Day 39: The Amory Wars: The Second Stage Turbine Blade by Claudio Sanchez

This graphic novel is actually the second in the series, preceded by a prose novel setting up the events depicted here. But since this was published first, I thought I’d start off here. Sanchez is the frontrunner of the band Coheed and Cambria, the music they play is the work that the comics are based off. The meta concept is really interesting and you might worry that the stories might not live up to the form, but you’d be wrong. The Amory Wars tells the tale of Coheed and Cambria Kilgannon, a married couple from a little peaceful neighbourhood on one of the seventy-eight planets held together by mystical energy called Heaven’s Fence. The couple believe they are just ordinary people until disaster causes them to confront their mysterious origins and take the war to the dictator ruling Heaven’s Fence, Wilhelm Ryan, the Tri-Mage. The story evokes images of Star Wars but the writing is lyrical and fluid. Claudio Sanchez is a great writer, the art is wonderful, and the story Shakespearean.