"MASQ" #1: TALES OF TWO DIBIAS actually tells the story of two Dibias (witch doctor) who are set to do battle in order to protect their village and clan. The story begins with Alu one of the Dibias who has the powers and ability to travel into the spirit world. His mission today was to run an errand by the King of Umualu to meet the great water goddess “Mamri” and see how she can help them defeat the kingdom of Ndeze.
The story goes on to show us how Mamri with her ability to shape-shift destroy the 3 most powerful protectors and “demigods” of Ndeze. They refer to them as the invincible guardians
This sparks some chaos in Ndeze and the only solution after consulting an un know female dibia of Ndeze, it was revealed that a hero had to be found. A man that will go into the spirit world wearing the MASQ and bring back the souls of the fallen three at the gates. The MASQ is actually an African mask that gives the wearer some special ability to go into the spirit realm. The search began even as the warriors of Umualu where prepared to make war against them. After a series of test, one man was chosen among the pack due to his honesty, integrity and strong resilience to dance in a room filled with the kings money and yet not take any for himself. This man is ABUM!
Peter Ike Amadi’s scripts, while brilliantly plotted seemed to be a little shallow for an epic title like MASQ. The story was quick and straight to the point and in the process there was no actual characterization of most of the character and there was no real character you could actually fall in love with except Abum who we believe will lead the story on from here. Most of the characters where nameless and it took a great deal of effort to actually find the Heroes name. More should be done in next issue to define the characters better and bring them home to the reader. Okwara Ebuka did a good job, his art is a perfect fit to what the story required..an epic. His anatomy, expressions and panel plots can not be faulted and his art style tends to bring a certain type of refreshing to the book as it is more grounded unlike its super hero colleagues out there.
The colors could have been much better. Nnanna Akwu has delivered better colors in the past and one cant but wonder if he was either rushed for this story or he didn’t understand the direction of the book. The shiny glowy coloring style did not do justice to Ebukas art and definitely the book. A more realistic down to eart colors would have been ideal but perhaps the publishers where trying to to appeal to the +8 category audience of the book. The graphics almost spoilt this book as the lettering and use of colors on the narration box was completely off and un-epic. The choice of fonts is also not desirable for a story so epic as the MASQ
On a whole, MASQ is definitely a good read and way above average. The comic book reminds you of such epic scaled movies like Lord of the Rings, Clash of the Titans and Dracular Untold. This comic book is definitely an addition and a breadth of fresh air to the crowded landscape of super hero titles around now. We definitely would love to see more of MASQ, however with some corrections made. It’s a good read!
MASQ was written by Peter Ike Amadi.
Art by Okwara Ebuka.
Colours by Nnanna Akwu.
Published by Shadow Black Entertainment and rated +8 years.
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