The Guild: Vork One Shot Review
The Guild: Vork One Shot
Dark Horse Comics follows up on it’s mini series about the internet comedy hit “The Guild” with a one shot special about the leader of the “Knights of Good,” Vork. This is written by both Felicia Day, writer and star of The Guild, and Jeff Lewis, who plays Vork himself. I didn’t like this one as much at the Guild series, but I thought about that for a bit, and realized something. Vork is, inherently, unlikable. He’s written that way by Felicia Day and played to perfection by Mr. Lewis. So, with the two of them together, he’s still annoying, but also still comedicly so.
Set in roughly the same time period as the prior comic series, this, too, is back story, from before the online episodes. Vork (whose real name is Herman, which I don’t think we knew) is living with his grandfather. While Vork is a cheapskate who scrounges everything for free he can, Grandpa Vork is a step worse, stealing whatever is unwatched, scamming food from restaraunts, and still fancying himself a ladies man. In-game, perhaps compensating for his real life, Vork is even more of a control freak than usual, trying to take his “leadership” of the Guild far too seriously, and annoying his fellow Guildies.
Grandpa’s out of control behavior gets them thrown out of “Huge Amout-A-Saurus,” which appears to be a buy in bulk store, where they go to “forage” on free samples. Vork meanwhile provokes the Guild into kicking him out with his petty dictatorship. There’s a hysterical panel of him trying to multi-box and make a new Guild that is all hybrids of him and the other players, which doesn’t work at all (Vork’s head on Tinkerballa’s body is just WRONG). Vork rescues Grandpa from a drug induced attempt to fly off a building, and then sells off all Grandpa’s stash of booze and cigarettes in an attempt to make him live healthier. Grandpa retaliates by moving to a nursing home.
Vork is invited back to the Guild by Clara, with the condition that he not be so pushy and controlling, but he refuses. He wanders around the house alone, goes out to the stores alone, and finally goes to ask Grandpa back. After some haggling, he agrees, and Vork rejoins the Guild as well. Of course, he’s still snapping out orders, but now tries to follow it with things like “umm… it’s a suggestion.” Some things don’t change.
It kind of makes one almost feel bad for Vork, remembering that Grandpa is dead by the time the show starts, and seeing how lonely Vork looked without him. As I said, Vork is far from my favorite in the Guild, but this is a good fleshing out of what makes him the screwed up puppy he is.
What I liked and what I didn’t:
It’s well written, and very in character for Vork, but then, with the show’s main writer and the actor who plays him doing it, you’d expect that. The art is nice and clear, fitting the story well. The cover is great, with Vork standing atop a pile of dead computers, raising his sword triumphantly, joystick dangling from his other hand, and a flickering monitor showing his real world self. I also liked the announcement that there are more one shots coming, with Tink next, who we know almost nothing about. I’m looking forward to hers, and wondering if the actors are collaborating on all the one shots.
There’s not really anything bad here. Vork isn’t likable, but then, as I said, he’s not supposed to be. Actually, there aren’t a lot of likable folks in the Guild, but I think it’s their social dysfunction that makes them so much fun to watch (and not have to actually interact with).
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| humor, gaming life, everyone in character | it’s Vork, which is both good and bad |
| Rating |
