Review Day Tuesday: Game Boss: The Final Form

game boss the final form logo

Game Boss: The Final Form is an anthology I picked up at (surprise) Swarm Con.

Now, despite the title, not all of the stories within the anthology deal with video games. That may come as a surprise to you, because it sure surprised me.

As I read this, it occured to me that all of the stories, while not always dealing with video games, DID deal with a common theme: Transformation of the self, usually through a struggle, surprise, or sacrifice.

flesh by lea faske
A page from “Flesh” by Lea Faske.

And to be fair…this anthology handles these themes very, very well.

There are too many stories for me to break this review down to review all of them, like I did with SIX. However, all the stories stand out for a variety of reasons.

The ones that stood out to me the most were “Flesh” by Lea Faske (pictured above), “No Parking” by Mad Rupert, and the first story that appears in the anthology, “Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow” by Ngozi Ukazu (fyi, she is the sweetest and coolest lady). These ones have the strongest art as well as the most interesting takes on the idea of “transformation,” ranging from straightforward shape shifting to transforming your world view to an emotional transformation through the sacrifice of another person.

no parking by mad rupert
A page from “No Parking” by Mad Rupert

As for the art, that’s also varied. The art styles range from the hyper realism of Yunfan Zhou to the bold-lined, Steven Universe-esque cartooning in “The Quest” by Gerardo Alba. If you want some fantastic visual variety in your comics anthology, this is the volume that will satisfy you.

way to god by yunfan zhou
A page from “Way to God” by Yunfan Zhou

Have you read this anthology? What did you think about it? Let me know in the comments!

Thank you for reading.

You. Are. Awesome.