Reality Is The Fantasy In Folklords #1

From Narnia to Harry Potter, we’ve seen our hero leave the real world for a fantasy world—but in Ansel’s world of monsters and magic he’s haunted by visions of our world with tailored suits and modern technology!
Ansel embarks on his Quest to find the mysterious Folklords, hoping they can explain his visions…but looking for the Folklords is punishable by death. What will Ansel risk to find out about the world he has never truly belonged in? 

Ansel lives in a magical world but is obsessed with the possibility that something else exists. A mundane world, where electronics and logic rule. Of course the kid is an outcast. Imagine a kid walking down main street, in a bright purple wizard robe, pointed hat and white beard. The whole nine. That’s how strange this kid looks to his peers, with his sport coat and tie, with his hair all combed, with his… shoes and stuff.
Folklords #1 takes all the fantasy tropes you can think of, mashes them all together, and turns them inside out.

Matt Kindt’s script is all kinds of quirky and charming. Leaning into the fact we all know these fantasy tropes inside out leaves plenty of space for Kindt to develop this kid, whose sole alienating trait is his spectacular banality. The characters are weird and memorable, and the quest promises to be thrilling and dangerous.
Did I mention The Librarians? Those guys are terrifying. They’re a pack of Mumm-Ra looking goons with tridents, whose apparent responsibility is gatekeeping information, specifically the existence of those Folklords.

Matt Smith and Chris O’Halloran have an interesting task in this one. They get to draw all manner of crazy mythical humanoids and creatures, then try to make them all look ordinary and run of the mill, so that that one normalish kid would stand out as the weird one. It works.

Folklords is off to a cheeky, yet slightly ominous start. Those Librarians, man. They’re all kinds of nasty. Working off a whole lot of tropes, but flipping the perspective makes the whole thing fresh and interesting.

Folklords #1 (of 5), BOOM! Studios, 16 November 2019. Created by Matt Kindt  and Matt Smith, written by Matt Kindt, illustrated by Matt Smith, color by Chris O’Halloran, letters by Jim Campbell. Covers available by Matt Smith (cover A), Duncan Fegredo (variant), Dan Mora (One-Per-Store “Thank You” variant, CBSI Exclusive, and Unlocked Retailer Incentive variant), David Peterson (Jolzar Collectibles Exclusive), and Drew Zuckler (Black Cape Comics Exclusive). Logo by Marie Krupina, designed by Michelle Ankley, edited by Eric Harburn, assisted by Gavin Gronenthal.