Stories set in bars will always be good.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Schirmer
Art: Elena Gogou
Colors: Rebecca Nalty
Letterer: Andworld Design
What They Say:
A skeleton, an apprentice mage, and an exiled princess walk into a bar… for another shift at Quests Aside, the local watering hole run by once legendary, now retired adventurer Barrow.
When the King privately explains that he plans to shut the place down, Barrow must find a way to hold onto his business and the family he’s built around it.
It’s always sunny in the realms!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
When I first saw Quests Aside being solicited, I actually thought it was a manga series because this is territory that’s well-worn in that world. We’ve had similar books to this in the indie American comic market before, notably many in the 80s, so it’s welcome to see Brian Schirmer delve into this territory because it has a lot of ways to have fun. This is a busy first issue that takes a bit to make sure who is who because of the cast and layout but it comes together well enough. Elena Gogou has some fun with it here as we get lighter touch character designs of sorts in that they’re not hyper-realistic or overly-detailed but deliver some great designs that are expressive and fun to watch interact with each other. And it’ll always be fun watching a Skeleton wear clothes and do things.
The story for this introduces us to a bar that’s basically in the perfect place where it’s got access to everywhere but is far enough away from the center of the kingdom that it’s not a hassle. It’s run by Barrow, a former adventurer himself who is just looking for the quiet and simple life. He used to run with the current king back in the day and saved him many times, though the king, who does visit in this issue, doesn’t remember it quite the same way. And that may be because it’s not the same person as we see along the way as there are hints of something much more interesting going on here. Barrow’s definitely got the straight man bartender personality down and it’s fun seeing how a competitor of his a bit away keeps trying to buy his bar from him while also trying to get close to him. You know there’s more history there to get into which should be fun as well.
Barrow’s staff is the main draw at this point as we get an oddball crew, such as the assassin trying to kill the king when she gets her perfect shot to a skeleton named Ray who really wants to do a good job but wakes up hung over often enough. We also get an amusing gag at the start where some of those running the place tell first-time adventurers about fake events happening that they can get involved with to see who can tell the best story. But even that goes bad before it starts, such as when a young giant strolling by stomps them flat. It’s kind of surreal grim humor at times but it’s also got some simple silly humor. A lot of what we get here is just time spent getting to know everyone and some of their connections, who’s interested in who as well, and the kind of vibe with it all. And the fact that there’s a closet that goes to one wild world of storage as well.
In Summary:
Quests Aside is the kind of property that has all kinds of places it can go and a cast that can easily do it. You can see how it can get serious, silly, romantic, and political in really big ways. The setting offers up a lot of potential and just the teases we get with the cast shows a lot of that as well. I’m cautiously optimistic with it because we get a solid enough foundation here but it takes a lot of work for a property like this to engage in the long run. And the fact that I’m hoping it has a long run to grow into says a lot. The book reads pretty well as a whole and is really going to make something of itself as Gogou only grows more comfortable with the characters and settings over the run and takes more chances with them. The flashes of brilliance are already there.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: May 4th, 2022
MSRP: $4.99
