I did not finish this graphic novel. The art was servicable, and I have a long history of enjoying Valiant comics, but the characters weren't people I could relate to. The stranger-in-a-strange-land prehistoric setting felt familiar and didn't offer any new twists on older tropes. Fans of Turok may enjoy it, and perhaps it improves in future issues, but the debut left me wanting.

Savage by B. Clay Moore is a terrifically written and drawn comic book that brings the tale of Tarzan of the Apes into modern day and drops him on what is basically Skull Island of King Kong fame.

It has been fifteen years since the world famous soccer star and his pregnant supermodel wife have gone missing. Lost during a jet plane flight and gone without a trace. But in reality what happened is that they crashed on a mysterious island no one has ever seen. An island lost to time, where prehistoric creatures roam and rule. To survive they and their child must become...Savage.

Okay this has been done before. Maybe not to minute detail, but yes its been done. The aforementioned Tarzan; there is also Ka-zar of Marvel lore and how about Turok the Dinosaur hunter? But the tale and the art keep this book moving right along and before long, establishes its own identity. Savage does need to expand on itself to garner a true following and separate its story from the obvious comparisons. If it can do that then perhaps it will have the success it deserves.

The cover, the artwork, and the writing by Clay Moore was very interesting to read. This book has everything, dinosaurs, football, and islands! The artists did a good job of the story and the plot flowed beautifully. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a wild, adventurous ride!

'Savage' by B. Clay Moore with art by Clayton Henry tells a story that lives up to its title.

The story in Savage switches between the past and present. In the present, a 15 year old boy survives on an island filled with dinosaurs. In the past, we learn how his family came to be on the island and the fate of his parents. The boy is determined to get back to civilization, but he has a few things to take care of before he leaves the island.

This story is visceral and violent. Some of the story is told with minimal words. I love that the writer was willing to trust the artist with conveying the story through art this way. The art style even changes between past and present. I really, really liked it. I also liked the creator commentary with panel breakdowns at the end of each of the 4 issues represented here. They gave a nice insight to the creative process.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Valiant Entertainment, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Savage tells two stories. In the "Now" sections, we follow a wild young man as he battles dinosaurs and hunters across an island jungle. In the "Then" sections, we're introduced to a famous soccer player, his beautiful wife, and their infant son, all trying to survive on an island after their private plane crashes just off the coast. As can be expected, these two storylines eventually intersect. At times, the writing in this graphic novel is fairly sparse, but that doesn't matter because the artwork is absolutely stunning and carries the story all by itself. The plot is an interesting spin on the "stranded on a desert island" trope, and the characters easily break out of the stereotypes usually assigned in graphic novels, especially to female characters.

There are definitely elements of Tarzan in this book, down to the blatant and bloody violence. That's an issue worth noting. The bigger issue for me, though, was the confusion. While the base plot is obvious enough it was not always clear to me, from page to page, exactly what was going on. I wanted more exploration of character and motivation, more detail about the world, the threats, and the plan. Intriguing and nicely detailed though.

Loved this fresh idea in comics form. Robinson Crusoe meets Lost. Fans of the weird will love this.

Valiant's newest hero apparently grew up on the island from Lost. The world's biggest soccer star crash lands with his wife and baby on a mysterious island. There they live until the baby has grown into a teenager in a hut on the beach that for some reason is never attacked by the dinosaurs on the island. Apparently the Dreadnauts from G.I. Joe are also running around the island.

I loved the artwork. Having Lewis Larosa do the flashbacks with Clayton Henry doing the current pages worked well. But this book continuously brings up new mysteries without answering a single one. It's more frustrating than Lost even. There's no real plot here. We just see our characters jump from one mysterious item to the next with very little story.

A really good book, but one that could have been great if the trade hadn't been a quarter commentary and a quarter blank pages – I've never known a book supposedly built of four monthy editions to have so little material in it. I wouldn't have thought a modern-day Turok vs Lost mash-up would work quite so well, but it does, and the results are both highly unlikely and yet really good fun. I'd willingly be back for more.

A David Beckham-ish soccer star—he’s even moving to the States to continue his career—and his rather shrewish wife, along with their latest baby, crash on a deserted island and have to survive against—gasp!—dinosaurs! And bad humans, with access to a portal. The soccer player’s last name is Sauvage, hence the title; cute.
There’s a brief clip of the present before flashing back to original crash, which is a lot funnier than I would have thought: as the crash occurs and stuff is flying around, including the two adults, there’s a shot of the baby looking all kinds of concerned, and it’s hilarious! Later the kid looks right at the “camera,” also really funny. Not that the rest was bad, but that was such a high point I couldn’t help but feel a little let down after that.
A few complaints, such as all the British-isms, and not familiar ones at that. The way the writer got rid of one of the main characters struck me as abrupt and unnecessary. It’s interesting that while the kid grew up without any schooling or even jungle training, he’s smarter than the other semi-humans on the island. And as always, it’s not the dinosaurs that are the most dangerous.
Not so much a cliffhanger ending as a jump point for his next adventure.
Each issue has author/artist commentary at end; the first has side-by-side versions of the same page showing the first draft, the inked version, and the colored. Interesting in a DVD extra kinda way.
Some vivid colors, maybe even go as far as bright, others muted. At times the artwork was a little too realistic, as in gory, but this is probably the most detailed I’ve ever seen dinosaurs drawn (not that there’s a huge pool to wade through on that). The colorist, in the last interview, says he wanted to make the setting “alarmingly beautiful,” a character in itself, and I think he succeeded.
3.5 pushed up to 4/5

This comic blew me away.

The story starts out in a fairly typical way. A kid is orphaned at some point of his life when a plane crash stranded his parents and him on an island. Oh, but there’s dinosaurs. And the first image we have of this kid is as a savage, but calculating, gory son of a b---. And the surprises just keep on coming.
There are two art styles in this comic. Both are superb. Both are benefited by the work of an outstanding colorist. One style is dynamic and hard-edged and is used to perfectly describe the savage’s mindset and story. The second one, in a previous time, has a more rendered and clean style and perfectly shows what got our protagonist to this situation. The extras in this four-issue book show the process of said artwork and would make it worth the buy and read just for that.
Yeah, so I’m gushing about this, but I’m EXITED.

Well done art and a nice storyline for me, entertaing and a quick read!

Savage is an exceptional addition to the Valiant universe. It's about a young man whose family was marooned on an island, similar to Lost. He grew up there hearing stories about where his family came from, and now he is looking to return there. He just needs to go through dinosaurs and a tribe of men to do it.

This is a very art forward series, which is fantastic. It is light on exposition as a result. However, what might have been presented through dialogue or caption boxes is picked up by the artists. There is a lot more subtlety to the story this way. The creators don't tell the reader much about Savage, but there is tons that is shown. Sometimes it is obvious, like the scars on his body, but not always.

The place where he lives is brutal and he responded in kind. At times this makes the art fairly graphic. I don't see it as being gratuitous though. There are times where the creators could have gone in different directions and the choices they made show a bit of restraint. The violence is not over the top and serves a purpose.

The art is beautiful in this book. I love that Clayton Henry and Lewis Larosa split the work. One drew the current period on the island, while the other drew flashbacks that lead up to current events. This gives a clear distinction between events without having to use captions to inform the reader. The styles are different, with the present being grittier and the past shown crisp and clean. The color work is wonderful. The extra pages showing process from layout to inking to coloring are amazing. These have shown up in some other Valiant books and I love them because you can see how the art changes through the process.

You should read this because who doesn't love dinosaurs? But seriously, it shows a lot of what Valiant has to offer without being wrapped up in their main set of series. For a silent and aloof character, Savage grabbed my attention and I want to read more.

I don’t have much experience with Valiant titles, but this is a fun volume that is complete with killer dinosaurs, strange magical portals, and hostile groups of marooned travelers. Think Lost but with a little less teasing and way more violence. Keep this one away from the kiddies.
The story starts off with a wealthy family being stranded on a tropical island after their private plane crashes nearby. The main character is just an infant at the time of the crash, but each subsequent book in this volume starts with a flash forward to a different stage in his rise to adulthood while growing up and surviving on the island. However, the bulk of the volume covers how the family came to this place, how they survived those first few years there, and some clues as to what brought them there in the first place. This type of flashforward and flashback storytelling can often be clumsily executed, but Moore writes it well and played the current and past stories off one another expertly. This narrative style is also given an assist by the art of Henry and LaRosa who tag team this title to provide their own unique style to the two timelines that are present to provide even more separation.
As was mentioned in the illuminating creator notes that bookend each of the four books contained in this volume, Moore enjoys silent storytelling through the artist. This means that there are often pages with little to no dialogue with only the art to keep the narrative going. While this lack of dialogue might mean you speed through this volume a bit faster, the storytelling doesn’t falter and the artists hold the narrative together very well.
The story itself isn’t a new one from the outset and you get the feeling that you’ve read or watched this before. Around the third book, things start to get more interesting and it’s revealed that this isn’t just a contemporary take on The Lost World with the sprinklings of a Lost rehash. It brings some interesting ideas to the table and enough unanswered questions to tease the next volume; however, the number of unanswered questions that might frustrate some.
As an adventure book, it certainly reaches its goals, but I found the characters lacking. While this might be due to the inclusion of only four book in the volume, the motivations of the villains in this story are completely absent and I still don’t know much about our main character. Despite this criticism, I do have the feeling that the next volume in this series will expand on these gaps. As a work that lays the groundwork to an interesting story, I think this volume succeeds; however if you are looking for a character-driven story at this point you might be better looking elsewhere until some more materials lands.

Decent artwork Illustrating a bloody time portal tale of a family marooned on an island in the era of the dinosaurs. The child protagonist grows up to become the alpha predator.

Quite a triumph. Starts out as your typical "lost in time" scenario but quickly becomes very much it's own thing. The art is similarly great.

Savage is a book for people who love dinosaurs, Tarzan, fantasy and a story that takes it time to unfold. The art by Henry and LaRosa is fantastic. Moore's storytelling is on point as always and together the artists tell a story that gives the reader rewards for sticking with it. This reads much better in trade than it would have in single issues. It took me until about book 3 to really get invested in the story, but once I did, I was all in. The contrasting art styles between present and past helped and made it fun. Even though this is just four issues, it packs a lot of story into a few pages. This isn't the type of book I would normally gravitate towards, but I am looking forward to the next issues.

I had absolutely no expectations going into this, but it turned out to be pretty enjoyable. At first it seems like a pretty straight-forward 'family gets stuck on a deserted island' thing [plus dinosaurs], but there were a few twists along the way and I'm definitely interested to see what happens next.

I liked how the story switched back and forth between the current time and when the family first got stranded on the island. I also really liked the art and layout, which was good because there were a lot of pages with little to no dialogue. The change in style between the present day scenes and those set in the past really helped set the tone for the whole book.

The main reason this got 3 stars instead of 4 was because I felt like there wasn't a lot of character development in this volume. And while I am interested to see what happens next, I don't really find myself connecting with any of the characters and I am a very character-driven reader.

This is a fantastic start!

It looks as if this is going to be another great series from the Valiant universe. The story telling is spot on and together with the art work draws the reader into the drama and holds their attention to the end.

A footballer and his wife are marooned on an island when their plane crashes, but this is no ordinary island because it is an island that the rest of time forgot. With dinosaurs and a violent group of men living on this island, how will the family survive and will they ever be able to return home?

The story telling is excellent. The artwork and action tell a very fast paced and action filled story which leave the reader wanting so much more. Although this contains issues 1-4 it wasn't enough for me and I wanted to see what happens next.

The artwork is very vivid and bright and the colour adds to the richness of the story, especially in the way it conveys the violence and brutal nature of the island.

And the action filled pace is crowned with an ending that could lead anywhere. I am looking forward to seeing where Valiant take this comic series.

Well worth buying!

Copy provided by Diamond Comic via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.