as original as it wants, but it is a fantastic introduction to a new series that promises many more twists and secrets to unveil. I'm excited to see the next volumes come out!

A rather average fantasy with uninteresting, cliched characters (evil stepmother, brooding knight...) but has interesting art that guides the reader's line of sight (no messy, disorganised pages where one has no clue of what's going on).

Average fantasy, that might want to say something about prejudice, and how the main female character is misaligned, perhaps due to the typical response to a certain type of forceful lady – but that boils down to a standard look at a standard world with standard magic and monsters and standard strife in the ruling family. Our hero is employed/goaded into rescuing a princess from a castle, which he does successfully – except she didn't want to be rescued, and neither did a lot of people want her on the loose, either, seeing too much of her monstrous mother in her. A literary piece will discuss how apples fall certain distances from trees, and so on – but this isn't literary, it's, as I say, standard. Things might improve in subsequent books, but it's one where it's best to get word of the whole shebang's success or otherwise once it is complete, and to keep it on the back-burner until then.

An enjoyable and quick medieval fantasy read. I liked the art and coloring, although they were both quite traditional in their execution and paneling. While there is nothing wrong with this, <i>In Shadows</i> has nothing new re: themes and tropes - you have your misunderstood warrior, isolated princess, evil stepmother, trio of witches and humorous sidekick. I won't continue.

I voluntarily obtained a digital version of this book free from Netgalley and Harper Voyager in exchange for an honest review.

rating is a 3.75 but goodreads you know..

i'm not sure how to think about this comic.. i got shrek vibes from the princess with a secret gets rescued from her castle from a not so honourable ex-knight but mixed with macbeth and the three hag witches which trick you by using your fears and desires against you??? the pacing was very fast and i think if it was slower there could have been more room for world building the story development. i am interested in continuing this series because i truly have no guess to how this story will pan out. also mom is a mermaid type creature?? i'm intrigued but definitely confused.

thank you to NetGalley and Europe Comics to providing me with an eARC for review.

A Solid Fantasy Fairytale-ish story with good art. The Story is about a rogue knight who is hired by 3 old ladies to save a princess from a tower and when he goes to save her he finds out that she didn't want to be saved. The Story is a fun good time and as a book one, it started well There's potential for the next books.

Great drawings and the story.
I liked the main character, I believe this graphic novel will be good for those who enjoyed "The Witcher", it gave me the same vibes.

2.5 stars. This is a dark fantasy historical comic. The art was beautiful. The story made sense overall. That being said, The flow of the comics was not good to me. I also have a lot of questions that will hopefully be answered in later comics

* incredible art style, very creative, and very different compared to the majority of fantasy graphic novels on the market
* word building is lacking. i had so many questions; there were so many interesting elements i wished were expanded upon. there are so many creatures off handley shown; what are the species of this world? political dynamics seem to be important, but we don’t get enough information; what’s the politics like?
* feels like a 1.5 spin off book, written for a pre-existing fanbase and universe, but alas, it’s not, it’s a first (in a series?)
* however i do understand that a lot of my criticism aren’t to be helped, due to the untimely passing of the script writer; Hubert Boulard, known as Hubert
* i would definitely be interested in reading the next in this series, as this is credited as book one

Beautiful art! The art style was definitely easy on the eye and had an old feel to it that fit the world it was set in perfectly! What I loved most besides the art was how it put a twist on the original Arthur story with Arthur being a disgraced knight and the princess in distress was not in distress at all, in fact Arzhur was the one that put her in danger! The women in this story were another thing I adored. They all had their own motivations and personalities, which is always refreshing to see. I especially liked Islen’s mother with her being not totally human. Will definitely be looking forward to the next volume!

There is a wonderful story in here, however, I think the pacing does it more of a disservice than it intends.

This is a beautifully illustrated world of lore and magic, one with storylines and characters that are intriguing if not a bit overused as fantasy tropes. From the first page, I was intrigued as to where the story was going, however, the dialogue was a bit stilted oftentimes, sounding cliched and corny; so much so I was often pulled from the story as it was distracting.

I wish there was a building of the world and characters, as I felt that the story raced to the finish, with no real stakes put into the characters as it came as if we did not get to know them. From the dishonored knight to the banished princess, they are tropes who sat one-dimensionally, if not visually intriguing.

Could be great if given slower pacing.

Thanks so much to Netgalley for the ARC.

On one hand, there's a lot about this book that falls into the grooves of commonplace tropes about women in fantasy. The witch, the conniving woman, the girl about to loose her innocence. But at the same time, the way it shuffles them around is /just/ interesting enough that I can't fully pick that element to shreds. Especially when the book itself has the strangeness of a folktale or fairytale.

As for the book itself, the main quality of note is the art!! The art!!! Both dramatic and soft, bright and muted. There's something so delightful about Mallie's style that carries the aforementioned strangeness through in a way I really, really had fun with and kept pausing to coo over.

Generally speaking, it's a quick, stunning read, and I cannot wait to see where the next book leads!!

I was in the mood for a fantasy story today, and with perfect luck I stumbled on the newest comic from Europe Comics, In Shadows – Book 1. The book is based on a script by Hubert Boulard, known just as mononymously as “Hubert”, who passed away in 2020 with this being one of the last things he was working on before his passing. It was picked up by Vincent Mallié and put together into this wonderful volume today. It tells the story of a disgraced knight that is given a chance at a second lease on life, only to be thrown headfirst into more trouble than he could ever imagine.

“Arzhur, a disgraced knight, has taken on a new mission to restore his honor: save Princess Islen from the Black Castle. The only problem is, the mysterious Islen doesn’t want to be saved…The reluctant pair must nonetheless cross the kingdom—pursued by a trio of sinister witches—in hopes of finding refuge with Islen’s father, the king. But will their secrets catch up with them first?”

This is a relatively short read, but good value for money and time considering the lush, gorgeous artwork and intriguing storyline. The entire time I was wondering what “the real story was” considering the motivations of some characters seem somewhat iffy, but I can’t imagine we’ll be seeing a total “we’re actually the bad guys” climax, but who knows. Fans of things like Disney Princess stories might get a kick out of this for the simple reason that it plays around with some of the “princess tropes” we see in a lot of folklore. Yes, Islen can speak with woodland creatures great and small, but in this world that includes dragons and other monstrous beasts.

I enjoyed that the juxtaposition of the more mature things in the book (i.e gore, fighting, court politics) are mixed in with a “normal” fantasy world and don’t overtake the book with bleak dreariness. I have found that the HBO series Game of Thrones has somewhat tainted every modern fantasy story into being aesthetically and thematically similar, which is a true shame. That isn’t a blemish of that properties name by me, but I wish more writers would avoid jumping on the bandwagon. Luckily, Vincent Mallié avoids this and does his own thing which makes this book that much better.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this book – it has wonderful art, an interesting story, and looks to be heading in a direction I was not expecting. Assuming Book 2 comes out before too long, I will be very excited to see where the story goes. It doesn’t really break any rules of what the fantasy genre is all about, but it has enough of an atypical sensibility that it’s not really derivative either. Europe Comics have published some great fantasy books as of late including Thorgal, Vesper, and The Lost Ages, all of which is well worth a look if you like this genre.