Ninkugel the Harvester purloins bars (a currency) from his stingy employer, Tonkfarr.
Ninkugel trades his bars for a Schema Beetle sculpture that comes alive and gives birth to a brood that devours all of Tonkfarr's crops.
Ninkugel is thrown in jail, he escapes and leaves his village that has become abandoned.
Ninkugel comes across a talking lizard, Wurl. Wurl gets killed by slavers: Rolden and "Huntsman".
A Bog King appears. Rolden and "Huntsman" slaughter the beast, but Ninkugel drops his blade, blade first, on "Huntsman"'s foot.
Refusing to be sold into servitude in Arn-Uthyr (An homage to Uther Pendragon?), Ninkugel murders Rolden and "Huntsman".
Ninkugel runs into a talking dragon (a "demon"), he kills it.
Ninkugel arrives at another village, he introduces himself as a "Demon Slayer" to Arloth.
Arloth introduces Ninkugel to Smekland. Smekland introduces Ninkugel to the village council members (including Polfun the Skeptic).
Council leader Karmak wants Ninkugel to slay the monster Balthicus.
Ninkugel is given a luminous gemstone necklace, a bejeweled scabbard and a gem-encrusted sword ("The Bane of Balthicus").
Wishing to sell his priceless sword, scabbard and necklace as soon as possible, Ninkugel abandons his guide (Polfun the Skeptic) at the bottom of Balthicus' lair.
Ninkugel falls through the earth! Ninkugel dispatches small worms (Grimpedes) with his sword, encounters a gigantic mama grimpede (An homage to The Deadly Spawn (1983)?) and falls into a body of water that is inhabited by a cephalopod (Mezochrotok).
Ninkugel is rescued by two Lizardians: Fulsulbar and Zol.
Ninkugel still has two dead grimpedes attached to his left arm... that are slowly poisoning him. To save his life the Lizardians cut Ninkugel's arm off.
Parasitoids (Mingroths) devour Ninkugel's severed arm.
Ninkugel is given a prosthetic arm (A modified Krahth boomerang glaive weapon. A Krull (1983) homage.).
Oldreth (the silent Lizardian) will guide Ninkugel to Balthicus' lair.
Ants, an ant controlled bear and carnivorous plants attack our heroes. One of the plants dissolves Ninkugel's right foot.
Ninkugel and Oldreth save from giant bats... the maker of Ninkugel's necklace... Gwell the Gem Miner.
In the dominion of Balthicus, Polfun the Skeptic, still very much alive and slightly feral, attacks Ninkugel.
Our heroes finally behold Balthicus, and it is a faceless, eternal, massive, monstrous Lovecraftian creature (A M'Nagalah (Swamp Thing (1972) #8) homage?).
Gwell explains to our heroes that Balthicus' flesh produces gems from digesting... villagers. Counsellors from multiple villages have been sacrificing their own constituents to generate these precious jewels.
Gwell shoves our heroes onto Balthicus! Polfun and Oldreth get consumed by Balthicus.
It's the Festival of the Wayward Lights. Council leader Karmak gives Rassmuth a medallion (another of Karmak's "farewell" gifts) and tries to push Rassmuth into Balthicus' burrow... but he cannot since Ninkugel is surfacing out of it. Karmak gives Rassmuth's medal to Ninkugel. Ninkugel kills Karmak, another councillor and plenty of fanatical villagers.
Ninkugel is saved by two aqueduct wizards. Ninkugel trades both of his necklaces for the wizards' necklace of bars (a currency). Ninkugel's new necklace starts garrotting him. Ninkugel is now forced into servitude by the wizards.
Schoolteacher Bruce Barnes (from What We Mean By Yesterday Vol. 1) appears! We are informed that WWMBY is going on hiatus.
What I did like:
Ben has already finished Vol. 4 of What We Mean By Yesterday!
192 pages of black-and-white strips from 2021!
The Simpsons sitcom and MAD Magazine humour.
Reminds me of Sergio Aragonés' Groo the Wanderer.
Gwell is a fermented milk.
Serpent people also appear in Terror Assaulter: O.M.W.O.T. (One Man War on Terror).
What I did not like:
Balthicus does not say a single word!
The Misfit Troop, Inner-City Wizard, The Abyss's Bane, Zorion the Sword Lord and BronzeGold (barbarian rogue) do not make cameos.
It needed more Marra easter eggs, more references to prior projects.
A woman appears very briefly. Just one.
The typos and the Arloth - Smekland mix-up are still present.
No outrageous author photo at the back of the volume.
No Traditional Comics logo anywhere!
No pin-ups!
I wanted more story. Volume 2 will leave you hungry for more volumes.
A smaller volume this time around.
No brand new painted cover by Benjamin Marra. Very disappointing!
No Direct Market variant cover for comic book stores!
I give it a 9/10. This is an entertaining and captivating tribute to tabletop role-playing games and sword & sorcery stories/movies of old. Canadian cartoonist Ben Marra keeps us guessing till the very end. A true page-turner. Let's just say that dungeon crawling with Benjamin is never boring. Another must get graphic novel from Marra and Fantagraphics! In stores: May 12, 2026.
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