And so... we begin. Boy, don't I have a lot to say about this cover.



... WHAT.
He looks sort of like you. In your Spook disguise. With wings. Bad memories. Do not want.
... WHAT.
Wow, looks like someone forgot to calibrate their screen's brightness. This? Is not a scanning error. The cover IS this dark. Heck, I was actually lightened it up a little out of habit. See, I know MY laptop's screen is too bright. If I go print out my pictures, it will look super-dark. That's why I have to lighten up any digital artwork I make. ARTIST! Did you NOT check your screen's light settings or was that dark shadow done on purpose?  Seriously, I have to put that book cover under the lamp AND look at it from a distance to actually make out ANYTHING of the guy's face. At a fleeting glance it's nothing but DARK DARK DARK BLOB DARK BLOB FEATHERS SMOKE DARK. Might as well drop a freaking silhouette of Patch and not bother with the details

The wings are beautifully detailed, I'll give the artist that. The feathers look very realistic. Also the torso. That body is very nicely painted, although now I really do question what is the point of doing this. We get very detailed wings and a (somewhat) realistically -painted body... but a shadowed face. Okay. I'm not sure what the sparkly yellow specks are supposed to be, though. Fireflies? Bullets? Or... is HE sparkling? Yiiik!!! That is a bad choice of pose, by the way. My focus is drawn to that one nipple because it's one dark speck in the block of pale that is his skin.

Lastly, this is a bad composition. Look at how low Patch is placed on the page. It looks like he's being squashed down by the freaking title! The colour-scheming is also horrendous. The picture is dark, the title is a blue-grey thing that almost blends in with the background, and the author's name is too small to matter. All things considered? My eyes were immediately drawn to that big, bright, red "CONTAINS AN ALL-NEW ORIGINAL STORY"  label. Nice priorities, designers. Nice priorities
Can we move on? I am not interested in looking at half-naked idiots.
Moving on to the first page, we are greeted by the wonderful drawing of... a huge black smudge on paper. No really, it is.


That's what my notes looked like when Mel's terrible singing made me broke my pen and spilled ink all over the parchment.

You TIED ME UP! You were asking for it!
Guys, focus.
Ngggrrhhhhhh...
Still, this does look like someone fell asleep and spilled ink all over the page. There's a way to draw dark trees without making them look like smudges, you know And here I thought Kim Young was lazy with her art!
*grumble grumble* I see an animal. Or is that a smudge too?

*squint* Yup... That's a horse. The one Chauncey let loose in the fields. I think that's actually a nice touch, but that tiny speck is OVERWHELMED by the huge blob that takes up half the bottom page, just saying. Anyways, we move on to Cahuncey and the farmgirl he was screwing. We did not get to see Chauncey screwing the girl, but we did get to see that
Chauncey is not wearing the appropriate clothing for the time period.

According to various sources I looked at, what French noblemen wear in the 1500s looks something more like this:

Not that Fabio outfit he was wearing. Also, no such thing as boots with buckles.
And he's also wearing a skirt.
Wait, did he just give her a shoe buckle? Why?
Payment?
What for?
For fucking her. Wait. Now that you mention it... This book doesn't explain why Chauncey is giving the farmgirl a shoe buckle. Book, if we didn't read the original novel we wouldn't know what's going on. THIS IS BAD. Adaptations should also cater to the casual crowd too! Maybe you could show them kissing, at least? Then have Chauncey say "Here's for your
troubles" when giving the buckle. What's so hard about that? Did you people have limited page count? Also, he's staring off at the reader... WHY?

Hey, why is he paying her with a shoe buckle if he has money?
Money? Where?
*points* Isn't that a money pouch he has on his belt?
You know, I have no idea what that is. Maybe it's a good-luck charm *shrug* So we continue with... Chauncey still standing there in the rain. 1) This is stupid, 2) This is pointless, and 3) original narrative says that he was WALKING home. Walking is not the same as "Standing around like an idiot". Then there's a shadow speeding by (whut?) and then Chauncey sees a figure on top of a building.


Where's the girl? Where did she go? Is she a ghost in this version of the story?
She... left. GAH. This is another thing that aggravates me in this graphic novel. The scenes just jump around like jumping beans on a kangaroo on pogo stick! Is it just me being too used to manga? Manga likes slow transitions in dramatic scenes. Do western graphic novels do this jumping thing all the time?? *grabs a copy of Batman and flips through*
Nope, there are proper scene transitions. Artist, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!!! And take a look at those two, totally copy-pasta panels and that horrible motion blur. If you're going to be lazy, at least try to make it look decent.

On the next page, we see Patch in all his shirtless glory.


Gyendal, are you SURE this is NOT you? I haven't seen anyone with a body that weird-looking besides you.
I object! I'm thinner than that! I am also not a vulgar buffoon who walks around undressed in public!
Wow. Just... wow. His body look SO WRONG and yet at the same time... nothing looks really wrong. Let's try breaking this down. Okay. His left calf is thinner than his right. He should be walking with a limp, having legs like that. And for someone with such a buff body, those sure are thin arms! Artist, decide if you want the guy to be thin or buff BEFORE you
draw! Don't mix them up halfway through!
Them arms are very long too. What, are you an orangutan or something? And those shoulders! Man, you should have that looked at, mister. They look very VERY stiff. That can't be healthy at all Also, considering how tight that pants looks like it's supposed to be... Patch doesn't seem to have much down his pants. Maybe that's why he needs Chauncey, because he doesn't have junk and he can't get laid GYENDAL has a weird body shape because he's MEANT to have a weird-looking proportion (Gyen isn't exactly a handsome guy). PATCH was supposed to look like some Greek god or something. The artist seems stuck between stylization and realism, and results in bizarre-looking proportions.
Moving on. Patch jumps down from the roof in a very badly-drawn panel, and bad dialogue ensues. We also have yet another pair of copy-pasta panels and very very badly arranged camera angles.


I still think that guy looks like you.
Bah! I am better, and you know it.
Oi, oi. FOCUS.
Hmph!
This may be my manga bias speaking, but seriously. This nifty little thing called motion lines exist for a reason. I don't think that first panel looks like someone jumping down. He looks more like he's charging forward at us. Also, I'm not sure if that silhouette panels work. It looks lazy and the depth and perspective looks all messed up. And that Patch close up panel? Blegh. I think it'll look better if that close up panel had the "Duc... or bastard?" text. This arrangement looks so awkward.
That exchange in that last panel seems clunky and disjointed. The way the balloons are drawn makes it seem like the lines are said directly after one another. Try saying those lines and tell me they don't sound stupid. I think it would look better if there's an extra bubble saying something along the line of "What did you say?" or a "gasp!" sound effect.

Chauncey draws his sword, asks Patch again who he is, and Patch says he's one of the devil's brood. NOT CUTE. If this is making use of legit Christian angels, it means Patch has become a demon and there's no way in heaven or hell that he could become an angel EVER AGAIN. Except this is a book with whack angels pulled out of Fitzpatricks ass, so of course Patch isn't a demon. Then this happens:



Heh, aren't you a little young to have bad joints? That's what you get for sitting on your saggy ass all day long, you lousy poof.
Well, it's supposedly Patch doing some mindraping on him. Again with the bad transition! That close up of Patch's face from that previous page? Would look better here as a transition. You know, to indicate that HE did
something to Chauncey and that the nobleman didn't fall over because of arthritis acting up.
I just had a bad Deja Vu.
What, is this what you did to poor Stella?
Please, I have more finesse than that, and your moth friend was easier to manipulate than this. No, that incompetent ancestor of yours tried to do that to ME. I managed to fool him into thinking that he succeeded, but it didn't make the experience any less unpleasant.
... WTF?? Okay, any more mindfucks going on that I wasn't aware of?
I may have done something to your teachers in Shadwood, and also your stupid prince. I cannot remember, unfortunately. I do not keep track of what I do to whom.
And you wonder why I hated you??
Patch, our wonderful love interest, ladies an gentlemen! Because mindfucks is what nice people do. More talking, Patch demands Chauncey to serve him, Chauncey refuses, more mindfuckery, Chauncey spews blood, Chauncey
finally agrees, Patch tells Chauncey that he needs to borrow Chauncey for two weeks every year and.... PFT!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA

Oh... oh... that face... there's no words for this... GYAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAA!!! I think that picture is speaks for itself. Anyways. Ahem.
Halt! This... fop is supposed to be a noble, am I right? Someone important.
Yes, why?
Someone would notice if he were to leave for two weeks. If he insisted on going alone somewhere without attendants regularly, people would become suspicious. Worse yet, what if in doing whatever ridiculous errand he was asked to he got recognized by someone? Unless the other brat knows how to teleport to a place where no one recognizes the fop, the  would have to travel and that two weeks might be wasted on the journey.
That... You're right! But because this is a bad comic adaptation of a bad romance novel, who cares about that kind of detail? We finally end this prologue bit with Chauncey asking questions and Patch not answering and disappearing with an ominous laugh... And also a mysterious blob that the artists must have forgotten to erase.


Oh wait, that blob is Chauncey's head. Lazy much? drawing a head from behind is not so hard, dumbass. Just draw lots of hair! And if you can't draw heads from behind, HOW DID YOU GET HIRED TO DRAW THIS? And would you look at that, Patch's wing scars are upside down.

That's the prologue for you, folks! Tune in next time.