Steampunk Ninja Issue 1: Abominations; written by J.W. Smidt, art by Naeles

This review hits a tad close to home, as I am good friends with J.W. Smidt, so, consider this one of my many nepotistic reviews! :P

Steampunk Ninja is not actually a book in the least technical of terms, it's a comic book. But, there is a book in there somewhere, so there! This is just chapter one, the first issue, and is it ever a tease! We follow a young woman named Tricia (I really like this name) Pureblade (less fond of this name), one of ten badass super ninjas out to save the world, but more immediately, 'Gear City' from a plague of monster/machine hybrids called 'Abominations.'  

The story begins before the beginning, with a prologue, though it is by no means an 'info-dump.' In fact, it's pleasantly light as far as beginnings go, in my experience. Man, some authors just want everyone to know the political situation in their world on page one! But not my main-man J.W. Smidt. You gotta figure his stuff out all on your lonesome, right good. :)

Now, I should tell you this: each page has its own colour scheme within the issue, setting the mood for the story on that page, and the pages all seem to fade into one another as far as colours go. So say, on page one, it's *insert vibrant, beautiful colour here* which then flows into page two's *insert equally vibrant, gorgeous artwork of a slightly different colour here* and then page three reveals a wonderful *insert striking schema-shift here* that begins the beginning of a whole new subchapter within the issue, Chapter 1.

Here: http://naeles.deviantart.com/gallery/57436509/Steampunk-Ninja -  You can find a sample of the first five pages on Naeles's DeviantArt, without colour. It's worth a looksee if the rest of this review doesn't convince you to drop some dolla-dolla-bills on this here glimpse of Heaven. <3

After the prologue we come to the beginning of the story, and you can tell it's the beginning because things are all purdy and our lead character, Trish P.B., is in a ceremony of awesome, where she is basically knighted (ninja'd?) and then sent on her way. The other ten badass super ninjas were there too, and I expect to see more of them in later issues, but for now, it's mostly just our girl, Trish.

Then stuff gets serious, and again, you can tell because of the colour shift. It's SOOOOO wonderful to look at, I'm just staring at the pictures more than I'm reading the words! I was also drooling a little, though that could be because I was hungry when I read this story... :s

Just before the seriousness begins it should be noted that there was a naughty word used, which I think might mean this story is not for children, but don't quote me on that if you have a very mature young'un or something. Anyway, FIRST FIGHT OF THE SERIES!!! And I'm all like "Go Tricia, it's your birthday! Go Tricia, have a partay! Go Tricia, KICK SOME ASS!" You know, the usual. :)

Have I mentioned how freaky the Abominations are yet? They're like mecha-zombie-pirate-ghost-cyborg-beachbabe-monster-things! :O You'll know what I mean when you get to that page ;)

Then, well, some stuff happens and I'm all like "*gasp*" and "Oh NOOO!" and "That's just RUDE!" and also "Superpowers anyone? I detect a theme! :D" Then it was over and I was sad, but also excited because this is just the beginning. Expect great things from this comic series folks, and don't be surprised when your expectations are surpassed!

J.W. Smidt's links:

Blog https://jwsmidt.wordpress.com/

Naele's links:

http://naeles.deviantart.com/