Brendon d'Arkness-a Guide to the series-part III
Filed Under (Comics ) by Lex Luthor on Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Posted at : 5:01 AM
The secondary characters:
The world of "Brendon" is full of enemies and difficulty, a world dominated by desperate struggle for survival. And in this world, Brendon is very much alone, despite his constant search of friends and love.
He meets friends and allies on the path of his fate, but almost all die around him of an untimely death, preys of a world thirsty for blood, leaving Brendon increasingly alone and putting more and more at test his hope and his faith in justice.
Many are the enemies of Brendon, and this is natural, given the fate of revenge chosen for our wandering knight. And he accepts his fate, inevitably but with responsability and value.
Anja:
Anja is a warrior-assassin, fierce, beautiful and full of sadness and despair, once one of the best warrior in the "Army of Nympha", an army composed exclusively of ruthless and cruel women. "The Race of Nympha", the number 59 of the comics, is dedicated to this army, where also Shawnee and Greta have fighted, both friends and allies of Anja and of Brendon.
Anja and Greta during the training in the Fortress of the Army of Nympha
The story of Anja is told in the second number, "Tears of Darkness",where Brendon meets her.
Anja is the only woman that Brendon loves deeply, and indeed one is the reflection of the other: both have experienced a childhood and a life full of pain, and both live for the revenge. But while in Brendon there is also hope, Anja lives just with pain and death. Their love is not wanted by destiny, and in fact Anja dies prematurely, leaving Brendon in the continuously painful memory of her, a sorrow that accompanies him constantly.
In the number 39, "Anja returns", the two lovers meet again, but only in a parallel world, where Brendon, and not Anja, is dead. But their encounter is temporary and illusory, but in all cases it is, also if only for a moment.
Anja in dejection
Skarr :
Skarr is the murderer of mother and of the master of Brendon. Character disturbing, powerful and cruel, Skarr is an adept of the "Black Moon", blinded by his faith in the sect and by his thirst for blood and destruction.
His weapon is a sickle black crescent-shaped, the main symbol of his belonging to the sect.
The fate of Skarr meets the destiny of Brendon, marking him profoundly, when the adept was searching a lost ritual knife of the "Black Moon", a kind of key able to open one of the "Time capsules" assiduously sought by the sect.
The "Black Moon":
The "Black Moon" is a mysterious religious sect, the most influential sect of the "New England". Many other sects exist in the world of "Brendon", as the "Sect of Death", but the "Black Moon" is the most powerful and dangerous, and also the oldest one: it already existed in the times prior to the "Great Darkness", and the four high priests have been largely responsible for the catastrophe on Earth; a destruction supported and hoped by the "Black Moon", with the end to be able to destroy the world and for to start a new beginning in the human history.
The adepts of the "Black Moon" are armed with blacks sickles, ritual weapons with which they celebrate their sacrifices of blood. They gather in temples of steel and glass, inside the galleries of the old subway (like some humans of the movie "Planet of the apes").
The "Black Moon" is constantly in search of the "Time capsules", a sort of underground libraries built prior to the "Great Darkness" and dispersed all over the world once civilized. In these libraries were saved and hidden all the knowledge of the past. And the "Black Moon" seeks the knowledge, that is an ineffable source of power. It is precisely due to a key that is able to open one of these old libraries, that the fate of the "Black Moon" and that of Brendon meet, tragically and in blood.
The adepts of the sect worship the "Black Snake". This serpent was born from the blood of the four high priests at the time of the ritual celebrated by the sect to prevent the deviation of the huge asteroid, called by them the "Messenger of the Darkness."
The "Black Snake" is hidden in one of the temples of the sect, asleep. In honour of that serpent the adepts make constant sacrifices of blood in attempt to awake him, bringing thus a new "Great Darkness" on the whole Earth.
The "Black Serpent"
Zeder:
Zeder is a sorcerer who lives among the ruins of "Old London". Among his magical powers Zeder has the ability to make the souls of the living able to travel in time and space.
He appears for the first time in the n. 11, called "Back to the Past", a tale regarding the inevitability of fate: Brendon encounters the sorcerer for to go back in time, initially with the sole purpose of understanding his fate, but then instead trying in vain to change his tragic past and to save Boris and his mother from death.
The mother of Brendon in another dimension as an adept of the "Black Moon", tries to kill his own son
First friend and ally, Zeder after becomes the nemesis of Brendon, the anti-hero of the saga: after being killed, Zeder reborn together with the snake of the "Black Moon". The "Black Serpent" now lives in him and inside him.
In the n. 63, "The Serpent and the Sorcerer", Zeder is then supported by Ysp, who kills the former high priest of the "Black Moon", taking so the supreme power together with Zeder. In addition to use his new immense magical powers, the sorcerer begins also to gather all the followers of the "Black Moon", with the end to arrange a war in the "New England" and cause a second "Great Darkness", a new disaster, a return of murkiness, already prophesied in the prophetical texts of the "Black Moon".
Zeder with Brendon, Margaret, Boris, Skarr, and other characters of the comics
Brendon and Zeder
Conclusion:
"Brendon" shows us, in all its various characters, the human response to despair and to the pain of the loss, that is the pain of an entire era; and everyone reacts according to his own nature: some abandon themselves to sorrow; some instead fight the violence with other violence and madness; others still do ignore the reality, pretending to live in a normal world; the sect of the "Black Moon" seeks power and magic for to create a world of darkness and obscurity and for to rule the whole Earth; and then there is Brendon, who lives for revenge and hope, wandering constantly in search of his own destiny.
Complete list of the issues of "Brendon" till now:
1 Born February 31 (drawings M. Rotundo)
2 Tear of Darkness (drawings G. Franzella)
3 The Black Moon (drawing M. Rotundo)
4 The wings of the night (drawings C. Roi)
5 Animah (drawings by E. Maroto)
6 The Ballad of the assassins (drawings M. Rotundo)
7 The man of the stars (drawings G. Franzella)
8 The shadows of Pinewood (drawings E. Maroto)
9 The chariot of fear (drawings C. Roi)
10 The reflection of evil (drawings G. Ricciardi)
11 Return to the past (drawings M. Rotundo)
12 The blue fairies murder (drawings E. Maroto)
13 Anja (drawings G. Franzella)
14 The Orcs (drawings G. Ricciardi)
15 The legend of Lizard (drawings E. Maroto)
16 Tales of death (drawings M. Rotundo)
17 The night of the witches (drawings E. Simeoni)
18 The breath of the afterlife (drawings L. Simeoni)
19 The mystery of Jacknife (drawings L. Arduini)
20 Dreams of blood (drawings G. Franzella)
21 Line of Fire (drawings G. Ricciardi)
22 The Breath of Darkness (drawings E. Maroto)
23 The Death and the Maiden (drawings M. Rotundo)
24 Heart of Crow (drawings L. Arduini)
25 The woman who came from the impossible (drawings E. Maroto)
26 The return of the Black Moon (drawings G. Ricciardi)
27 Before the dark (drawings Franzella)
28 Love and Darkness (drawings L. Airaghi)
29 The road on the edge of the world (drawings G. Viglioglia)
30 Beyond the Universe (drawings L. Airaghi and G. Ricciardi
31 The Lord of Illusions (drawings L. Arduini)
32 Horror Night at the drive-in (drawings C. Spadavecchia)
33 The shadow of the jester (drawings G. Viglioglia)
34 The man who never sleeps (drawings G. Franzelli)
35 Gifts from Hell(drawings L. Airaghi)
36 The stories of the not-never (drawings L. Arduini)
37 A kingdom without light (drawings M. Rotundo)
38 Midnight at Stonehenge (drawings G. Acciarino)
39 Anja returns (drawings G. Ricciardi)
40 The man of the desert (drawings C. Spadavecchia)
41 The revenge of the magician (drawings L. Arduini)
42 The sign of the crime (drawings E. Simeoni)
43 The king of the autumnal dolls (drawings G.Franzella)
44 Lostville (drawings G. Acciarino)
45 The tears of the innocents (drawings C. Spadavecchia)
46 The door of nightmare (drawings L. Airaghi)
47 Magic show (drawings G. Viglioglia)
48 The Lost Truth (drawings L. Arduini)
49 The secret of Wynkle Tynkle (drawings M. Rotundo)
50 The double life of Marianne (drawings G. Acciarino)
51 Bogey Man (drawings by E. Maroto)
52 Desert of ice (drawings C. Spadavecchia)
53 Where the unicorns die (drawings G. Viglioglia)
54 The day of violence (drawings L. Arduini)
55 Year Zero(drawings M. Rotundo)
56 In Search of Oz (drawings by E. Maroto)
57 The exterminators (drawings G. Ricciardi)
58 Fate of blood (drawings G. Acciarino)
59 The race of Nympha (drawings L. Arduini)
60 Beatrix (drawings E. Pugliese)
61 The angel of the Apocalypse (drawings G. Viglioglia)
62 The dark side (drawings by E. Maroto)
63 The Serpent and the sorcerer (drawings G. Acciarino )
64 The island of no return (drawings A. Vitti)
65 The Shining (drawings E. Simeoni)
66 Timerider (drawings A. Fattori)
67 From the ashes of the centuries (drawings G. Acciarino)
68 Techno-Darkness (drawings G. Franzella)
69 Framents of madness (drawings C. Spadavecchia)
70 From dream to death (drawings L. Airaghi and S. Corbetta)
71 The girl of the river (drawings E. Maroto)
The Special numbers (Annuals):
1-"Memories of another time"
2-"The murderer of the Beyond-World"
3-"The secret of the alchemist"
4-"We are Legend"
5-"The signs of evil"
6-"Games of death"
7-"The flowers of the demon"
http://www.sergiobonellieditore.it/auto/cpers_index?pers=brendon
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Brendon d'Arkness-a Guide to the series-part II
Filed Under (Comics ) by Lex Luthor on
Posted at : 4:03 AM
The main character:
The title of the comics comes from the name itself of his protagonist, Brendon D'Arkness, an horseman of fortune, a mixture between a wandering knight and an investigator\mercenary, at the service of righteousness and hope in a world steeped in barbarism and despair.
A man with an hard character and a noble soul, Brendon is a twilight hero guided by a mysterious fate, and his same past is shrouded in darkness, but it is revealed in small doses, especially in some numbers of the comics, such as the 1, the 3, the 11, the 26, the 58.
Brendon d'Arkness
Brendon D'Arkness borns in Stonehaven, in the "New Scotland". The life of Brendon is marked since his childhood by pain and suffering: at age nine his father Steven D'Arkness disappears in the Grampian Mounts, for to never return again; so Brendon lives alone with his mother, Margaret, and at the age of twelve years he is dragged by the necessity to the fulfillment of his own destiny: he meets with his master, an horseman of fortune named Boris, who begins to train Brendon in the art of war, and that our future wandering knight considers as a second father.
The mother of Brendon
Boris
But Brendon encounters also the death, the death of his mother and of his teacher, thanks to Skarr, an emissary of the "Black Moon", a mysterious religious sect, the most powerful and active in the "New England", linked also to the advent of the "Great Darkness". Brendon begins, driven by grief and despair, his career of horseman of fortune, which leads him to neverending appalling adventures and dangerous difficulties, in a continuous and eternal wandering, constantly searching for the "Black Moon" in search of revenge in a world in ruins and full of sorrow.
The young Brendon and his dying mother, Margareth, in his arms
In his continuing wanderings, Brendon is always accompanied by his faithful and inseparable companion, Falstaff.
Falstaff is a beautiful black stallion with a white star on the forehead, agile and robust, which accompanies Brendon in the path of his destiny since childhood, being grown up together. In a time oblivious of the technological breakthroughs in fact, the horses are back to being the only means of transport, the only way to cross large distances.
Brendon, being a warrior, has many weapons, but his main weapon is a gun, given to him as a gift when he was a young boy, from Wildo Jumper, the armourer of the gnomes of the "Fairyland". Wildo wanders in the "New Scotland" to give his creations to those who, thanks to their heart and to their nature, are able to recognize them among many "misleading" weapons: this story is told in a number fundamental for to understand the psychology of Brendon; it is the special-number called "Memories of another time", composed of several stories, set in the palace of the memory of Brendon, where beyond each door, there are his memories, the keys to penetrate into the recesses of his past.
Wildo Jumper, the armourer of the "Fairyland"
The palace of the Memory of Brendon
Brendon is a character in continuous research and wanderings, as befits a wandering knight, but he also has a residence: an old castle in ruins, in the "New Cornwall", where Brendon lives very rarely. It is a manor full of old objects, by he himself collected in his adventures, a place full of memories of the past. It was given to him as prize from a "Burgomaster", for having saved his life. Instead therein Christopher lives permanently, an android at solar energy of the "Old Era", created to carry out domestic functions, a sort of butler, and similar to a puppet. Brendon has found him among the ruins of a large scientific laboratory of "Old London". Christopher takes care of the castle, and, as Brendon says of him: " He works because he not knows that he should not be able to work ...".
The manor of Brendon
Christopher
Inside the manor
Brendon d'Arkness-a Guide to the series-part I
Filed Under (Comics ) by Lex Luthor on Monday, March 29, 2010
Posted at : 5:12 PM
Introduction to the comics:
"Brendon" is an Italian comics, created by Claudio Chiaverotti and edited by "Sergio Bonelli Editore", on sale every two months from the June\July 1998.
"Brendon" is a comics that takes us into a dark world, magical, cruel and violent, characterized by the struggle for survival, a world of nightmares and ghosts, heroes and mysteries, in which destruction and rebirth coexist.
The story takes place in a near post-apocalyptic future, gloomy, supernatural and violent, subsequent to the advent of the "Great Darkness", a period of total obscurity originated from the impact on Earth of a huge asteroid, bearer of an enormous destruction on the entire planet, coupled to the loss of the historical memory of most of the scientific and technological discoveries of our time. It is a comics that tells of a future possible world.
The peculiarity and the uniqueness of this comics is its setting during the "Era of the Rebirth", in a world that is trying to begin again, and not during the same period of the catastrophe or immediately after it, as it is in other titles of the same genre, such as the manga series "Hokuto No Ken" or movies like "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome", "The Day after tomorrow", and many others.
Setting and plot:
The setting of this comics combines multiple genres, evenly harmonized among themselves in an exemplary manner by the author as a new alchemist, until the creation of a new and original genre that blends fantasy, horror, the occult and the science fiction, both in story and illustrations.
The story of "Brendon" starts 138 years after the begin of the "Great Darkness", a period of extreme violence, brutality and disorder: a period of obscurity of the sky and also of loss of the mankind's conscience. The "Great Darkness" began in the 2029 of the "Old Era": on 28 April 2029 the "Three Corporations Combined" of America, Europe and East, that govern the world, are trying to avert the impact of a giant asteroid in collision course with the Earth, by hitting him with missiles in order to divert its route, succeeding instead only in crumble it into smaller meteorites, most of which fall on the entire planet, causing a deluge of fire: a true Apocalypse.
The rain of fire destroys and devastates all over the world, accompanied by earthquakes, floods, conflagrations, upheavals climate and of the geology , famines ... .
Then the ashes and the incandescent materials ascend to the sky, obscuring the sunlight; and the Earth remains shrouded in a dark night without end, caught in a relentless frost. The energy resources are exhausted quickly, and everywhere the violence and the human madness are unleashed : this is the beginning of the "Great Darkness".
But after 70 years of natural upheavals and complete obscurity, the sunlight returns upon the Earth and the murkiness finally ends; slowly the climate returns to be in equilibrium, and the Earth become again fertile. Humanity awakens herself from the "Great Darkness" in a world changed profoundly compared to the times prior to the destruction. A world oblivious of most of the scientific and technological discoveries of our time, plunged into social disorder and political ruin.
But a New Era begins with the end of the "Great Darkness": the "Era of the Rebirth". In the "New England", a woman, called Regina, founds a small community in Norfolk, called "New Hope"; in a short time are founded other small groupings, along the model of "New Hope"; the civilization begins to revive. Each village is in self-governing: the political power is held by a "Burgomaster", and instead the military power is in the hands of the "Chief of the Militia"; the economy is structured on a local basis and tends to be self-sufficient, since the trips are almost impossible because of the dangers and risks of the outside world, still prey to disorder and violence.
"Wasteness"",one of the new villages of the "New Era
"Bladeness"
Many are the beings that inhabit the world of "Brendon": strange and monstrous creatures, such as the new breeds, daughters of the "Great Darkness" such as the "Nomads of the Desert" (human mutated due to radiation of the meteorites fallen on Earth), and the "Arachnoids" (huge spiders, semi-humans and men-eaters); besides, the world of "Brendon", ignorant of science and technology, sees the return of the ancient and obscure beings of the ancient times, as Witches, Fairies, Gnomes, and the return of magic itself, everything always in the name of the original mixture of genres that characterizes this comics.
The nomads of the desert
The story of "Brendon" begins roughly 70 years after the start of the "Era of the Rebirth," in a world in constant struggle between the threat of a return to the darkness and the desire for rebirth, a dark world full of violence and disorder, but also full of hope. And not only: there is conflict also between the ideal of a pure return to the times prior to the "Great Darkness" and the ideal of a complete new beginning.
"Adelphia", the science city
The illustrations and the scenery show a world very variegated, in keeping with the "mixed" nature of this comics: there are the deserted and ghostly old cities, like Bristol or London, populated only by ruins and spectres; dry and stony deserts inhabited by monstrous creatures; beautiful and unspoiled fantasy landscapes, caves and underground labyrinths full of darkness and horrors; dreamy places full of mysteries; and the villages of the "New Era", some of whom are oases of safety, but others are imbued with injustice, corruption and violence. Great is indeed the skill and the talent of the illustrators of the series, capables of passing from one register to another and to merge together the horror, the fantasy and the science fiction in wondrous designs.
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