Fun with Richard Williams and a short look at the Master at Arms comic

You know what?

 Here's another. Just because I had such a good time with him.

This one gives some good insight into how much research went into the novel: On murder strokes, writing for the Black Library, some vigorous live reading and the inspiration for one of the training masters in the book; Hans Talhoffer, which reminded me of Dorison's Master at Arms, and more on that below...

That's, of course, not why I post it, or at least not solely why... but rather because this man is a genuinely funny guy. For specifics 6:07 and onwards :)

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Meanwhile, down here below, in Xavier Dorison and Joel Parnotte's Master at Arms comic the eponymous main character is called Hans Stalhoffer.

(and I don't need to explain why one reminded me of the other now, do you?)

No matter what the subject, Dorison is always an interesting writer (to me), as he usually manages to include his ruminations on religion in whatever story he's telling. But in contrast to most of his other stories, there are no supernatural elements present in the comic here. The story of Master-at-arms is in fact closer to his earlier 'Asgard' story in terms of its realism than anything like Sanctum or Third Testament, with their overt supernatural elements, but it nonetheless still focuses on Christianity as the primary canvas on which to paint a more realistic story.

Religion is still very central to the tale being told as we follow around disgraced master at arms Hans Stalhoffer as he comes out of self-imposed exile to come to the aid of a young Huguenot trying to escape catholic persecution. No world-ending or world-changing storyline here and the tale is much smaller in scope than I'm used to from Dorison but nonetheless manages to pack quite an emotional punch when it concludes.

Le Maitre d'Armes or (wrongly translated as) Swordmaster in English is on of my absolute favourite comics and I've long wanted to do a review on it. I guess it doesn't hurt to show you a little bit though huh?

As it says at the bottom. This is page 8... out of a 96 page comic.

What you've seen is just the bloody set-up and there's plenty more carnage where that came from.

But don't go and be expecting this one to be all about the bloodshed though, no, the story between the pages is a good one, it's deliberate and quite emotionally impactful.

As always, if you take your time with your fiction, you're more likely to be rewarded than if you just dive in looking for cheap thrills. There's a place for that too of course, but given the subject matter in this one, expect it to have more up its sleeve than just an outporing of gore.