animal literature | St. Gallen's Scribblings

The Legend of Whomper: Dreamcrafter

The Legend of Whomper, Book 3: Dreamcrafter by Chris Farrington

The third installment of author Chris Farrington’s The Legend of Whomper series opens with the titular protagonist, a chubby blue fox, seeking a healer for his instructor, the Edgemaster (or just “Edgemaster” as he’s awkwardly called throughout the graphic novel). After finding a temple of healers in comas, Whomper dreams of interacting with the rabbit Remmy, one of the eponymous Dreamcrafters, with he and Skyla flying to the jungle to another shrine where they sleep and enter the Dreamscape. Whomper reunites with Remmy while dreaming and is shown a system of visible dreams and nightmares where he can battle imaginary monsters.

Grescam, the Dreamdragon, attacks the dream city of Lagos-4 with Whomper and Skyla training so they can better deal with him. This includes tasks such as the fox fighting a doppelgänger in his dreams. Grescam reappears, after which Whomper travels to the god Lord Hypnos’ chamber, where the backstory on the Dreamdragon is revealed. Meanwhile, Remmy and Skyla battle the Lord of Nightmares, and Whomper retaliates against the Dreamdragon with help from a mystical hammer called the Dreamsmasher. After the conflicts, Whomper and Skyla travel to Hammer Forge, where the latter goes to a bar to discuss her lover’s youth.

The third entry concludes with an entertaining look at Whomper and Skyla in prehistoric life, followed by a nice anecdote featuring minor characters. In summary, I enjoyed this graphic novel, an excellent continuation of its predecessors, given the second entry’s foreshadowing of its events. As before, Farrington’s character designs are cute, colorful, and unique, even if the story isn’t wholly family-friendly. Moreover, issues from its precursors return, like awkward dialogue and punctuation errors. Furthermore, all text is capitalized, making it vague whether important terms are capitalized at their beginnings. The story also didn’t fit my entire iPad, but I would recommend installment number three to those who enjoyed previous books.

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The Legend of Whomper: A Thousand Men

Posted on April 7 by Remy St. Gallen

The Legend of Whomper, Book 2: A Thousand Men by Chris Farrington
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second entry of Chris Farrington’s Whomper graphical novel series, mostly a collection of previous comics sharing an overarching story, opens with the eponymous pudgy fox protagonist training with his new master, the Edgemaster. Meanwhile, his partner and dragoness love interest Kayla is at magic school, given the advice to purge her “logical side.” Furthermore, the armies of the hostile nation of Menevo are on the march, with Whomper yearning to confront them and their enigmatic leader, Emperor Nocturn. However, the Edgemaster warns him not to rush into combat, with the Emperor’s three generals having conquered many nations.

After reuniting, Whomper and Skyla fly to Valgus, battling a pig captain and his unit of earth elementals. Following this conflict, they receive information about Emperor Nocturn’s generals, which include the black female science-loving unicorn Limerick, the male “undefeated” tiger Haiku, and the vague and possibly two-headed Couplet. After battling a few more unit captains, they fly to Fox City, with Whomper reuniting with his father, with the vulpine warrior running away from his family when he was seven. The novel further reveals Whomper’s backstory, encompassing his training with Gryzak and Lyktor.

The imperial army invades Fox City, with Whomper and Skyla flying to Emperor Nocturn’s airborne fortress, where they battle his generals (whose backstories come to light) and confront the imperial leader himself, with the graphic novel exposing secrets that include his appearance and species. After the conflict, more of Whomper’s backstory is revealed, including what became of his mother and what motivated him to become a warrior. The graphic novel concludes with Whomper confronting a priest worshipping Xilinx in a Raccoon City graveyard, followed by an anecdote with Dextrose and his wild cat, Taffy.

Overall, I enjoyed the second installment of Farrington’s graphic novel series, having enjoyed its predecessor. While the animal character designs are beyond cute, there is some mature content, like occasional cannibalism and blood, exemplifying the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” The action is easy to follow, the continuity between it and the first book is clear, humor abounds, the character backstories are intricate, and the battle scenes are astounding. However, issues exist like the often-unreadable font and maybe some name inconsistencies. Regardless, those who liked its precursor will enjoy the sequel, and I will continue reading the series.

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Prequel Novel Milestone

Posted on March 18 by Remy St. Gallen

I have now filled three hundred-page composition notebooks and a two-hundred-page composition notebook with what I had originally intended to be a rewritten prologue to my original furry fantasy novel. I had bought another two-hundred-page comp notebook in anticipation of this, and I’ll begin the next leg of my story tomorrow.

Loamhedge

Posted on July 27 by Remy St. Gallen

Loamhedge by Brian Jacques
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Redwall author Brian Jacques dedicates this sequel to his friend Martha Buckley, who inspired the lapine character Martha Braebuck, a lame hare, not to mention his bedridden friend Heather Boyd, as well as to the memory of Nolan Wallace, who inspired the badger Lonna Bowstripe, and Eric Masato Takashige Boehm, whom he says “fought the good fight.” The prologue is an odd narrative by the fictitious Teller of Tales and Weaver of Dreams. At the same time, the first main chapter introduces the sea otter Abruc and his son Stugg, who bury a Badger Lord and contest with the searat Raga Bol amidst rainy weather.

In the meantime, far to the west, spring has sprung for Redwall Abbey, with the pudgy lutrine Toran Widegirth being the monastery’s Head Cook, and the mouse Carrul being Father Abbot. Twelve seasons prior, Martha arrived at the Abbey, unable to walk and with her brother Hortwill, with a plague brought on the eponymous Loamhedge by the typical antagonistic vermin of the franchise, consisting of rats, foxes, ferrets, weasels, and stoats, among others. In contrast, other creatures such as mice, squirrels, badgers, hares, and otters are depicted as inherently good, true to their dispositions in prior installments.

As in other entries, moreover, one of the characters receives a vision of Martin the Warrior, while another of the heroes, Lonna Bowstripe, seeks to battle the villainous Raga Bol. The vermin actually verge on conquering Redwall, with battles occurring towards the end and an epilogue occurring a few seasons afterward. Overall, this is another enjoyable yarn of Redwall, though an in-universe measurement of time to compare chronology from prior entries would have been welcome, alongside the breaking of positive and negative stereotypes of specific animals.

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Salamandastron

Posted on March 31, 2023 by Remy St. Gallen

Salamandastron by Brian Jacques
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Like other Redwall prequels, Salamandastron opens with characters in the “present,” a Nameday for the season being imminent, the Dibbun mole Burrem wanting a dormouse friar to tell him a story, after which the action goes back into the past. The main action opens with the weasel warlord Ferahgo the Assassin fresh from killing a badger husband and wife, Urthound and Urthrun, in the Southwest Forest, with their offspring, a striped badger and an albino, left to fend for themselves. Seasons pass since this winter, with Lord Urthstripe governing Salamandastron alongside his adoptive badger daughter Mara.

In the meantime, Abbess Vale succeeds Abbot Saxtus as head of Redwall, with the Abbey having gone without a badger Guardian for some time since the death of Mother Mellus. Samkim the squirrel and Arula the mole cause mischief and are punished by working in the Infirmary with Hollyberry. Mara, being rebellious towards her foster father, is on the road with the hare Pikkle, with a weasel named Klitch and a ferret named Goffa from the Southwest Lands offering to join their entourage and wanting to see her adoptive home of Salamandastron. When she returns home with her companions, Urthstripe is outraged with ferrets, weasels, stoats, rats, and foxes considered “vermin.”

Back at Redwall, stoat deserters from Ferahgo’s army named Dingeye and Thura are invited into Redwall for their Nameday feast, although things predictably go awry, and the remainder of the novel is slightly predictable especially if seasoned readers of the series have read other books, whether prequels or sequels to the original Redwall alike. It’s certainly not a bad novel and can satisfy the drought of fantasy novels featuring talking animals, although as with other entries of the series, it depicts specific animals in black-and-white terms like Tolkien did so in his Lord of the Rings books. Even so, fans of the series will take delight.

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