Review: Flames of Damnation & Imperial Gothic (Graphic Novels)

These novels were printed long ago by Black Library as Warhammer Monthly. The first one Flames of Damnation is a compiliation of several stories made by dozen artists and writers. Some of them are quite good and we good feedback about what is Warhammer 40k. Some are depressing and tells us the tales of some fighting man. Others are in the point of view of other characters/races. Unfortunally not all the stories are that good and most important is the artist phase. Some stories loose their importance because of the artist designs; either because it's too confusing or the letters are in some spots that are incredibly hard to read unless I break the spine of the book. 7/10


The second graphic novel is named Imperial Gothic and both stories within were made by Dan Abnett. In my opinion one of the best stories if not the best is printed there. Lone Wolves it's is name. The story involves a squad of imperial guard troops as they try to survive the hostil cold temperatures of the planet, as being surrounded by tyranids and without mantiments. In their darkest moments the space wolves appear and save them. In this book we learn more of the space wolves as we would learn in a novel or fluff out there. I must say I was thrilled to read the story and I've read it several times. The other story inside is about an inquisitor apprenditce as he struggles between heretic and the imperium. His master is also his mentor and the choices he chooses also effects him. And as the end of the book says nobody is above the corruption of chaos. It can apply to the Warhammer 40k universe as it applies to own world. I will give 8.5/10 becaus of Lone Wolves that in my opinion deserves 10/10.

This two books follows the others I've read previously (with no connection whatsoever). First Bloodquest, then Daemonifuge - Heretic Saint and the fantasy counterpart Hellbrandt Grimm. In my opinion Bloodquest was probably the best book but the best story was undoubtly Lone Wolves. I think 50% of the rating is due to the graphic part and 50% is from the writing part. If a book is well designed but poor story no-one will be appeal by it. The same applies in writing part. I think The inquisitor story within Imperial Gothic is one exemple of this. It has good writing/story but the images were sometimes far off.

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