Written by: Marc Legendre
Illustrations: Fabio Bono
Coloring: Dimitri Fogolin
Publisher: Standaard Uitgeverij
De Rode Ridder #256 Het Offer – Comic Book Review
Last time Johan and Allis were traversing the hard wintery mountaintops, in order to outwit Malfrat, who was still on their trail. While they had their misfortunes along the way, they once again vanquished who opposed them and were able to move on. Also Merlin came into the picture, albeit from a distance, to keep a watchful eye on his protégé and the fearless knight. This time the landscape is still very snowy, but a keep blocks their way, and it seems like they will have to traverse through the castle, or at least seek refuge from the storm that’s currently waging.
As mentioned above, the duo stumbles across what seems to be an abandoned keep in the middle of the mountaintops. While things seem and feel a bit suspicious, they wander inside to seek shelter from the raging storm, and immediately come across a brazen bull, the execution device from ancient Greek history where the victim would be stuffed inside the iron contraption, while a fire rages on beneath the bull, causing an agonizing and slow death for the one inside. This immediately makes the duo feel uncomfortable, and while Johan goes on a small exploration trip, Allis is caught by the inhabitants, to serve as a sacrifice to make the snow go away. Johan finds himself in a poor situation as well, when he returns to the place Allis was supposed to be waiting. Once again everything happens in a very fast pace, as these issues remain extremely thin.
Illustration-wise once again not much has changed, the snowy landscapes remain intact, but the castle is a nice change of pace, as well as the new mysterious looking characters. Other than that, not much has changed, and we’re already well used to the new style of the series, which has been going strong for seven issues now.
Conclusion
De Rode Ridder #256 Het Offer is a rather interesting step up from the previous, somewhat slower album that didn’t have that much to offer. Nonetheless, the series is fun, as it’s becoming one very big tale, compared to the old issues which were always separate stories without a big red thread running through it. We love where the series is headed, but we still feel like the issues could and should be a lot longer.
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