Review by Frank Plowright

The Curse of Crows differs from earlier US comics outings for Geralt of Rivia. This is most obviously via new artist Piotr Kowalski, whose style is far more open and brighter than the style of Fox Children. However, dispensing with the gloom is only one of the changes. This coincided with the release of Witcher 3:Wild Hunt, and Paul Tobin collaborates with game writers Boris Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz and Karolina Strachyra in a plot introducing fellow Witcher Ciri to the comics for the first time. Polish to English translator Travis Currit is also credited with dialogue.

Once you start reading, the difference in the writing is as obvious as the difference in the art. Conversations no longer feel natural, coming across as the characters explaining to the audience rather than to each other, the words stilted. Over the opening chapters a fair amount of that conversation concerns the Striga, a woman cursed to become a marauding beast. Also relevant are the talking crows of the title, who first appear to Ciri.

Kowalski is a first class artist in development, although many a professional would be happy to reach his standards of 2016 despite the occasional stiff figures. His work is immensely detailed, both when it comes to surroundings and what people are wearing, and when the clothing’s plain he’ll ensure it’s crinkled. It’s a top class performance in isolation, but when this is combined with the earlier Witcher stories in hardcover (Library Edition) or bulky paperback (Omnibus), then the artistic contrast is marked.

This is a meandering tale, comprised of several other tales told in the passing, and there’s a strange compulsion to show people bathing again and again, which Kowalski draws in a fine art figurative way, but it comes across as gratuitous even if Geralt is included. It takes a fair while to get to the point, which occurs around halfway through. There’s still a Striga to be hunted, not everyone is being truthful, and there’s no agreement about priorities. Clumsy storytelling occurs all the way through, as if there are differing creative visions, and that’s compounded by the lead characters being displaced for most of the final chapter to enable a massive information dump. Kowalski’s art elevates The Curse of Crows to average, but don’t expect more than a few nice moments.

There’s no great continuity to The Witcher stories, so the graphic novels can be read independently of each other, but the next to be issued was Of Flesh and Flame.