Record of Lodoss War - The Lady of Pharis Collector's Edition Book 1

Great for any Record of Lodoss War fan. It tells the story of the heroes from the past and when Emperor Beld and King Fahn were friends. Highly Recommended.

Remember that scene early in the original Record of Lodoss War - The Complete Series (Collector's Edition) where Parn and his companions are at a formal feast and a bard sings a song about the War of Heroes and names Fahn, Beld, Wort and the dwarf King Fliebe? That saga is chronicled in the Record of Lodoss War: The Lady of Pharis collection. Written by Lodoss creator Ryo Mizuno, this series, which is set roughly 30 years before Parn and Deedlit's adventures, follows the young knight Fahn, the charming rogue Beld, the magician Wort, the priestess Neece and a warrior priestess named Flaus as they track down holy weapons used by evil forces, including a very wicked (and wickedly hot, I must say) dark goddess. Mizuno presents a fairly straightforward sword and sorcery tale, but it's one that any Record of Lodoss War fanatic will find very enlightening. Seeing the younger Beld and Fahn binding here stands in stark contrast to the epic final battle of King Fahn and Emperor Beld in the animated series, and early glimpses of Karla and Vagnard are fascinating as well. The artwork in this volume is provided by Akihiro Yamada, and it's absolutely breathtaking. Yamada's style goes well beyond the traditional manga fare and pays homage to classic fantasy artwork from Barry Windsor-Smith's Conan to Frank Frazetta's iconic imagery. Some of the scenes also compare to Frank Miller's distinct style. This is worlds better than the typical "bug eyes and action lines" approach, and rivals just about any manga I've encountered. I'd recommend this to each and every Record of Lodoss War fan. You'll get the most out of it if you've at least watched the animated series, but I could see it appealing to fans of heroic fantasy in general as well.

This was the first manga of the Lodoss War series I have read. I have been a fan of the Anime series, both the original and Chronicles of the Heroic Knight since I was a teen. I found the book to be a good read. The story was good, it sort of describes the adventures of the 6 heros which were alluded to in the anime series through the bards song in the original series. (Although I could be wrong on that Im not totally certain.) The artwork was fantastic, Yamada's use of shading is great. He is truly a great pencil artist. However the one criticism I do have about it is that the panels are hard very much pressed together and that breaks the flow to a great extent making it hard to read. Not to mention the designer of this book decided to decrease the page size so that some of the panels are squeezed into the backing of the book. The designer should have put more thought into that one. All in all its not bad and I look forward to reading the next installment.