Skroce moves Maestros along faster than expected. He resolves his cliffhangers, he sets up for his next plot point, he moves through it, he repeats a couple times, he sets up his new cliffhangers. It’s awesome pacing, actually. Even though Skroce’s artwork on Maestros is breathtaking–especially in this issue, where he gets to do disaster and war action–his writing is rather strong as well.

Sure, it’s villains scheming writing, but it’s good villains scheming. He plays with some familiar tropes–the evil elf guy seems like every fantasy villain for the last twenty years–while still keeping it fresh. Only some of it is because Willy the Maestro is from Earth and not Fantasyland, but a lot of it is Skroce’s design of Fantasyland and its denizens.

There are good twists, some of the characters are getting more established–Skroce hasn’t established a firm cast list yet so it’s hard to get too invested–and it looks gorgeous. Maestros is getting better with each issue.

CREDITS

Writer and artist, Steve Skroce; colorist, Dave Stewart; letterer, Fonografiks; publisher, Image Comics.

Skroce delivers with the second issue of Maestros. He’d had two storylines going in the first–flashback and present; he sticks mostly with present here, the occasional flashback for expository purposes. King Willy (is his name even mentioned in the comic or is he just Maestro?).

Anyway, King Willy is making some changes to Magicland. Kind of socialism. All at once. Even when people warn him he’s moving too fast, he points out (rightly) these people have actual magic. There’s no reason for delay.

And Skroce gives Willy a love interest. And manages a fantastic twist at the end for the cliffhanger.

Not getting the flashback split more evenly is a little bit of a lack. The comic’s a lot funnier when it’s the adventures of spoiled little wizard versus naive man-child wizard. And the mom doesn’t get to hang out much, which is strange since she had such a big part before.

But these quibbles are small ones; Maestros is holding strong.

CREDITS

Writer and artist, Steve Skroce; colorist, Dave Stewart; letterer, Fonografiks; publisher, Image Comics.

“You know, I’m sorry but, I didn’t mention it earlier but actually I preferred to be called Maestro.”

How can you not think of “The Maestro” just a little in Maestros, which is about an obnoxious wizard king who rules fantasyland. Earth is just a magic-less world created to amuse those who have magic. And the Maestro visited modern day (or close enough) Earth and there he did become bewitched with a fetching Earth woman and take her to be his bride he did.

A son was born. And now, in the future, the son–never intended for the throne–will be king.

And there’s some awesome gory art from Steve Skroce. His writing is good too, but he’s mostly just going for comedy. Not low brow comedy but somewhere in the middle. The jokes hint at depth and back story and they do keep things moving. This first issue doesn’t just have major action sequences and well-paced dialogue exchanges, it also kicks off a flashback into the already introduced leads, the Earth woman and her son.

The monsters are awesome. Everyone’s hair looks fantastic. Skroce gets lost just the right amount in detail; he never lets it go too far. The story comes first. And the story means to amuse.

Maestros is off to an excellent start; it should be fine so long as Skroce never lets the art falter.

CREDITS

Writer and artist, Steve Skroce; colorist, Dave Stewart; letterer, Fonografiks; publisher, Image Comics.