Grimm Fairy Tales: The Dream Eater Saga Part 2 – The Piper One Shot (Zenescope – Gregory / Otero / Studio Cirque / Campbell)

In another world the Piper was a feared and powerful soldier of the Dark One. His flute brought the strong and the weak to their ends in both this world and the world of Myst. But with the Dream Eater loose on the earth the hunter has now become the hunted and the Piper will learn the hard lesson that no matter how far he runs, no matter where he hides, he can not escape the Dream Eater.

I am eating up this truly extraordinary cross-over event.  The being known as the Dream Eater has taken out the Queen of Hearts and is now out for the Piper’s head… literally.  I am a huge fan of the original Piper series (you probably won’t be able to find the original issues, but you can always order the TPB- review here – zene-link here), it’s a classically told hardcore horror tale and it’s a treat to see the creative team bring back this ghoulish musician into play.

Even if someone hasn’t read the original series, author Raven Gregory let’s them catch up by not only giving a mini-origin but then showing how the Piper fits into the big Dream Eater Saga picture – and more specifically how he fits into Baba Yaga (the ultimate femme fatale)’s plans.  As usual, Gregory does an outstanding job of executing a great story.

Allan Otero, the artist, is pretty new to me and I was fairly impressed with his style.  He is able to construct a dark and scary environment / framework for The Piper’s one shot to thrive in. The art team as a whole had a great balance of dark and color to set the mood for the issue – as far as Zenescope books go this team is very competent, but much more “creepy and frightening” and less “eye candy and sexy”.

The Bottom Line:  A Great Issue, works well both in the big cross-over event and also as a stand alone issue (exactly what you want for a one-shot!)

Issue Grade: B+