Writer, Artist & Colorist: Patrick Zircher
Letterers: Richard Starkings & Tyler Smith
Editors: Chris Butera & Matt Murray
Cover Artists: JH Williams III, Mike Mignola, Patrick Zircher, Andrew Maclean, Daniel Brereton & Sketch Cover
Publisher: Titan Comics
Price: $4.99
Release Date: March 26, 2025
When her financial advisors declare a budget deficit, Queen Elizabeth has an idea. Pirates menace British merchant vessels on the high seas. Why not follow their example but attack trading ships from other countries? Like Sir Francis Drake and Charles Kingsley's great adventurer Amyas Leigh, Solomon Kane hails from Devon, England. As a loyal British subject, Solomon Kane answers the call of his divinely appointed monarch and signs aboard a retrofitted galleon to serve his country.
Instead of feeling at peace, the Puritan grows troubled. His captain raids Portuguese ships for their cargo and leaves the wounded crew for other pirates to kill or enslave. Will Solomon grow more troubled when he and his fellow sea dogs attack the Gaviota off the Barbary Coast? Or will he find peace in consigning Papist souls to eternity? Let’s grab our flintlocks and rapiers, leap into Solomon Kane: The Serpent Ring #1, and find out!
Story
In Patrick Zircher’s story, Solomon Kane watches as Captain Wheeler orders his cannons to blast away at the Gaviota. Then Solomon rushes aboard the Portuguese caravel with his fellow sailors. Instead of seeking conquest and glory, Solomon fights his way to the captain's cabin. He intends to urge the captain to surrender and end the bloodshed. Instead, he finds another man holding a flintlock at him.
In Solomon Kane: The Serpent Ring #1, both men fire, but only one lead ball reaches its target. As the man falls to the floor, Solomon Kane realizes he shot a passenger instead of the ship’s captain. Weighed down by his moral quandary, the man’s death heaps more guilt on his shoulders. So, the Puritan warrior makes a final request to a dying man.
In Dead Man’s Promise, the first chapter in Patrick Zircher’s story, Solomon Kane begins a new journey. The dying man hands him a statue bundled in cloth. Solomon isn’t sure what the carving represents. Nor does he know if it has religious or historical importance. The man wants someone in Venice to have it. In Solomon Kane: The Serpent Ring #1, the Puritan abandons his obligation to his country and honors the request of a Portuguese Papist.
Art
Patrick Zircher shows silhouettes of African warriors attacking a village beneath a blue, pink, and purple night sky. Flames from the cooking pit fill the air with orange as battle commences. A sailor drinks from a green bottle while awaiting a passenger. As a man charges through the greenery, a spear hurtles into the sailor's back.
Smoke rises from the flames consuming the Gaviotta, filling the sky with wild hues like the light playing across blown glass. Red-clad privateers leap aboard the burning merchant ship. A green sash around Solomon Kane’s waist is his lone concession to color. The black tornado blows past sailors and slaves toward the captain’s cabin of the shattered wooden vessel in Solomon Kane: The Serpent Ring #1.
Richard Starkings and Tyler Smith share Abramo’s words as small, lowercase, italicized letters on scraps of ivory parchment. Stately ivory letters in black boxes denote locations. Black uppercase letters in ivory boxes reveal Solomon Kane’s thoughts. Uppercase dialogue in white balloons grows bold for intonation, enlarges and changes color for volume, and shrinks for lowered voices. Sound effects amplify gunfire on burning vessels and a lonely road built at an emperor's command. Thanks to Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
Forced to live in the ghetto, Abramo Bensaid finds joy in his daughter and scholarly manuscripts. Abandoned by his wife and oppressed by his Venicean masters, Abramo's life is about to change. Instead of reading about Judean castles in the Biblioteca Marciana, the Jewish scholar will be drawn into a fight for power when he meets Robert E Howard’s Puritan adventurer. Detailed penciling, vibrant coloring, and a densely layered story steeped in history make Solomon Kane: The Serpent Ring #1 a righteous steal!
Rating 9.4/10
To look inside see my preview of Solomon Kane: The Serpent Ring #1.
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