This one was very hard for me to get into, but I did eventually end up liking it.I think the biggest problem for me was the art. It's all over the place, loud, and messy as hell. I started out reading the physical copy I own, but ended up switching over to digital just so I could zoom in on the panels and try to make sense out of what I was seeing. It definitely helped.Anyway, I finished the rest of the book and was really digging the story by the time I got to the last page. The gist is that t...

A little D&D, a dash of Mad Max, a dollop of satire, and a frisson of twistiness make this an intriguing, if slightly undercooked, dish. There’s more potential here than there is delightful storytelling, but if the last third of the book portends the level of quality to come, then I’m in for another go-round. If nothing else, a solid setup for greater things. (I just wish the inking and coloring made it easier to see Hum, our protagonist; I’m sure it was a purposeful artistic choice for some obs...

A steady start.A traveler on a quest to save his wife gets caught up in some fantasy politics. With a city torturing an elf to use his body as energy, Hum has to decide if he wants to join their knighthood or help the bandits steal it away from them. This book was funny and a lot more sly then I was expecting. There are giants and mermaids and swearing unicorns! I really liked the art and some of the twists that this book had. As much as I liked this volume, its definitely just the tip of the ic...

(3,5 of 5 for uncommon hi-fantasy postapocalyptic kick-off)I was enthralled with the setting of the Coda world. A high fantasy where the dark forces eventually won. Kind of. Because in the final clash the cataclysm occurred, the magic stopped to flow, many creatures from both sides died together with ancient and immortal Ylves - elvish creatures. That's cool. So I patiently waited until it's finished and now I'm back at it. And I have kind of mixed feelings with the first book. I'm not exactly a...

I very much dig the art of this comic, and think the story will pick up now that Serka, the bard's wife and berserker, has become more of a main character. Definitely gonna follow for at least one more volume to see how it goes.

Did not finish - put down after the third issue, even with a big reveal I'm not interested enough to continue right now. Ironically, the setting is fascinating - a stereotypical fantasy world but it's run out of magic. In the opening pages we meet a whining immortal dragon skeleton and a giant badass unicorn who only speaks in bleeped out swear words. I was. All. In. But unfortunately it completely failed to grab me from there. I couldn't connect at all with the protagonist, whose search for his...

There have been a bunch of books in the last few years with similar color palletes, and quite a few with a similar art style. There have also been a fair amount of humorous fantasy adventure books, and post apocalyptic tales. This story flips all the others on their backs and exposes their scarred, shameful bellies.The writing is fun, and often actually funnier than humorous. The plot doesn't have to be repeatedly explained, and does not require a Beautiful Mind wall of subplots to track what ha...

"Sometimes I think this whole bloody world's hungover. Here's the thing about hangovers, Serka: at least they're honest [...] The old world was beautiful and bright and crazy and brave. Mostly I hated it. And then it ended. Latest in a long line of unpronounceable dark lords finally did it." Coda, because this is what comes after the end, when magic is broken and people are left crawling around in the carcass of the old world – literally, in the memorably gruesome opening scene. Some are trying

Part high fantasy, part Mad Max. At this point, the book is more potential than good. The characters are interesting and there's lots of back-stabbing and double-crossing. The storytelling can be obtuse though and the art is too chaotic for me. There's just too much shit in each panel and the main characters aren't drawn to stand out. The action gets lost in a miasma of color. Sometimes less is more, especially when it comes to comics.

An absurdly fantastic 5🌟 graphic novel with an epic fantasy setting.The world ended and magic died with it"The old world was beautiful and bright and crazy and brave. Mostly I hated it. And then it ended.Latest in a long line of unpronuncible dark Lords finally did it. Fire in the sky. Death of the Ylve Armies of the shadow. Blah Blah And that last day, when--. Well you know you were there. And then no more magic. No new magic. And were all supposed to be miserable about that."- Letters to Serka...

A genuinely fresh fantasy story, stunningly beautiful and beautifully told. I can't wait for volume 2.

The old world was beautiful and bright and crazy and brave. Mostly I hated it. And then it ended.The world of Coda is absolutely dazzling. Set in the apocalyptic aftermath of the death of magic a bard of few words searches for a way to save his wife (i know how this sounds but bear with me!!). Turns out when the world ends, it doesnt actually end. You survive, adapt, move on. Lets focus in on the art for a sec cus oh my god!!! Matías Bergara is so talented, this style is just chefs kiss. It perf...

Imagine all the high fantasy worlds you love. Now imagine the dark forces won, faded away, and years later civilization has finally started to build itself off the scraps of the old. That is Coda. The source of magic is sparse, the creatures aren't quite what you expect, and heroes are either ridiculous, orthey are like the protagonist, self-serving. Not that his motive is not understandable, he is trying to help his much more selfless wife. The colourful palettes have almost a psychedelic sci-f...

Bullet Review:This has taken me awhile to read - it's been enjoyable, but the text! So small! And so many vibrant colors, my eyes got twisted.It's a twist on the post-apocalypse formula - instead of the dismal future, instead we move to the fantastical past. Swashbuckling heroes, magic, giants, unicorns, elves...it's a little bit what we've seen before in a different package.I enjoyed myself; sure, I rated 3 stars, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It was a big heavy to get through (the protagonis...

[This review covers the entirety of Coda #1-12]Coda is the latest creation from the insane mind of Simon Spurrier. In a world where magic is scarce and the only way to survive is to be extremely selfish, Hum the bard tries his best to save his wife...from herself. But like any story, it's not that straight forward. Because of course it's not.I'm sure if you ran Si Spurrier through a wrangle, he'd bleed sarcasm. His wit is even more evident in this story than in almost any of his other work, and

Spurrier, Spurrier, Spurrier... This fucking guy, man... Just the wit that's twisted into the word-groupings of his dialog is worth reading his work, let alone the enjoyment derived from the very well-defined, and unique characters, and the setting's artistic creativity. And it being realized by such a intricate and gifted artist is a combination that makes this comic a little TOO good. This kind of thing just thrives in the quieter places, away from the deafening unoriginality of more popular m...

Okay the story was kinda confusing, but i really love the art. I won’t be continuing the series anytime soon though.

When I hate something I can pinpoint with venomous precision what I don't like, but when I love something articulating why I liked it always devolves into excited hand gestures and guttural noises. Coda is what you get if you exposed a high fantasy world to a Mad Maxian apocalypse and then dropped a less insufferable version of Elric in the middle of it. Throw in a irritable pentacorn called Nag, and artist that draws like P Craig Russell on six shots of espresso, and a knack for twisting genre

Individual issue reviews: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4Total review score: 4.75

This post-apocalyptic high fantasy graphic novel reminded me a lot of Ralph Bakshi's Wizards. Both the art style and the story is wild and absurdist and over the top, funny and frightening and sometimes gruesome.The world used to be a typical pseudo-medieval Europelandia high fantasy, with "Ylves" and giants and trolls and wizards and whatnot. Then the "Urkken" went on a genocidal rampage to create a utopia for themselves. They broke the world, triggered an apocalypse that vanished the oceans, l...