Genre: Fantasy / Gaslamp Fantasy (like steampunk, but without the steam)

This series is written and drawn by the award-winning artist, Morag Lewis (who won Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga and a first prize at the International Anime and Manga Festival in 2006).

Printed copies of the comic are available via Sweatdrop Studios' online shop at www.sweatdrop.com, and the entire comic is available to read free and in full colour online at the author's own site at www.toothycat.net (a prologue not seen in the printed version is also available here).

The series comprises of 10 issues of a chapter each (issues 6&7 and 8&9 are double issue books, so there are 8 books in all).

Plot Synopsis

Miriam has finally got her own department at the university where she works: The Department of Anomalous Artifacts. She looks after mysterious objects which there are no known uses for. It sounds fascinating, however in reality its a very quiet place and no-one seems to take much interest...that is until one day an object is stolen. Whilst investigating the theft (and what the object really was), Miriam crosses paths with the tall-dark-and-mysterious Rua and the meddlesome Rain, who will become her on-and-off companions as she follows the trail of the missing object.

The Story

Similarly to the author's other complete long-running series, Looking for the Sun, this story centres around a female protagonist and her companions' adventures as they travel through many varied places. The difference here is that they are all cities in the same world rather than multiple worlds. Overall there is also more of a science-fiction than magical twist to this tale.

The story starts off simply and becomes much more complex in later issues as further characters and cities are introduced. At some points it is helpful to be able to refer back to previous issues - some may find the story a little confusing, however a lot of readers would probably find it fun to have to work out what is going on.

The Characters

Miriam is the main character, she doesn't change an awful lot over the series but her personality and back story are explored well. Rua is ever the mysterious character, however we do see glimpses of his past and who he is throughtout the series. Rain provides quite a bit of comic relief in the story as well as having a pivotal part in the plot.

Artwork

This comic charts the author's progression through over 2 years of work, from 2005-2007, therefore the art style and accuracy do change and improve over the 10 issues, with the later chapters reflecting the author's progression in to an award-winning standard.

The look of the first few issues is not as polished as the later ones, however the characters remain distinct so any changes in art style do not affect the reader's enjoyment of the story itself.

The pages are drawn with nib pens and then coloured with markers. The online version is shown in full colour, however apart from a couple of colour pages at the centre of issue 1, all of the printed issues are in black and white. The colours used in earlier issues are quite vivid, but they are toned down as the series goes on (of course if you're reading the printed versions then this doesn't matter).

Another interesting thing to note with this series is the development of the pacing and structure of the panels on each page as the story continues. The author starts out using mostly rectangular panels, but they become much more fluid and manga-styled in later issues.

Extras

There is a short artist's blurb at the back of each of the 8 books, along with the odd splash image, character sketch page or fanart. Issue 10 holds the most extras at the back, which is a nice bit of fun once the reader has finished the series.