The Battle of Blood and Ink: A Fable of the Flying City

by Jared Axelrod (Writer), Steve Walker (Illustrator)

If you're visiting the flying city of Amperstam without the latest printing of The Lurker's Guide, you might as well be lost. This one-sheet is written, edited, and printed by Ashe, a girl raised on the streets of the flying city, and is dedicated to revealing its hidden treasures and deepest secrets—including many that the overcontrolling government doesn't want anyone to know. The stakes are raised when Ashe accidentally uncovers the horror of exactly how Amperstam travels among the skies and garners the attention of those who would rather that secret be kept in the hands of the city's powerful leaders.

Soon Ashe is on the run from thugs and assassins, faced with the choice of imperiling her life just to keep publishing, or giving in to the suggestion of a rich patron that she trade in her voice and identity for a quiet, comfortable life. It's a war of confusion for Ashe, but in The Battle of Blood and Ink by Jared Axelrod, one thing is very clear: just because you live in a flying city, you can't always keep your head in the clouds.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Steampunk, Fantasy, Comics, Fiction, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

144 pages, Hardcover

First published May 8, 2012

About the author

This author's name is Jadzia Axelrod. Her books have been published as Jared Axelrod.

Jadzia Axelrod is an author, an illustrator, and a world changer. Through out her eventful life she has also been a circus performer, a puppeteer, a graphic designer, a sculptor, a costume designer, a podcaster and quite a few other things that she’s lost track of but will no doubt remember when the situation calls for it. But that “author’ business, that seems to be one she keeps coming back to.

She is not domestic, she is a luxury, and in that sense, necessary.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 1 out of 5]

(C) 63% | Unsatisfactory
Notes: Terminally insufficient, it’s cobbled from a scrap-heap of unfinished ideas and made ill by its own insipid pretension.

*Progress updates: Preamble

[Holly (The GrimDragon) · Rating 3 out of 5]

~2.5 Stars

[Ill D · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have absolutely no idea why this piece of garbage got published. No idea at all. This graphic novel reminded me a lot of the Phantom Menace in that its plot was highly convoluted, characters were unlikeable and the plot had about the depth of a puddle of rainwater and didn't even make any sense. The only difference between the Episode I and this literary offal is that The Battle of Blood and Ink is mostly definitely even worse- as difficult as that is to stomach. Even fucking Jar-Jar Binks had more likeability and depth of character than any protagonist or antagonist within the entirety of Blood and Ink. If this doesn't dissuade you from reading this- nothing will and you are truly a lost soul.

The pacing of this work feels incredibly rushed. Furthermore character and plot development are given little if any room to breathe outside of what is otherwise boring and vacuous political dialogue that does little if anything to even flesh these characters out. In addition to the lack of character development, little if any background knowledge is given surrounding this world, the Steampunk-esque town of Amperstan, or even the evidently very important yet completely unexplained rivalry between the Clouddogs and Coppers. From what little I can infer the Clouddogs are some type of romanticized Steampunk/Wild-Western downtrodden dregs of society- and the Coppers (for whatever reason coppers is never capitalized in this work even though it evidently denotes a specific group- they're the antagonists for heck's sake!- and is hence a proper noun. The editor should be shot.), which are basically the corrupt and bloated officials. I guess. I can't really know because nothing is explained at all in this book. In fact, the background knowledge is so sparse, which is an understatement in of itself, I found myself completely unable to care about the characters or the even this flimsy facsimile of a plot.

Just as the characters are unlikable, plastic simulcrums of extremely watered down archetypes- the plot itself is bascially non-existent until it's facticiously fabricated about halfway into the book where it is shoved into our faces. As we readers all know Amperstam is a floating Steampunk city however, at this point in the book it is revealed that it remains afloat through the enslavement of many Clouddogs (I can only speculate- as this isn't explained either) in some type of Matrix-esque enslavement technique but, in the realm of Amperstan, and instead of evil machines, this bondage is achieved through some faux-occult magic (again, this isn't explained either. How did the antagonist achieve this power? How come no one else exercises this power?). Instead of being given any type of explanation for this- the only extra bit of information given concerning this very odd power system is told at the end of this work by the antagonist- that basically her forebearers had utilized this system- and she had no choice but to continue it in order to keep the city afloat. Again- any slight application of reason or basic critical thinking reveals this plot to be COMPLETELY insipid. Why does the town have to stay buoyant anyways? Why didn't she seek out any other solutions? Was she damned through this black magic? Did this magical power corrupt her? Is the land beneath it toxic or otherwise hazardous to human life? While that might seem to be a good explanation- at the very end of this work- it is revealed that at least one (and most likely more) farmer(s) live(s) on the ground- proving otherwise. Nope- Amperstan just needs to remain buoyant JUST 'CAUSE as a plot device. Maybe if some horrific danger or other peril would inflict the town if it would go down- maybe I would care and maybe there would be some tension. But alas, there are none of either.

Following some boring action, mind-numbing dialogue, and some amazingly paltry character development we readers finally get to the end- where the compounding of inanity is so absurd I felt like I had a migraine after reading this garbage. As it happens, Ashe requests the aid of the pirate she saved at the beginning of the work to help her bring an end to the monstrous practice of human enslavement keeping the city afloat. In doing so she is given a floating device- CONVENIENT HUH?- by the pirate JUST 'CAUSE that could ostensibly keep the city afloat otherwise. (As a quick aside this floating device is UNBELIEVEBLY similar to the Cavorite in Alan Moore's masterpiece League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1- if I didn't know any better I'd call this PLAGARISM). Anyways- the human jail is raided (even though we never see the prisoners set free- wouldn't that have been the point?) and Ashe somehow gets some type of Batman-esque flightpack and attempts to put some detonators at the bottom of the floating city. Why? I don't know either. But at this point in the story I stopped asking questions because nothing made any sense and I just kept reading so I could finish this and come on Goodreads to write a scathing review in hopes that no one else wastes their time with this refuse. Anyways- as the bombs are about to be detonated- the character admits to this being a suicide bombing- nope, couldn't make this shit up,(Quote: "You blow them now, you'll get hit in the blast." "I can live with that." You won't live at all." "I can live with that too."). The explosives explode and all the bad people are killed and the Ashe survives because of the psychic energy released by the deaths of the imprisoned minds and thus is able to save herself. This residual energy empowers everyone else in the town too Ashe explains this result, even though this makes no sense either.

Needless to say, The Battle of Blood and Ink is a horrid clusterfuck of awfulness. Character development is essentially non-existent. I don't care at all for the main character. Hell- I can't even really feel any emotion for any of the ancillary characters either since their roles are so dumb and basically unimportant to the plot as a whole. Even when they are being tortured or beaten I jut can't care. Hell, even her sidekick just drinks wine and drops some stupid lines (Why was this character even in the story?!) And speaking of the plot which doesn't exist until about halfway in, because there is no real conflict until then, there is no clear journey to handle the conflict, all the pieces to solve it just seem to fall together in a weirdly arbitrary fashion as the author made it up as he went, instead of the characters figuring it as we would expect in any other narrative. The ending makes no sense, the resolution is equally retarded, and as a reader I'm left with a real sense of vicious emptiness that has gnawed at my brain because nothing in the damn book made any sense. This is simply another example of how far the graphic novel medium has gone down the drain in the past decade or so. Which is a real shame, we've come a long ways since the glory days of Alan Moore and his Watchmen.

Finally, in addition to the aforementioned delinquencies of the authors, the dereliction of the editor, and the myopia of the perverted publishers themselves- there are at least two instances of PLAGARISM. The first being the use of human beings in some sort of mental stasis in order to power the city- a CLEAR ripoff of the Matrix. While the previous example is somewhat arguable, I’ll reluctantly admit, the use of the floating object is so similar to the Cavorite in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (hell it looks like the SAME DAMN THING AND HAS THE SAME FUNCTION). While I will grant that the cavorite is a recurring fictional element in science fiction- the object illustrated looks so unnervingly similar to Alan Moore's one- I would be willing to place bets that the author read Moore's work and filched it. This unequivocally proves that Jared Axelrod is a perfect exemplar of the all too common unoriginal toolbag writer currently working in this medium- lacking any real wit or fresh ideas in a medium that is desperately in need of these values.

2 Big thumbs down!

[Kogiopsis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a tiny bit addicted to the podcast, even if Axelrod talks about himself more than I'd like. The story is pretty snazzy and steampunky and awesome and Ashe always makes me laugh, so I'll definitely be looking out for the graphic novel.


***

Okay, I'm going to write my review for the podcast novella ("Ashe of the Air") here first, because... well, because I feel like it, alright? And maybe I'll post it on iTunes later.



So, after having had a great positive experience with Writing Excuses, my first podcast addiction, I went searching through iTunes' directory for something new. I wanted something related the books and, in the hunt, I came across something called 'Fables of the Flying City'.

"Oh," I said to myself, "how awesome. A podcast book. Like the internet's reinvention of old serialized novels! I must subscribe!"

But because I didn't understand how iTunes subscriptions worked for a while, it took me until a couple of weeks ago to actually download all the episodes and start listening. Here is a bit of how that went:

Ep. 1: Huh, live recording. Okay, I can roll with that; I've listened to those with Writing Excuses. Oh, this one maybe doesn't translate as well. But damn, that first line is a zinger! What comes next?

Ep. 2: STOP TALKING ABOUT YOURSELF I DON'T CARE TELL ME THE DAMN STORY. If I wanted to learn what you were doing with your life, Mr. Axelrod, I'd read your personal blog, not subscribe to your fiction podcast.

Ep. 3: This Gatling woman is batshit crazy. Also, Axelrod still talks about himself too much.

Ep. 4: OMG YES SOUP FIGHT. I kind of love Ashe.

Ep. 5: Gatling is growing on me...

Ep. 6: It's official. Gatling reminds me of someone I know. Also of Xenophilius Lovegood, were he a bit more badass and more logical and more sane.


It went on from there.

I think, had this been a book, I would have given it four stars. The writing is pretty good, but could use a bit more elbow grease. The plotting is fairly tight, or as tight as can be expected given that there are to be between two and eight sequels. The characters are absolutely unreservedly fantastic, every single one of them, and when some of them died it was easy to feel pain along with Ashe. Hanner Gatling was, of course, my favorite, in all her kooky badass brilliance and overwrought flourishing writing. I loved her part in the finale beyond all reason. I mean, holy shit. It was awesome.

Ashe as a heroine was generally likeable. You know the type: snarky, capable young woman, in this case with a little amnesia to differentiate her from the rest. She made some bad decisions, but at no point were those decisions without consequences, and I felt she really grew over the course of the story to become less cocky, more mature, and more cognizant of the value of life. I look forward to reading/listening to more of her adventures in future.

And now that I've finished the podcast, I'm really looking forward to the second one and to the graphic novel. Mr. Axelrod, I have high expectations for you. Don't let me down.


(Extra note: Axelrod reads most of the episodes and he has a really fantastic podcasting voice. Seriously. It's wonderful to listen to.)

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a difference between something feeling amateurish and something being bad. This book exemplifies that difference - I enjoyed the story and the world-building, and the art wasn't bad, but it doesn't quite feel professional-quality (and it's one of the few times where I've thought a book presented in black and white really NEEDED color - I think it's because the shading wasn't particularly present). And the dialog is just a little 'off' - it doesn't flow very well and feels forced. But everything around the phrases is good - the characters are interesting, the story has some depth to it, and the world-building is pretty effective. The Lurker's Guide concept was good if lost a bit in the second half. But this is an intriguing Steampunk variation that makes good use of its setting, with some novel ideas and good action and character interactions. It doesn't quite feel professional grade, but there's enough worthwhile here to overlook the issues.

[Marie Trope-Podell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great concept, great art

I know the book was good because i was up reading at three in morning, hoping for answers. My only wish there had been more depth to the story. The secret of the flying City is quite horrifying, but while it qualified as such multiple time in the narrative, it remains pretty obscure. It is quite an elaborate and morbid scheme that may have deserved a little more background. May be a prequel could achieve that. As far as the art, it carries the action with lots of energy. I loved the steam punk aesthetics.

[Mook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ashe is the creator of The Lurker's Guide, a small guide to the ins-and-outs of Amperstad, the flying city she lives in. Some of the information is practical - and some of it is revolutionary. Those in power don't like it when their secrets start to spread on the streets.

While the line-art is very good I do wish it was an inked comic - I wish I could have seen this interesting world in full colour. I'm not sure how solid I found the plot of this volume but I did enjoy a lot of the writing.

[Usagi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is steampunk dystopian a thing? Because this is steampunk dystopian. Good world-building, interesting characters, and engaging storyline. In relatively few pages, and not very many words, the authors present a clear vision that feels like there is a lot of thought behind it and many more secrets lurking just beneath the surface.

[Tiffany · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bleck...I did not like this at all. The drawings are horrible, or that is to say they are of an art style that just didn't work for me. Like really didn't work for me. The story was boring and the characters were nothing interesting. I don't know what the point of this was. I feel dumber having read it.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really surprised to get to the end and find out the author and artist were male, the women in the book are intelligent, in power and pretty w/out being image comic cartoon women. Looking forward to finding others in the series. (note to teachers, there is one use of the word "fuck" that i noticed, probably more - this would make a great addition to a h.s. graphic novel library)

[notellingyou · Rating 1 out of 5]

I remember reading this book. I finished it with a burning distaste for every character involved. I have many gripes with The Battle of Blood and Ink, and the only thing that I learned from this was a clearer idea of the tropes I despised.

The plot runs at a breakneck pace. Most of the dialogue does nothing to develop the setting or plot. And with every sentence Ashe and her sycophants say I find myself loathing them even more.

The Battle of Blood and Ink is a slipshod assemblage of steampunk tropes. Flying islands aren't so impressive, but the least you could do with it is show how being in the sky affects things, rather than just hang up there like a monument for a nation's vanity. What i'm trying to say is, what purpose does this city being in the sky serve? This book tells us absolutely nothing. At least in Bioshock, Rapture's purpose for being underwater was to create an enclave for a political ideology that wouldn't be accepted anywhere else. See, when you want to build your story around a premise that involves worldbuilding, you must incorporate that into the plot. If you aren't, then you might as well set it in a boring groundbound city and allocate whatever's coming out of those poor tortured children to something reasonable.

And as we learn in the end, countless children are sacrificed to keep Amperstan in the skies. Oh no! See, as The Ones who Walk Away From Omelas would have it, modern readers are desensitized to this sort of thing. In fact, when we see something pretty or majestic we're always half-expecting to find a horrible twist behind it. And in The Battle of Blood and Ink we have the most contrived one of all. There is as much lead-up to this as there is conflict. The main characters (well, Ashe for the most part) are the most over-competent band of rogues to ever exist. The bumbling imbeciles, the coppers, pose zero threat at all, and the Vrussians don't influence the plot one bit. All we know about them is that they've been mentioned a handful of times in dialogue to create the illusion of in-depth worldbuilding.

It's also pretentious. It takes itself too seriously when its plot threads barely join together.

Last but not least we move on to the most odious aspect of this book: the characters. Everybody in this book exists to kiss Ashe's ass or get killed and humiliated, and that's a surefire sign she's a Mary Sue. Every member of the main cast is alike in that they possess an insufferably snarky attitude that puts even Sanderson's worst attempts at being witty to a million shames. Sure, this may have been to drive in the 19th century feel, but holy shit, their passive-aggressiveness is something that belongs on twitter feeds. Ashe, whom i'll call Ashehole for the remainder of this review, is a belligerent, narcissistic harridan who bullies people weaker than she is while her beta bitch-boyfriend watches on. Nobody, and I say nobody, calls out her actions.

A particular moment that really stuck with me was when Ashehole discovers a man selling tourist pamphlets for a suspiciously high price. So when she finds out, she goes and beats the living daylights out of him. Before doing so she says. "My fists aren't very good listeners!". And yes, this is how they sound like every time she tries being badass. Ashehole swears like some twelvie on xbox live trying to sound tough and sophisticated at the same time. Her douche friends can't do anything but comment "Ooh! Looks like that hurt! You go girl! Bash that working-class man forced to pursue unscrupulous business practices by a lousy economy!". As you can tell, I don't quite remember the last quote, but it's something like that. Ashehole's scumfuck asskissers are sociopathic bullies presented as brave underdogs. Because right after this, she goes on like she did nothing and decides to go out to a ball with her boyfriend. There's a panel showing their two self-satisfied mugs facing each other. How charming!

That unnamed scam artist is the most likeable character in the whole story. I genuinely pitied him. He reflects the plight of the working class better than Ashehole ever could. An orphan who becomes a super thief out of nowhere is the most contrived backstory possible. But his is plausible, and could set him up for some internal conflict. I would write a story from his perspective, had he not been killed shortly afterwards. That would make for a good family grudge, so I suppose the protagonist would be his malnourished son.

Ashehole is immune to accountability and moral repercussions because she's a strong independent woman. Instead, she treats everybody outside her bitchy clique of sycophants like garbage while they suck up to each other and excuse each other's antisocial behaviours. Hell, there's one moment where Ashehoel blasts a copper point blank while he's unarmed. Then next panel she and her boyfriend gabble on about how much of a pussy the copper was for closing his eyes before she pulled the trigger. The moment a character holds somebody else to higher moral standards than they would to themselves, I lose all sympathy for them. Tell me, if somebody held you point blank, would you get scared?

The reason I give this two stars is because my one-stars are reserved for sonichu-tier works.

Also, the artstyle sucks.

If you want to read steampunk, I suggest Perdido Street Station instead.

[Stephanie Harless · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know what to say about this graphic novel. I don't read many graphic novels and I just didn't really like this one compared to ones I have read. I did like though the city was in the air, that seems cool, but that was about it. It was just weird to me. It was a quick read though.

[Rebecca Marchand · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Melissa Hayden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressed! A graphic novel that kept my attention, surprised me as we went and in the end, keeping me in suspense and a kick butt heroine. I LIKE!

*****FULL REVIEW*****
Ashe is riding, while Tolban flies, around the city with other airships around them. Captain Skold is coming in, requesting permission to dock and asylum on the city after the hit his ship has taken by Vrussians getting to Apmerstam. The Provost is ignoring the request! Even with offer of money and supplies from Captain Skold, The Provost still resists. Captain Skold has something The Provost wants more than service and Ashe learns what it is. Ashe smells a story, and something more and dives into the depths of the flying city to find what it is.

The Provost left me skeptical about her in the last of the podcasts, and here we pick up where I don't trust her again. Ashe knows the Provost has done worse than what she's doing now, making slaves, and she is set on proving it and publishing it.

We do get to see the press page that Ashe publishes. The ACTUAL press page as it's published. This is neat to see her put things in her own words, and gives us the overall feel of what we see in the comic images and statements said by the characters.

We see the famous flying city in black and white. At last! It's awesome to see it after listening to the podcasts. Now I get to see all the different areas of the city I learned of in the podcasts as we follow everyone around to these areas. And yes, each section of town is noted so you know where you are. We see many of the characters: Tolban and his flying, Cardor from the hotel in his dress, and many others finally have a face.

The tattoo's on Ashes arms have all ways been a curiosity for me, here we see early in the book a design, created by someone we know, that is close to that on Ashe's arms. It brings the wonder back to the front of my mind with these similar designs and those on Ashe. What are they doing? How did Ashe get them too? Now I am curious with all that we have learned about the dreadful engine and these symbols, and the hints from Hanner Gatling that Ashe's answers are here as well. All is answered here.

The engine room!!! If you've been following my thoughts on the podcast, you know I've become increasingly curious about this room. What powers the engine? What happens to people down here? Well, it's here! It's all put together right here. I love seeing the secrets of the city, and how they might tie to Ashe.

Oh Ashe! We learn more about her past. We also learn the truth of Ashe's tattoos. Ashe has a nose for trouble, and finds it. Trouble and a great story. She finds herself in many scraps, and I love her for it. One tough lady.

We learn a little saying of kids on the flying city. "Through thick and thin, Through blood and ink, Clouddogs rule, And coppers stink!" The saying even has been adjusted to who they want to say stinks as well. Such world and culture growth here threw pictures and words.

I have to say this story still surprised me with happenings to our friends. Then in the end! Yes, it was a shocker to me to see what happened. I really liked that. Didn't know a graphic novel could hold so much suspense and story to tell. I really liked what I learned here, and the story told.

I do hope we get more adventures of Ashe in the future, and of what becomes of the flying city now.

[Lissibith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wish I could recommend this book widely. I really wish I liked it better than I did. I wish we had halves so I could give this a 2.5, because 2 really makes it look like a bad book when really it was just a book that never reached its potential.

Let's start with the art. The lineart is fantastic, and the characters are generally easy to distinguish. However, there are times when the composition of panels makes it really hard to decipher at a glance what's going on, breaking flow. This is not helped by a large lack of shading through the whole book. I'd give the art overall a 3/5

Where it falls apart, unfortunately, is the story. The author says in the postscript that he wanted the city to be a character unto itself, like in Transmetropolitan, and it's easy to see the influence of that series on this book. Unfortunately, while in theory it should have been easy to make the city stand out, in practice, it felt like generic steampunk city No. 12. Maybe it works better for people who haven't read steampunk before?

The characters are passable, but fairly one note. the snarky assistant. The posh wanna-be boyfriend. The hard-nosed woman journalist. The dialogue is usually fun to read, but sometimes gets a bit into stand-and-give-speech mode. The overall plot flowed okay and made a reasonable amount of sense.

However it was in that "reasonably amount" that I found myself disappointed. It felt like the author had planned for about 50 more pages than he got, and trimmed in some of the wrong places. Plot points wing in and out without warning, and the whole thing ends up feeling a bit forced and pat. It might have worked better if they ditched the dark past aspect and not had the heroine connected with the story she was after, but as it was, they do the big and actually shocking reveal and then Ashe reveals that she actually knew the whole time, but she made herself forget... somehow... and that she had escaped with help from her friend, though its unclear to me how exactly what worked.

Overall, a lot of the plot felt like the author was taking the easy way out. And it's a shame, because its a setting, an idea, even an overall plot that had a ton of potential to be awesome.

[Zezee · Rating 3 out of 5]

(As posted on Zezee with Books.)
Quick summary:

Ashe, our headstrong heroine, runs a newspaper that reveals the secrets of Amperstam, the famous flying city. The newspaper, The Lurker’s Guide to Amperstam, is treasured by tourists who look to it as their go-to guide for navigating the city. But those in power are starting to take note of Ashe’s paper, which they see as bad press, and seek to shut her down. Unwilling to give in to the government’s bullying, Ashe decides to write a story that will further expose their corruption and her digging leads her to a dark secret about how the city is powered.

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this story. I didn’t know what to expect since I wasn’t aware of it before purchasing it and didn’t bother reading the reviews before I read it. I’m not going to say much about the story because I like how it ends and the moral behind it. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. I think it has potential to be a series and when I was done, I hoped it was so but since this is a fable, it’s probably not. :(

I liked the protagonist. She’s strong, brave, and isn’t easily swayed by others. I think she could have shown a bit more emotion when she loses her printing press (I’ll only give that bit away. I don’t think it’s a major spoiler) because it’s dear to her but otherwise she’s okay. The other characters didn’t stand out to me. They weren’t very complex and since this is a fable, I didn’t expect them to be.

As for the artwork, I’m not a fan but there are a few illustrations I like. My dislike is due to the illustrations being in stark black and white. There isn’t even a bit of grey in there. Because of this, some action scenes were a bit confusing to me, but I believe that the creators chose to use only black and white to further emphasize the story’s message.

Overall: ★★★☆☆

The story is okay and there’s a nice lesson at the end. I’m not a fan of the artwork but it fits the story’s purpose.

[Edward Cheer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't know what to expect when I picked this comic up. And, to say the least, it's a bit of a mixed bag.

Blood and Ink is a samey story of a corrupt government and the one person who wants to know the truth of the government's secrets. Yes, it's great that they have a girl as the protagonist. I'm not complaining about Ashe. She's good. I like her. And I like the villain, too. There are very few antagonists that are actually well-written. But I felt a lot of sympathy for the Provost when she explained why she did what she was doing, and it's pretty understandable.

And that's when a lot of sh** stopped making sense. Because if the Provost is doing what she did to keep the flying city... flying, then what the hell is Ashe doing trying to stop that? Yes, what the Provost was doing was ethically questionable, but how do you know that your solution was going to work? They should have at least recognized that their plan might end in catastrophe... which it more than likely should have.

On top of that, everyone besides Ashe and the Provost aren't that interesting. The art looks a little fugly at times. The writing's a bit campy and cringe-worthy here and there (Hell, even the title "Blood and Ink" references a REALLY cringe-y poem that's used twice in the comic!). Besides the MASSIVE plot hole I just mentioned, there's still a ton of others ones in this story.

But it's not terrible. I sympathize with Blood and Ink more because it does what it's good at particularly well. I like good character writing. But I can't see myself reading this comic again.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why did I read this? Because it was on the shelf of new graphic novels the other day when I went to pick up my wife from work at the library.

Would I have read this if it hadn't been for free? No, I had never even heard of it.

Was it a waste of my time to read it? No, it actually helped me kill the time I had (20-30 minutes) while waiting on my wife to get off work.

Is the plot totally incomprehensible? No, not totally. Probably just slightly. the book is heavy on exposition in a couple of places to explain details that made little sense before, so if you're patient, it will all make a modicum of sense eventually.

Are the characters completely unrealistic? Besides the info-dump dialogue they spout sometimes, no. They're poorly defined and one-dimensional and speak in cliches... but that's true of a lot of real people.

Is the art terrible? no, but it's pretty far from good too. Inscrutible blocking and awkward panel compositions complicate art that is already a bit bland.

Is this the kind of book that you think the creators will look on years down the line and think about how much they've grown? Yeah, I think it is. It has potential, both from the writer and artist's perspectives. I wish both creators could go back to the drawing board with this story, rewrite the script and redraw all the art, because I think the end result would be a decent book.

[Selina · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an okay read, but I didn't really connect with much of the story. I don't know if I'm missing something, but it just felt too superficial and out-of-nowhere. I might have been able to forgive it if the art was more engaging, but even the art style was just meh and difficult to follow. I had a lot of trouble figuring out what was actually happening from the drawing style. Writing-wise, Ashe could have been more interesting, but there wasn't much to her other than "ooo, tough girl! who's a journalist!" So? I didn't understand her relationships and her motivations were not fleshed out very well. There's a lot more that could have been done. I understand there may not have been room in this novel, but then maybe it shouldn't be just this novel. Maybe it should have been two. Or maybe it should have been longer. I really would have liked it to be a bit longer if it could just have strengthened the characters to something that made more sense. Don't get me wrong, parts of the story were entertaining, and I was really interested in what was going on with the Provost and Ashe...actually, that's the story I wanted. This one was a bit dull and what I really wanted to know was what actually happened in those flashbacks. TL;DR: was an okay read, but nothing to get too excited about.

[Kirsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, the beginning 3/4 of this book are delightful, and the artwork's a lot of fun -- not always 100% spot-on, anatomically, and sometimes people's faces look a bit misshapen, but overall it looks great. Very Indiana Jones or Prince Valiant-but-better, somehow. The setting's fun: a flying city ruled by an evil woman known as the Provost. And the main character is a spitfire young woman named Ashe who runs an underground newspaper and has a head of red dreadlocks. What's not to love?

Well, the ending, for one. And it's driving me crazy because I want to complain about its stupidity at length, but I don't really want to spoil it. Just suffice it to say that the main character had a method in her hands for fixing something horribly wrong with her city, and she very nearly kills everyone and then they're saved by... some kind of unforeseen third method that there was no hint would work. It made me want to bite someone.

[Fantasy Literature · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Battle of Blood and Ink: A Fable of the Flying City is a graphic novel by author Jared Axelrod and illustrator Steve Walker set on the flying city of Amperstam. What keeps the city flying is a bit of a mystery, and one girl who hates mysteries is Ashe, who does her own investigating, writing, and publishing for her broadsheet The Lurker’s Guide. As one might expect, this sort of digging into the well-kept secrets of the powerful doesn’t go over too well and soon Ashe is matching wits with Amperstam’s ruler (referred to as Provost), dealing with intimidation and thuggery, running from hired assassins, and trying to figure out if this is the life she wants or if she might give in to the temptation of the upper class life offered up by a rich patron who has romantic feelings for her. Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm torn between giving this 3 or 4 stars. I really enjoyed the strong female protagonist and even loved the female villain. I really wanted to explore more of the Provost's character (female antagonist). I wanted to know more about her motivations and her relationship with the mysterious assassin. I also want more of the protagonist, Ashe. I find both women to be compelling characters. However, I felt the male characters to be a little flat and needing a little more dimension. The plot was good but I felt some was missing near the end and more information needed to be doled out. Also, not a story issue but an art issue. I wanted some color! Don't get me wrong I enjoy black and white. Visually some color, even minimal, would have been nice. Just something to make the artwork pop and draw your eye to page.

[Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid first graphic novel from writer Jared Axelrod and Steven Walker. Well paced, with memorable characters, and at the core a good story. A flight of fantasy with just enough steampunk, I hope to see more from this team down the road.

That being said, where I find myself wanting is the ending, which is one of the more difficult (in my view) aspects of crafting a tale. It felt a bit rushed, a sort of "this needs to be wrapped up, and we don't quite have the pages to unfold it completely, and thus [ending] happens". It's what kept me from giving it a 4 or higher rating - but quite frankly, even such well known authors as Stephen King have left me with that feeling ("Needful Things" comes to mind).

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, I like this book a lot more than I thought I would and I'm liking it even more as I sit here and reflect. In the beginning I scrambled to keep up and figure out what was going on, but I just needed patience because all of my questions were thoroughly answered. It was quite impressive. I also like that it takes on almost a steampunk feel, but it isn't quite steampunk which is nice. Plus, the romance was not huge and prominent in the story which was really refreshing. I would recommend this book to anybody who wants to try steampunk, but doesn't want to read a whole novel of that genre.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Battle Of Blood And Ink by Jared Axelrod and Steve Walker is a steampunk graphic novel that takes place on a floating city called Amperstam and is an interesting read to pass the day away with. The Battle Of Blood And Ink explores the freedom of press and the risks of telling the truth in a gilded, brutal world.

Read the rest of my review here link goes live 7/1/12

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really not very good, I must have read a good review somewhere but they were wrong. The story (about a floating city kept aloft by the sucking the souls from it's younger citizens) is not very well though out. The main character (an overdone orphan who needs no one, including a rich-handsome playboy who wants to take care of her, starts her own newspaper to uncover the seedy undertakings of her city's politicians). The drawing style left much to be desired. The ending was very contrived.

All in all, this is one you can skip.

[Eli · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope. Couldn't get into into this one. Went into about 15-20 pages and just couldn't care. Firstly, I felt like I was being dropped into the middle of a conversation withoutr any context or knowledge of anyone involved. Secondly, the art was just not suitable. It was fine as far as lineart goes but it really needed some shading or colours or /something/. It was so flat with no sense of depth or atmosphere that nothing I was looking at even registered as important. So yeah, definitely not for me. And I had such high hopes considering I was on the wait list for it for quite some time.

[Jennifer Heise · Rating 2 out of 5]

How old is this trope? Especially with a female main character? Oh lord. I liked the steampunk setting, but once you start reading the drawing style should cue you in: it's the same old rebellious scarred-by-life devil-may-care young woman who ends up deciding to change (her) world when she finds out it's even more corrupt than she knew... Add to that that it's utterly unclear what actually happens in the climactic scene -- does the city actually blow up, or not?. Yawn. 'Edgy' steampunk goth girl does flying city.

[Salimbol · Rating 3 out of 5]

[2 and 1/2 stars]
A steampunk-infused graphic novel that tackles social issues on a great flying City. While there are some interesting ideas here, and the protagonist is a spirited yet slightly bitter woman with a social conscience and a sharp tongue (which I think most people can agree is a Good Thing), the artwork is terribly sketchy and hard to decipher at times, the story rushes over most of the interesting stuff, and the characterisation is pretty thin in most places. It does make me interested in the podcasts that apparently precede it, though.

[Toastkat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though much more tame and digestible than "Transmetropolitan", "The Battle of Blood and Ink" follows the same theme of journalism vs the establishment. In this story, the protagonist Ashe is a journalist and printer, fighting to expose the truth of the city and its leader to the people. It's a story that resonates through generations and time because it is established in truth. With the media being distorted by corporations and ratings, the minds of the masses are easily manipulated until the truth no longer awakens but brings out a deeper fear. A good read with elements of steampunk.