Skip to main content

Member Reviews

The story is a lot cleaner and more focused than I remember from the webcomic, though just as beautiful and complicated. Orlesky’s art is gorgeous, emotive-lines and limited colors pairing into something mystic and heartwrenching, like a vision that leaves you aching.

Was this review helpful?

I read the original version of Hotblood! through tumblr as it was ongoing and always loved the art and story. This graphic novel version has the beautiful and cinematic art and intriguing storyline and I’m so excited that it’s being published!

Was this review helpful?

This is a stunning comic. The visuals and the colours are so good, the lines flowy and expresive, the action sequences, elegant. I loved the grey atmosphere, the sensation of danger and that mix with the fantastic creatures (the centaurs, the character that looks like The End of Evangelion). Immaculate vibes, I'm gonna keep reading this series.

Thanks to Netgalley and Mad Cave Studios for the ARC.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I have no idea what’s going on, but the art is interesting and I want to continue the story!

Was this review helpful?

Ahhhh, good.

I first read Hotblood as a webcomic a good ...decade ago, I suppose? I remember being entranced by it then, and I was entranced by it now. It's queer, it's odd, it's lonely, it doesn't ever uncomplicate anything.

It's very much a western, not just in era or location, but in the isolation, the loneliness. So much is done with space in these panels, a vastness, a sense of heat blurring any clear look at the characters. The space is in how they talk and what they do and don't say. It's got that sense of being far from civilization, alone, untrusting, unsafe.

The characters are paranoid. They don't tell each other anything. They're two men with secrets and power over each other. They fuck each other. They try to kill each other. They hold and carry each other. They go to the ends of the world for each other, but they can't trust or talk or cross a distance for each other.

Also, one of them's a centaur.

Highly recommend it forever.

Was this review helpful?

Hotblood! drops us into the world of the Wild Wild West…with centaurs. I found this book extremely confusing. It felt like there were so many elements I was missing- as it is a volume 1 (with a “to be continued…” final page) this may have been intentional by the author. However, it fell extremely flat for me. While I appreciated the art, the confusing story (and violent romantic relationship between the main characters) was lacking for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read Hotblood! Vol 1.

Was this review helpful?

The cover is what made me pick up this book. A book set in the American west in the late 1800s with centaurs, how could I resist? While the art is nicely evocative in a natural palette of muted browns, greys and and greens, I wasn’t all that caught by the story. I think because it’s such a visual medium, and there was a lot of information to be given on the end of the goldrush, the building up of a steel mill, creative bookkeeping a revenge plot of some sort — I was never clear on it, really — a sphinx who hired the centaur to kill a guy … there just wasn’t enough time for any one thing to either stand out or be fully developed.

I have no idea why Rook and Asa stick together, no idea why or how they fell for one another, no idea about either of them character wise. I found it confusing, and felt like there were chunks of missing information that just wasn’t present in the text.

While I appreciate the art, I’m not interested enough to keep going into future books. Thank you very much to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC.

Was this review helpful?

I'm just going to go with this one was clearly not for me. I didn't really get what was going on or if these being a centaur western was some sort of metaphor that I just was not comprehending.... I appreciated the queer element even though it was kind of interwoven with beastiality? Anyway - I'll leave this one up to others to interpret.

Was this review helpful?

Thanks to Netgalley and Mad Cave Studios for the ARC!
Absolutely gorgeous drawn comic, I really fell in love with the characters and the landscape.
It's a magical realism western, with mythical creatures and an intimate story filled with begrudging romance and dark history of Americas expansion into the west.

The dialogue was lofty, but I felt that the artwork in itself filled in the rest of the feeling and narrative.
All in all a beautiful read with an interesting concept!

Was this review helpful?

The pictures and vibes were gorgeous. Highlight of the graphic novel for sure.
I just feel like I didn't understand a lot of the time what it was trying to say with some of the sections without dialogue. And some of the sections with dialogue were hard to follow as well. I didn't fully get the characters motivations and feelings.
Overall I liked it; I just wished it had a more cohesive story/plot.

I rated it 3.5/5 rounded up to 4 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and Mad Cave Studios for the ARC!

Was this review helpful?