TELLOS 7 PAGE 3 BY MIKE WIERINGO

While it’s clear that the much-missed Mike Wieringo had great runs on FF, Spidey, Flash or Superman, it’s also clear that the project dearest to his hart was Tellos, an all age (with some edge) fantasy tale that offered the best art of his career.

On that first half splash of a panel, we get to see Koj, the tiger character looking at a reflexion of the full cast of the series’ (good guys) characters in a pond: Koj himself, Rikk the fox, Hawke the elf thief, Brad the cool dragon; Oge K'tion the genie, Jarek the young hero, Serra the sexy maiden. Some are completely shadowed, likely hinting at things to come.

Then we get three more panels featuring some cool shots of Koj and Thomestharustra the reptilian mage in the last one as well as some cool swampy backgrounds.

The fact that Koj, my fav’ character visually due to his feline origins was a plus but that fantastic first panel was the deciding factor. In terms of technique, I find that having most of the framing part inked to frame the reflexion of the cast that was left in pencil is brilliant (and beautiful) as it gives a vaporous dream-like impression to the scene. And those ripples at the surface of the water create such depth within the panel.

Mike was such a great storyteller (you can easily tell that Koj is looking for something on this page for instance) and gifted stylist that his art is missed to this day.

Both Rob Stull (whose presence is also sadly missed) and Rick Ketcham are credited with the inking of the issue. I’d lean on Rob’s inks without certainty as both inkers’ styles suited Ringo’s quite well. In any case, those are some slick inks on this page (to tackle the ripples in the pond on top of those pencils remaining intact would require some strong confidence imho).

This one was surprisingly pricey, proof that on top of its quality and offering the full cast, the series remains well-remembered by its fans.