A young warrior and her little brother have started to travel with a group of lizard-riders. It’s worked out to their advantage so far, but there IS an animosity between human and lizard that will need to be resolved if everyone is to survive in Kaya #2. Writer/artist Wes Craig explores family drama in an epic fantasy story that has interpersonal relationships nestled deep in its heart. The rich visual world that Craig is putting on the page is a lot of fun, but it lacks the right appeal to be truly distinctive as it moves deeper into its own epic adventure.

They were in a desert. Now they’re in a deluge. The rain has completely emptied the party of all its food. Now they’re forced to hunt. The good news is that they’re in boar country, which should make for a nice, big score of nourishment if they can manage to bring one of the massive things down. Kaya and a lizard-rider hunter are off to hunt. There’s an attraction between them, but he’s betrothed to another. (Someone he hasn’t met.) Matters of the heart can’t be the focus when the group’s survival is on the line. 

Craig’s story has the making of a long-range epic fantasy. Kaya and company are early on in their adventures. Kaya and company survive the first couple of issues before making it to a small farm to find a bunch of livestock dead. Now she and her party need to help the farmer track down that which hunts the farm. It’s a gradual progression as the heroes find experience and power. They may have a past together, but they’re only beginning to learn how to relate to each other under pressure. Craig clearly has a potentially engrossing adventure well planned out.

Craig has a clean approach to the art that delivers an almost breathtaking amount of detail with a very minimal amount of actual detail. Minute fluctuations in drama are given profound weight by tiny fluctuations in posture and facial expression. An establishing shot of a lush hunting ground appears to be brimming with life and is seen almost exclusively in variations of green rolling under a light blue sky. Kaya looks stern and capable...more powerful because of the strong confidence in her face than the magical tech of her golden right arm. 

As nice as it all is, there isn’t a hook to it that goes beyond the interpersonal relationships between the characters. There’s no deeper thematic ground being covered, so it feels like Craig’s story almost entirely rests on the surface. This would be much more impressive if there WASN’T all of the background and backstory being fed into the story around the edges in the exposition. If Craig would move the struggle for survival a bit more into the center of the frame without getting lost in all the emotions and politics, it might be a more satisfying journey with Kaya. 

Grade: B