Andrew MacLean’s “Head Lopper” is another Kickstarter success story that is worth seeking out and supporting any way that you can at this point. Read our spoiler-free review below to find out why.
Written and Illustrated by Andrew MacLeanIn this inaugural story arc (“The Island”), Nomadic warrior Norgal has arrived on the Scottish Isle of Barra with nothing but his sword and the talking severed head of Agatha the Blue Witch. The unlikely companions come prepared to slay the beasts that plague the island but what they can’t predict is the island itself, lustful for the power to reach beyond it’s grey rocks, sees the means to do so through the possibly limitless power contained within the head of Agatha. We follow the warrior and the witch as they decapitate beast after bloody beast all the while unawares they are but a pawn in Barra’s deadly game.
We here at Multiversity Comics once referred to MacLean’s “Head Lopper” as an “unsubtle, headbanger of a book.” That’s definitely still true, but while it’s an unsubtle book in its best, most rambunctious moments, there was a surprising amount of humor, heart, and hearth to the 2nd installment of the series.
“Head Lopper” is your classic tale of a gruff but honorable barbarian wanderer who builds his legend while coming across those in need of his aid. While it definitely has the spirit of something like a more brutal “Conan the Barbarian” story, it’s very much its own thing, establishing a mood and setting all its own. It’s a love letter to sword and sorcery, but with a sense of humor and a self-aware sense of grandiosity. More than being an homage to anything in particular, “Head Lopper” recalls the work of Genndy Tartakovsky, who would use Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack as odes of all of his favorite aspects of sentai/mecha stories and samurai epics, respectively.
In that same spirit, MacLean’s heroes and villains tower over one another, playing up the ridiculousness of the subject matter with awe-inspiring aplomb. Head Lopper (please, call him Norgal) stands tall above those foolish enough to cross him, his relatively tiny head gazes down at them above an impossibly massive barrel chest and rippling muscles that would put ex-Governor Schwarzenegger to shame. While Norgal is the man of legend in these comics, there really does feel like there’s a bustling world that turns even while he’s not around.
“Head Lopper” #2 gives you a bit of royal politics, scheming, and a sense of geography around its periphery, but the Head Lopper always seems to be on someone’s mind or breath. In the latest installment, his exploits from the previous issue loom large – having defeated a vile serpent in a most heroic fashion. This issue, he is tested by even greater forces that catch the attention of the local Castlebay, a place where Norgal finds refuge and the narrative itself becomes richer and more subtle.
There’s a definite Mignola influence to MacLean’s art, given the deceptive linework that doesn’t seem as immediately complex as it actually is. The Tartakovsky comparison is a good one here, too, as the exaggeration of scale and elegance of design stand out above everything else. MacLean uses an interesting variety of perspectives throughout the book, but most notable are the panels viewed with isometric projection perspectives, where we see Norgal going about his business and the detail of the world fills out around him. In these quiet moments, instead of towering over everything, he is shown as a part of a greater world. He’s larger than life when he needs to be, but he also gets a little more grounding here in issue #2.
There’s a sense of humor to the art too. Norgal carries a disembodied head of a witch wherever he goes, and so there would be a natural temptation to over-mine the buddy cop “talking head” aspect of this for comedy. Instead, most of the comedy of carrying a disagreeable severed head around comes from the art, where the concept is instead mined for a little macabre black comedy and physical gags. “Head Lopper” plays serious most of the time, but when Norgal sits down to share stories with a local blacksmith, there’s a true sense of warmth and levity that comes across in the art. For a book called “Head Lopper” that features body parts flailing and blood by the gallons, there’s an incredible amount of playfulness and pleasantness to the proceedings. Furthermore, Mike Spicer’s colors lend to the book’s professionalism, proving that just because something is crowd-funded, doesn’t mean that it’s any less of a product.
All the way around, this is an awe-inspiring “do-it-yourself” effort from a guy in MacLean who seems to have a real passion for storytelling and an acute sense of how to use the space and resources available to him. You get the sense that the guys involved in “Head Lopper” are doing their best, most carefully crafted work. There’s no doubt that it could hang with the big guns in comic book publishing, so here’s hoping that readers take a chance on it.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy
