The Guild: Zabo - Mobile Edition

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The Guild: Zabo
By Garth the geek
January 1, 2012 - 22:30

Dark Horse Comics
Writer(s): Felicia Day, Sandeep Parikh
Penciller(s): Becky Cloonan
Inker(s): Becky Cloonan
Colourist(s): Dave Stewart
Cover Artist(s): Evan Dorkin
$3.50 US

For those of you unfamiliar with 'The Guild', it's a free web-series that follows the (often dysfunctional) lives of the Knights of Good, a guild in the fictional MMO, 'The Game.' At first glance, the characters can appear somewhat shallow, but the web series (and, in turn, the comic) does an excellent job fleshing them out and giving them life, to the point that a simple question like, “Who's your favourite Guildy?” has become impossible for me to answer.

What I CAN tell you is this: Zaboo ranks up there in my top three.

And the Zaboo one-shot ranks up there at number one.

This review can be summed up with a single word: Brilliant. I'll even capitalize for emphasis: It's BRILLIANT. Felicia Day (along with Sandeep Parikh and Becky Cloonan) has created a one-shot that perfectly captures the character and personality of Zaboo.

For those of you unfamiliar with 'The Guild', the equation for Zaboo is simple:

- take 1 part innocent child and 1 part over-protective, controlling mother; mix together
- add a heavy dose of imagination to the child
- remove the father
- add a heavy dose of 'fear of being alone' to the mother
- subtract all outside relationships; substitute the child's friends with video games

The end result is a sheltered young man who's currently enrolled in grade 20 of home-schooling, without any real-life experiences, or “real life” friends. When he realizes his online friend, Codex, may be in trouble, Zaboo begins his greatest adventure ever: leaving his home. Unfortunately, his mother has a different idea.

The comic is told through a series of mini-games. While not everyone may “get” this, the use of the mini-games perfectly illustrates Zaboo's view of the world. Raised an only child, with his only companions (aside from his mother) being video games, Zaboo has a tendency to reduce things to what he knows: experience, quests, stat bonuses and levelling up. We see this in the web series, and it takes center stage in the comic.

In short, I loved this comic.

In shorter: BRILLIANT.
Rating: 10/10