Lord Arrant is a handsome young prince with something terrible in his head. His companion Alstor is a man permanently under the shadow of terrible violence. Their reluctant travelling companion Snaga is a flamboyant bon vivant who has decided he is the master of Death and no one, especially Death, is going to say any different.

Their world is dying. They plan on getting what they want before it does it does. All they have to do is find the doors to eternity, open them and receive their one true wish.

The first production from Sanity Check is adapted from a session of legendary grimdark rpg MÖRK BORG and it shows on every page. Chucho Mendoza’s art is black and white and pained in the best of ways. The tension in the three leads present in every line of their shapes, in wildly different ways and the panels shattering as otherworldly violence gristles its way into existence.  Alstor is a punch not yet thrown, Snaga is a pirouetting murderous harlequin and Lord Arrant is a man keeping everything in check, barely. The tension between them is the lens through which we view the world and there’s a lot to enjoy here for anyone who likes their fantasy spiky and violent. If you don’t, this is gore all the way down, but if you don’t, I’m guessing you’re not interested in this anyway.

Except, you might be. Alex Jarcor’s script starts tight, goes wide and collapses back on itself again in a really pleasing way. The attempted two-way heist on the gate to eternity, of course, leads to a fight of escalating scale but it’s one grounded in the three men’s needs. Snaga racing against his fear, Arrant struggling to ignore the voice in his head and Alstor’s mask starting to slip. It’s the end of the world, none of these men are honest but all of them have to be to survive. Not win but survive even as they’re changed in dreadful ways by that survival.

Verdict: It’s a great, short, tight story and one that could be picked up in other volumes. I hope it is. But if it isn’t this is a bloody, rain-soaked snapshot of a world which is going to appeal to Warhammer, Elden Ring and MÖRK BORG fans alike. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart

At Death’s End is available here