‘Looking For Group: Volume 1’ review
By Brittney MacDonald, Life & Style Editor
2/5
Looking For Group is a fun, easy read that attempts to make fun of all the clichés that go along with stories about knightly valour. Unfortunately the lacklustre humour and predictable narrative make this book a lot more cliché than the Arthurian tales it’s attempting to parody.
Looking For Group is written by Ryan Sohmer and features a group of characters that seem to be ripped right out of World of Warcraft. At the group’s centre is Cale, an elven adventurer who just wants to be the hero, despite the fact his race is entirely evil. At his side from the beginning is Richard, an undead warlock with a penchant for murder and mayhem.
As they move through the narrative on Cale’s quest to become the ultimate hero, they are joined by a cast of characters who can only be described as a group of convenience, since they don’t really seem to like each other or agree on anything.
Much of the humour is rooted in the world of online gaming, making fun of tropes in lore and character development. For someone who doesn’t play online games, Sohmer’s writing would probably appear fresh. But in truth, anyone who has experienced these games is probably familiar with all of these jokes.
Lar deSouza’s art progresses as you read through the first volume, making it very obvious that this was an online comic before it was a collected work. The art is decent, though at times the colour palette seems a little too bright. It is very cartoony and some of the earlier pages appear a bit messy, but overall I thought the art fit well with the fun nature of the plot.
I’m very limited in who I could recommend this to. It’s definitely for gamers, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to try and find it.
