There’s a lot that works against it, and that is a byproduct of cribbing other material. Don’t invoke The Seventh Seal or Vincent Price’s Masque of the Red Death, it’s a losing battle.


Pale Knight is boring. It plods. There’s no tension. The ~twist~ is immediately obvious to anyone who has any sense of media history.

When Sir Hugh de Grey returns to England from the battlefields of France it is to greet the pestilence he just recently escaped. He races home to find that while his wife is healthy his son has succumbed to the plague. Desperate to save his only child The Pale Knight makes a deal with Death to murder a good man.

Aaron a Jew acting as a sorcerer for Sir Maurice Beauchamp has fallen in love with the nobleman's daughter Joan. Maurice has been lying about his supernatural gifts but it has saved him from the gruesome fate his fellow Jews faced when the plague struck England. One day Joan informs Aaron that her father has married her off and for them to remain together her father must die before the wedding can take place. Afraid of what may happen if Aaron reveals he nor any Jew is not some all-powerful sorcerer so he goes along with her plan, telling her he has created a powerful poison and becomes the very thing the Christian's accused him of being.

Plague stories are really hit and miss for me and this one just didn't hit. Bargaining with Death during the plague is not really a new or unusual plot and the implication that Death was out there purposefully spreading the plague as some sort of evil being is pretty outdated. de Grey's motivation seemed less than genuine as well.

Aaron's story was a little more interesting, but he was just an idiot till the very end.

What I did enjoy was Crispin's story though. He was obnoxious until the very end and that was my true motivation to finish this because eff that guy.

The art was absolutely spectacular though and that definitely saved this. Some of these images are truly gruesome.

To be fair I feel like a ton of people would enjoy this story, I probably have just read way too many plague stories at this point.

As always thanks to NetGalley and Mad Cave Studios for the eArc!

War jetzt leider nicht so richtig meins. Das Artwork ist etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig, aber sehr detailliert und passend. Die Story dreht sich um den Krieg und die Pest - und wie der Ritter versucht, seinen Sohn vor dem Schwarzen Tod zu retten. Dafür geht er einen Deal mit dem Tod ein.. doch der hat seinen Preis. Hauptsächlich reitet der Ritter mit seinem Knappen durch das Land auf der Suche nach einem bestimmten Mann. Und dabei begegnet er vielen Orten und Menschen, die ebenfalls mit der Pest zu kämpfen haben.
Es ist teilweise schon nachvollziehbar, wieso der Ritter handelt, wie er es tut. Aber für mich hat sich das ganze dann leider doch ziemlich gezogen. Die Dialoge waren jetzt auch nicht gerade kurz. Insgesamt ein solider Titel, aber man muss sich drauf einstellen und ihn mögen, denke ich.

Thank you so much for the Arc Copy! When I realized I was approved I jumped the first moment I had to read this and it did not disappoint!

Set in a semi-realistic realm ravaged by the beginnings of the bubonic plague, our main character sets off in a quest to fulfill his end of the bargain in order to keep his son alive.

Full of twists and turns, this story is a must for fans of The Seventh Seal and Between Two Fires.

This is a genre that I would call "paranormal historical fiction." During the time of the Black Death, a knight makes a deal with the Grim Reaper to save a loved one from dying. I enjoyed this one. I've read several non-fiction works on the Black Death, and I found the historical parts to be fairly accurate. The illustrations of the Grim Reaper and the women are very well done. I thought the male faces were a little less detailed, though. For fans of a happy ending, this might not be the right choice. It's more of a realistic ending. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

I kinda feel bad only giving this 3 stars because you can tell it’s a really well made book. The art is just gorgeous, like honestly some of the nicest I’ve seen in a comic for a while. Every page feels so rich and moody, almost like you’re flipping through some old medieval tapestry but with this really haunting edge to it. I loved that part.

The story itself is… interesting, with this dark, brooding medieval vibe and some pretty heavy themes. If I’m honest though, it just moved too slow for me. I get that it’s deliberate and it’s supposed to be thoughtful and heavy, and I respect that, but I found myself waiting for it to pick up and it never really did. I could see the quality, it just wasn’t clicking with me.

So yeah, it’s definitely more a “me” thing than the book itself. If you’re into slow burn gothic storytelling you’ll probably love it. For me, I admired it more than I actually enjoyed it.

My Selling Pitch:
A graphic novel about the Black Death.

Pre-reading:
The cover looked like Geralt. Smash.

(obviously potential spoilers from here on)
Thick of it:
Oh cool, buckets of misogyny, my fave!

The pinks in this book!

That horse is not bulky enough to be 2,200 pounds. That's like Clydesdale territory.

Fungus explaining demonic possession was one of my favorite historical facts to learn. That and diabetic comas being vampirism.

Post-reading:
I don’t really know how to rate this one. The characters aren't very compelling. It's not telling a unique story. I think it’s more concerned with making historical facts of the time- like people’s attitudes about women and religious minorities- easily digestible. And it succeeds in that! It’s kind of like a crash course overview that would teach a middle or high school audience about the time period. If you're picking this up as an adult and expecting more than a cursory overview, I think you'll be disappointed. While the full-page illustrations are gorgeous, the panels got a little muddy. There's a lot of panels of vaguely zombie-like figures in muted tones. It got a little stale. The graphic novel as a whole is just kind of… fine. I don't think you need to rush out and read it, but I wouldn't discourage anyone from picking it up either.

Who should read this:
High schoolers who like history

Ideal reading time:
Anytime

Do I want to reread this:
No.

Would I buy this:
No.

Similar books:
* The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling-psychological horror, historical, queer
* Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid-Shakespeare retelling, gothic romance, historical, magical realism
* Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente-fairytale retelling, historical, urban fantasy, romance
* Grey Dog by Elliot Gish-gothic horror, historical, queer
* The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo-historical, gothic romance

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Peter Milligan wrote this? The same Peter Milligan who gave us the mad extravaganza that is <i>Enigma</i> wrote this monotonous book that goes absolutely nowhere?

Skip this one unless you have a burning desire to see how someone can make the Black Death tedious.

I enjoyed seeing a graphic novel about the black plague, that subject doesn't get a lot of fiction works based on it. The illustration style was very gritty, a good fit for the subject.

Hmm I am conflicted with how I feel. Let's start with the positives. The art is definitely my style. It is gritty, unrefined, and dark which matches with the world and story for sure. Whenever there are themes of death in comics, I think the artists ability to make sure surroundings and characters somewhat disturbing and uncomfortable is huge in setting the tone and creating an immersive atmosphere.

What I find lacking is the story. It isn't bad by any means, and since it is just the beginning it is also harder to judge, but it just suffers from being predictable. It doesn't really offer me anything new for this genre and setting. Knight's losing their faith and being morally grey is something I find very generic. I couldn't find anything in Sir Hugh that sets him apart from other stories with this similar plot/genre. This may change in future volumes so I don't want to judge to harshly. But I do think the art is more memorable that it's characters; especially if the side plot/characters are more interesting than the main story/character.

Thank you to Netgalley and Mad Cave studios for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review~

Sir Hugh is a man who has lost his faith during the crusades, and will continue to lose his faith as he roams an England dying from the Black Plague. While the graphics are truly … something, with so many corpses, near corpses, sick and suffering people, the characters — especially Hugh — aren’t the strongest part of this comic by any means.

Hugh’s sole personality trait is moving. He rides his horse a lot, he kills people here and there, and that’s pretty much it. He talks about how he has no faith in his god the same way he might talk about missing a shoe. He’s complacent, indifferent, and rather than being a tragic figure he’s just as contemptible as the nobles trying to escape the plague or the men burning random women at the stake. He’s moved along by the plot rather than moving the plot along, does nothing the plot doesn’t make him do, and when he talks it’s mostly with the air of a bored actor reciting lines he didn’t bother to memorize.

Even the final moment where he does what Death wants him to do happens off page. Perhaps because Hugh couldn’t manage it so the author had to pretend it happened just to end the book. The art is solid, the pace meanders all over the place, and the side plot about the Jewish prisoner and the noble daughter was more interesting than Hugh.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC.