“Yesterday’s” Comic> Age Of Yokai #1

One of these days I’m going to find out what these people keep staring at on these covers.

Age Of Yokai

Sean Meighen (2016)

WRITER: Sean Meighen

ARTIST: Rich Perrotta

COLORIST: Eugen Betivu

LETTER/LOGO DESIGN: Micah Myers

The Sengoku period of Japan. A young woman named Sonomi is found in a burning village, having been attacked by tengu. The three ronin–Oguma,  Taichi, and Akito–seeks the master of these yokai, a woman named Odokuro. She used them and other yokai to kill their master, who had hoped to bring peace and unity to Japan, which would interfere with her using fear to control others. They help bury the other villagers, including Sonomi’s father, and she rescues Oguma by killing a straggling tengu who attacked them. That night, as the samurai share their story they’re attacked by the tengu’s brothers, one of whom killed Sonomi’s father. Killing her father’s murder does not bring her peace, but hoping that stopping their mistress will, she convinces the men to let her join them in tracking Odokuro…but she might be watching them with her dark magics.

What they got right: You’d expect the comic to be violent by nature of the story, but while bloody it’s not excessive. The gorier kills happen in shadow or off panel, but you get a good idea of the carnage in the village or the deaths of the yokai without ruining your lunch. This is no kid friendly comic by any stretch, but it isn’t just a gore fest because they can. Our quartet have good motivations and the action is satisfying. We also get a good explanation of where the yokai came from in the opening narration.

What they got wrong: The change in text where there would normally be bold feels off. It doesn’t do it every time a Japanese name or word is spoken, just the first time, and it’s kind of distracting. I’m not against Sonomi having sword skills but I’d like to know how, or maybe she got lucky with the straggler being distracted and will have to learn swordplay during the story. The others were already trained samurai when they arrived. She’s at least got a decent starting base but we’d have to see what comes of it.

What I think overall: I wouldn’t mind checking out the other three issues. This is off to an interesting start and I like the concept.