[Featured artwork by Alexander Utkin]
Welcome back to our Summer Comics Binge of Alexander Utkin’s Eisner-nominated series “Gamayun Tales,” where I’m reading through all five stories that make up the collection of modernized Russian folk tales so far.
“Gamayun Tales I” was initially released in individual hardback editions, with one story per book, before being collected in a paperback volume. “Gamayun Tales II” skipped this format and released its pair of stories in a single paperback edition. For these reviews I’m reading the collected editions.
This is it, folks. We’ve reached the final entry in Alexander Utkin’s “Gamayun Tales,” ‘The Golden Apples,’ which is such a big story it’s been split into two parts! We’re finally going to get to learn about those Golden Apples that’ve appeared a few times through the series thus far, so without further ado, let’s dive in.
Written and Illustrated by Alexander UtkinCover by Alexander Utkin(Taken from the Second Volume’s blurb) In ‘The Golden Apples,’ three royal brothers set off on a quest to save their father and claim the crown. Who will prevail? And which one is worthy of the mystical golden apples?
It’s all been part of the plan! I’ve noted it a few times over the past few weeks reading “Gamayun Tales” that Utkin has been weaving different stories together, mentioning some and then delaying them for another time but here, in Part 1 of ‘The Golden Apples,’ Utkin, via Gamayun, closes off multiple different threads in one go to make it more satisfying. There’re details relating to ‘The King of Birds,’ such as how the snake on the burning stump got in its predicament and how the Mouse got its apple, as well an explanation as to how Baba-Yaga got the apples she was enjoying in ‘Vasilisa and the Doll’ last week. I did wonder whether all of the stories would converge in some way in ‘The Golden Apples’ and while this isn’t a full-blown crossover, the inclusion of so many details really does bring an extra fun factor to proceedings, without detracting from the primary story.
This primary story is about Ivan, who is planning on stealing one of the golden apples. We last saw him right at the very start of “Gamayun Tales” volume 1, which brings things full circle and only emphasizes the sense of finale to this tale. In ‘The Golden Apples’ we are introduced to Ivan as John, the youngest of three brothers, each an heir to the throne currently occupied by a king and father whose health is rapidly deteriorating. Whichever of the three brothers can fetch and return a golden apple to cure the king will be the new king. John volunteers stating that he will go purely to save his father and is not interested in gaining the throne through success on the quest. His elder brothers quickly dismiss him and the eldest departs on the quest.
In folklore-y fashion, the journey is depicted three times, with each brother setting off after the previous one doesn’t return. They each sail across the ocean to an island in the North and are confronted by a giant four-legged guardian, which reminds me of a Stranger Things Demodog, and then find a three-pronged path, each with a rune-laden arch over it. The archways only feature in a handful of panels in the story, but Utkin manages to instil a real sense of the mystical within them with the grey/green markings and their jaggedy forms. The runes tease what awaits the traveller at the end of each path; the loss of their head, their horse, or the gaining of a wife. The eldest and middle brothers both choose to gain a wife, only for the woman at the end of the path to be revealed as an evil monster who lives off the life force of others. I think it’s fair to say they chose wrong.
Utkin does such a great job of making the older two brothers overtly selfish, ignorant, and just plain mean in the space of a few pages that them being thrown into a pit would be quite satisfying for the audience if it weren’t for the fate of the king hanging in the balance. It also works really well in contrast to the noble efforts of John who is clearly the hero of the story.
Continued belowJohn nobly chooses the path that the runes state he will lose his head upon, declaring that he will not to put his horse in danger and that he isn’t questing for a wife. At the end of the path is Baba-Yaga’s house. To push fast forward a little, Baba-Yaga makes a deal to assist John (whom she says would be called Ivar in her part of the world) in getting the apples so long as he steals some for her as well. While John-Ivar is successful in getting the apples, he is pursued by the Warrior Princess, who catches up with him and challenges him to last five minutes in a sword fight with her. They end up lasting five hours and the “sparks of swords burst into flames of love.” The pair then have to leave, with John-Ivar rescuing his brothers from the-evil-woman-who-is-actually-the-warrior-princess’s-evil-sister and then heading back home together to save their father. Well, they would all head home together except the older two brothers conspire against John and literally push him off a cliff and claim John’s success as their own. It’s a busy, crazy story, but it works well with the characters, as exaggerated as the older brothers are, fitting the narrative like a glove, perhaps more so than any of the other stories in “Gamayun Tales.”
As ever, Utkin’s artwork throughout Part 1 of ‘The Golden Apples’ is very solid but also manages to fuse together the different color palettes for each setting very smoothly. The story opens with a much brighter palette, with the Baba-Yaga and heist middling section bringing the deep and dark shades that we saw in Vasilisa’s story last week, before the brighter palette returns to close. This blending makes the story’s artwork embody the finale-feel of events with the colors echoing visuals from the two volumes. As we move into Part 2, I think Utkin’s artwork starts to really push into new directions, but more on that in a little bit.
Part 2 resumes the story with John clinging to a branch jutting out of the cliff he was pushed off of and then leaping down into a bird’s nest. Here, Utkin presents one of the most surreal sequences in the series and, considering the events of some of the other stories, it’s quite an achievement. John tries to fend off a huge flock of seagulls with a bone (there’s a really great ‘boom!’ panel as one of the gulls feels the impact), only for the mother of the eggs, a dragon/dinosaur-like Nagai-Bird to return and agree to help John return to his island as repayment for trying to fend off the gulls. There’s a real subversion of expectations with the Nagai-Bird’s appearance and temperament that makes the sequence strangely endearing. But the bizarre-ness doesn’t end there; instead it continues with John having to feed the Nagai-Bird chunks of lamb mid-flight as she transports him back which ends up with John resorting to cutting off a bit of his leg when he runs out of lamb. Yep, you read that right. This is a middle grade book and, well, John has to feed the Nagai-Bird a bit of his own leg. It isn’t directly depicted but heavily implied and to be honest, I thought it was pretty… weird? Dark? I’m not sure how a middle grade audience would react, perhaps they’d be fine with it, but I thought it was a out-of-place. Anyway, with that having happened, John falls off of the Nagai-Bird when they reach the island and the Nagai-Bird sees his bandaged wound and literally says “Oh… I see. It was no lamb meat!” It’s hilariously weird given the proximity to an event that freaked me out a little and with that, it cements itself as the most bizarre moment of the series.
The story continues in a much more streamlined fashion than Part 1, focusing on the life of John and the Warrior Princess. John, upon seeing his two elder brothers sharing the kingdom, chooses to drown his anger and sorrows in alcohol before having adventures in the years that pass. Meanwhile back on the northern island the Warrior Princess is raising her two twins. The stories then come together when the Warrior Princess sets sail to unite the twins with their father, John. The crossing over of the threads brings some really fun moments, with the Princess’s wooden warriors taking down the brothers’ human army with ease, and then the two twins making a mockery of both brothers as they attempt to make peace with the Warrior Princess. It’s in these latter action moments that Utkin’s artwork really pushes into new directions. The panels are sharp and angular; there’s single panels with both twins’ movements in; and there’s sound effects that inhabit their own panels. While some of this may feel standard for lots of artists, Utkin changing it up a little has a really big impact. It’s exciting to see a bit of freshness in the artwork and this excitement only furthers the energy of the two twins and highlights the sheer fun of the moments.
Overall with ‘The Golden Apples’ Utkin draws the first two volumes of “Gamayun Tales” to a close in an incredibly satisfying way thanks to its book-ending feel and the addition of various details that don’t close off the series as a whole. It leaves the audience wanting to know more about the worlds: the establishing of the different islands and the potential for their own histories is fascinating, the mystery lying at the end of the ‘lose your horse’ path needs to be solved, the story of John’s quest to defeat the “devilry” that is believed to have taken over a mill must be told, and I still want to read more of Vasilisa’s adventures. There really is so much more that could be explored with the series and that’s just in what has been established so far – in the back pages of the volume Utkin states he wants to incorporate folklore from other parts of the world into the “Tales” and that would only open up more and more possibilities. Let’s hope that “Gamayun Tales” continues for many years to come and we get to return to Utkin’s crazy folklore sooner rather than later!
