Native legend and gruesome revenge go hand in hand in Hunchback Graphics’ Ruhun Daji as a group of illegal hunters mess with mother nature for the last time.

Publisher: Hunchback Graphics
Writer: Travis Duda & Caesare Bibbo
Artist: Caesare Bibbo, Ian Stanton (Colours) Travis Duda (Letters/Logo)
Price: $4.99 from the Hunchback Graphics Store

Our rating: [star rating=”4″]

Ruhun Daji is a beautifully drawn body of work, Caesare Bibbo creates striking characters, lush backgrounds and captures the beauty and majesty of Africa’s wildlife, he also sketches a pretty terrifying monster too.The artwork is all perfectly coupled with the colour work of Ian Stanton who gives the African plains a dusty haze and creates epic night scenes in which you can almost feel the darkness surrounding the casts. Along with being a visually pleasing book Ruhun Daji also tells an interesting story, a group of illegal poachers on a big money hunt are tracking their prey but unbeknownst to them the hunters have become the hunted as the mythical Runhun Daji stalks them from the shadows. Men go missing in the night as the stories of the legendary Daji begin to circulate the camp. This has all the hallmarks of a decent horror movie and manages not to feel too cliched.

Everything moves at a good pace, we get enough character background without being swamped but the real set piece is Daji himself, a well designed mythical creature who’s reveal towards the end of the book is spectacular. The book also makes one think of man’s relationship with nature and what would happen if mother nature had a champion to fight back against human cruelty and sport. We found ourselves rooting for the mysterious beast as it tears through the hunters one by one and we want to see more in the future, how far can and will these beast go? Is there anyway to fight and or beat him or are all those on his hit list doomed?

We also found ourselves wanting to see more of the shady financial backers who bankrolled the hunt and more of the leader of the group and his right hand man Tau. All this we are sure will come in future issues and we are looking forward to them and the journey they promise to take us on. It’s no surprise then to say that this first issue does an excellent job of setting up the plot and making the reader want more when it comes to a close.

Overall Runhun Daji is a surprising, slow burning and entertaining book that promises a lot for the future.