“Yesterday’s” Comic> Sky Pirates Of Valendor preview

Before realizing he actually gets airsick.

Sky Pirates Of Valendor free issue

Jolly Roger Studios (2013)

“An Easy Prize”

CREATOR/WRITER: Everett Soares

PENCILER: Brian Brinlee

INKER: Michael W. Kellar

TONES: Jet Amago

LETTERER: Steve Kuster

EDITOR: Amy Haley

Tobin Manheim is an elf pirate with a floating airship. His crew includes his wife and steampunk cyborg Gearz, first mate anthro bear Bryan Springhammer, and Shyni, an assassin whose species I can’t identify because my fantasy knowledge is limited. They’re after the floating temple of a bunch of religious racists for their treasure, only to learn the treasure is a colony ship. Tobin wants to kill all of them but Gearz stops him and takes over the temple ship, attempting to recruit a crew.

I saw this book at my first ConnectiCon I took video for (I just recently added closed captions to the video, actually), which is how I was aware of it prior. As I noted Tuesday in the comic review that features a swashbuckling seagoer, pirate stories are not really my thing, which is why I didn’t get into One-Piece despite the Strawhats being closer to The Hawk than these guys. Despite that, the crew seemed a likable and fun bunch…until Tobin suddenly decided to kill a ship full of civilian colonists, INCLUDING THE BABIES, because they’re some “human first” cult, and that’s when my opinion soured. It happens without warning, though maybe the comic explains it better. (The website got taken over by some pro-NFT jerks.) I’m not going to be pro baby killing no matter how racist their cult parents might be. The art was good and the story interesting until that point.

Note that it’s a personal preference thing. I’m not really going to get into this series, but it’s a well done story. Maybe you will. It’s a free issue or you can try the Internet Archive to see if they have pages up from before the NFT jerks took over and see if it’s more your speed.