Swords Of The Swashbucklers

Swords of the Swashbucklers #0-12

by Bill Mantlo, Jackson Guice (Artist), Geof Isherwood (Artist)

Spirited teenager Domino Blackthorne Drake was just a normal girl… until she stumbled upon an alien artifact, acquired uncanny power, and became a beacon for intergalactic trouble! With her tabby cat Cap’n Kidd in tow, Domino joins the motley crew of the Starshadow – a spacefaring pirate ship captained by the charismatic and fearless Raader. Domino embarks on a cosmic odyssey to save her kidnapped parents and overthrow the evil Colonizer Empire. Imagine a young, bright-eyed girl on a galaxy-wide escapade, full of high-energy antics straight out of Guardians of the Galaxy and Pirates of the Caribbean, and you’ve got Swords of the Swashbucklers!

Genres: Comics, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Ebooks, Fiction, Pirates

481 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 20, 2018

About the author

William Timothy Mantlo is an American comic book writer, primarily at Marvel Comics.
(source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a blast!! I stumbled across the Marvel graphic novel of this and enjoyed that. Then, to my amazement, I found out that was only an issue 0 and that it continued for 12 more issues. Then to add to my excitement, I found out Dynamite picked this up and had this hardcover made. So of course I had to get it. This story was wonderful. Pirates of the Caribbean meets Star Wars. Loved the family elements. A young girl whose great x4 grandmother was a famous pirate who disappeared almost 300 years ago leaving a kid behind who kept the family name going. This pirate was taken into space were she had another kid, Raader, who became a famous pirate herself in space. Due to some amazing adventures and whimsical story telling, they all end up together out there beyond the cloud wall that separates there universe from ours, fighting against the evil colonizers. This was just fun as hell with some pretty cool characters, nice art and wonderful colors. I could see this as a movie. I’d definitely watch it as this is unlike anything I’ve ever read or seen on screen . So glad I stumbled across this one.

[Kelly Sedinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ooooh, I loved this! Great stuff. Pure 80s swashbuckling cheese.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I enjoyed reading this compilation of the series. The main character(s) and some of the minor ones are nicely developed over the arc of the story. It has some fun moments in it, and a lot of crazy moments. There are some weak moments where the story does seem to lag a bit, and the artwork in the later issues is not on the same level as in the earlier issues (or the graphic novel, which stands alone, far above and beyond the issues in the comic book series itself, in terms of beauty and amazing artwork). It also had some images in it I found questionable, taking account when it was written but especially in today's day and age. In any case, I enjoyed the overall tenor of the story; it was fun and crazy and exciting and a lot of fun to read; it had several lead female characters (some of them stronger in character and nature than others), pirates in space, hidden pirate treasure, swords, undersea caves, angry giant sea creatures, throwbacks to Creature from the Black Lagoon, cannons, no energy weapons or guns, "space travel," talking cats and talking rats, scheming crew members, odd mixes/blends of "high tech" and "low tech" like how the Colonizers had elaborate beacons that studied planets and sent that information back to their homeworld until it was determined the planet was ripe for colonization, or how the navigation devices used were forms of computer technology, yet the crews sailed the spaceways onboard vessels that used "solar sails" for transportation, and a "mystical cloud wall" that separated different parts of the galaxy (a la the Bermuda Triangle, I guess?).

It is filled with action and adventure, both in space and on planets. I thought it was both a fun and interesting concept. It was pretty different from most of what was being published at the time; it felt original and unused. Obviously, "space pirates" have been used before in both comics and science fiction books, but they usually have space ships and ray guns and maybe laser swords of some kind; in this story, the only projectile weapons are the cannons used on the space ships (and hints of ground cannons used in the distant past). The shots of the pirate ships and Colonizer ships flying through space reminded me of elements of Galaxy Express 999 (when the train encounters the pirate ship hanging beneath the giant dirigible in space or when the same pirate ship joins Captain Harlock in attacking the machine's home planet, Prometheum).

The artwork starts out strong, especially the graphic novel. Having read the 'introductory story' that is the graphic novel, I would love to find a copy of it and read it, just to see the two-page spreads in all their full-sized glory. There is some amazing artwork to be found in the graphic novel! I wish the series could have maintained that level of art, but I also realize that it might not have been feasibly possible to do so. By the time the series gets to the "Samurai section" of the story, the artwork is pretty bad, and I did not care for it in the least bit. Also, the appearance of Black Bess the Buccaneer changes quite drastically over the course of the series. Whereas she was clearly an alien species in the graphic novel (and quite the "spectacle" to behold!), in the series, she is reduced to the appearance of being a blue-skinned woman and not the least bit "alien" in appearance like in the graphic novel (in the graphic novel, she has the accouterments that most people associate a female member of a humanoid species to have, but she also has elements that are quite alien in appearance as well). Even Captain Raader's appearance (and Mantid's) changes over the course of the series, especially when compared to the graphic novel.

I was surprised at how often Dominic Drake is portrayed as nude throughout the series, especially in the early issues. She is a thirteen year old teenager who is initially rescued by Raader and her crew from the Colonizers and joins Raader's crew in order to rescue her captive parents. She gains special powers because of her contact with the Colonizer's beacon planted on Earth a long, long time ago and is able to transmute into the four major earth elements - earth, wind, fire, and water. However, each time she uses her powers, she loses her clothing (until some clothes and a "uniform" are finally made out of the same material as the solar sails so that she stops incinerating her clothing when fighting in her elemental form). The nudity is not 'revealing' as the artist shades (hides) the teen's private parts in black / shadow, but it is still crazy how often she appears unclothed throughout the series. It was unnecessary, made me uncomfortable, and I found myself wondering why they could not have drawn most of her 'off-picture' when she was nude; they could have shown most of a bare arm or part of a bare leg and gotten the same effect, or had some piece of the ship's superstructure or rigging strategically blocking her torso but still letting the reader know she was no longer wearing any clothes.

I also thought it was fun and funny how the "extended family" kept growing on Earth. Domino discovers her 300-year old "extended great" grandmother and former "queen" of Earth's pirates was actually still alive, making Raader an aunt of hers. Raader's father turns out to be alive, as well, and turns traitor to try and save his daughter and return to the woman he loves; both characters end up on Earth over the course of the novel. We learn that Bonnie (Raader's mom) had at least one other daughter and possibly more; one of her daughters (Dodger) joins the crew for a short time and also ends up on Earth! By the end of the book/story, it was quite the family group living on the coast of South Carolina!

There were some "moments" towards the end of the book/story that did not make any sense to me. The Colonizers supposedly exterminated all indigenous intelligent life forms on the planets they took over; any survivors were either prisoners and sent to prison planets or joined pirate crews after fleeing the planet. Yet, in the last few issues, it is "revealed" that various planets already taken over or being taken over were in open rebellion against the Colonizer's Empire and that the rebellion was spreading. I suppose one could make the case that the pirates assumed all intelligent indigenous life forms were exterminated (or some taken off-planet as slaves, but I got the impression the "slaves" were more scientific specimens for the Colonizers to study on the most efficient way to kill them before invading and colonizing a planet). So, yeah, if the planetary population of the Colonizer's "home worlds" was expanding as exponentially as implied and the population was being moved en masse to other planets, it made no sense to me how any planet could rebel against the Colonizers' occupation and colonization. Unless, I suppose, it was a newly-taken planet and somehow enough members of the indigenous population survived to fight back. In any case, the Colonizer's new weapon of mass destruction was a fearsome weapon, indeed, and it would have been interesting to see how it would affect the future of the various rebellions on the various planets. It was quite strange how they went from being "overpowering conquerors" to wimps and pushovers so quickly. Bad enough they were portrayed as being as incompetent as they were against the pirates, but I found it hard to believe they had become that incompetent on the planets they subjugated and replaced the native life forms as the dominant species on each planet they came to control.

The "cloud wall" was fun and one of the "better parts" of the book, to me. I think it was because you never know what was going to happen when the crew sailed into its mystical mists. Captain Kidd the Cat grew intelligent enough to speak as well as increased in size and stature, able to walk on two legs and having opposable thumbs. Servitor grew intelligent enough to be able to speak without having to use a mechanical device to increase his intelligence. Even the rats onboard the Starshadow increased in size and intelligence to the point they actually took over the pirate vessel for a short time! Now that was a crazy story! There were some pictures of what must have been other derelict space-going vessels trapped in the space cloud, which was also crazy to see and showed how dangerous this "natural phenomenon" could be to unwary travelers. In any case, it strongly reminded me of the Bermuda Triangle and all of the stories that surrounded it, about ships and then aircraft "mysteriously" disappearing, or unnatural phenomenon appearing in the skies or at sea. Good times!

I have most of the twelve issues of the limited series; I do not have the graphic novel. I wish they had kept it going for a bit longer, as the ending definitely felt rushed, like the author was trying to tie up as many loose ends as possible before the series ended. In any case, it was fun reading this marvelous, unusual tale that was told for short time under Marvel's Epic imprint. I am glad I took the time to read the story collection.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of this series is fantastic, though Mantlo surely had a problem with notes as there are a number of things that are explained in different ways in different issues, but the last couple of issues are awful. They obviously knew that the series was going to be cancelled and just destroyed everything that was great about what came before those two issues. Such a shame!

[Jesse Fawcett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story, not so keen on the writing. Reminds me a lot of how I wrote when I was about 10-12 years old. Suspect this might be because the comic is oriented toward kids, or possibly tweens, though it never really says so.

[Al Berry · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting premise, swashbucklers in space not executed well as the story is awful, artwork is standard 80s style.

[ISMOTU · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swords of the Swashbucklers is fun Space Pirate epic created by Bill Mantlo and Jackson Guice with later art by Geoff Isherwood and Colleen Doran. From the initial graphic novel to the 12 issue series the creative team takes the reader on a journey that has familiar tropes but also goes off in directions I certainly wasn't expecting. At it's core the story is about family and that's handled nicely. In a move atypical of the time in which it was published (the 1980's) the main characters are all strong women with distinct personalities and a lot of agency. The supporting cast made up of men and aliens alike is fun and on the whole I'd say the saga is quite an enjoyable read. Jackson Guice sets up the setting and character designs with his amazing art and his successors on the title do a good job carrying the torch through to the end.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Couldn't get into this collection. I really like Bill Mantlo's writing, but this one just didn't do anything for me. The characters just didn't ring true, they just don't seem to act like real people and that kept pulling me out of the story. Nice art though...

[David Palazzolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this years ago when it was a series in Marvel’s Epic Comics line. I was sorry to see it end then. Hopefully someone will continue it.