Canto, Volume 1: If I Only Had A Heart

Canto’s people have been enslaved on Arcana for generations, working tirelessly to provide fuel for the furnaces below the area. Their hearts have been replaced with clocks, slowly ticking away their time. They are forbidden to have a name, forbidden to care for one another, forbidden to love. Yet Canto is in love with a girl and when the slavers damage her clock beyond repair, he starts on a quest to find her heart. As he travels further through the world he has never seen before, can Canto overcome all that awaits, with the help of the unexpected allies he finds along the way?

Inspired by The Wizard of Oz and Dante’s Inferno, Canto provides us with a whimsical and modern twist on an otherwise standard tale of a knight embarking on an adventure to save the princess. With a fresh spin added to it, the storyline is grasping, and the somewhat darker themes explored in it are done tactfully, with humorous breaks in between. The characters are charming and our brave, little hero is one that a lot of us will be able to relate to. The artwork and dialogue complement each other nicely and are used effectively to convey timeless ideas, values, and virtues. I will be looking forward to reading Volume 2, whenever it is out. I enjoyed this first one tremendously, however, I think there is potential to improve upon the world development and key scene delivery within this series.

Joanna Kleibauer