This post original appeared on Damage Control Blog’s Quarantine Control #215 column. Feel free to read the original article along with Geoff and Joseph’s contributions.
In The Lion’s Den: The Wolf’s Veil (2017–2023)
Source: DeviantArt, ITLD Website
Episodes: 1 book (593 pages)
A friend and fellow webcomic enthusiast recommended In The Lion’s Den to me. He wanted me to check out his friend’s (Beatrice Cho aka Respeanut) work and linked to the series online. I was immediately taken with the promotional artwork. I spent nearly an entire day off from work reading all of book one, The Wolf’s Veil. Once I was done reading on DeviantArt, I went ahead and purchased a physical copy of said book. At nearly 600 pages long, it’s hefty. The cover does have a matte finish that feels great in my hands.
What grabbed me about In The Lion’s Den was how different it is from any webcomic I’m currently reading. Human-sized bipedal anthros facing off against large quadrupedal beasts. The action shots gave me Attack on Titan vibes, and on a surface level The Wolf’s Veil shares some similarities. We have people (called Critters) trapped in fear of tyrannical beasts (called Therians) who eat people. And Critters do have the ability to transform into Therians under the right (or wrong) conditions. That’s where the AoT similarities end, and ITLD tells its own unique story starting with book one.
Dunbar is a Jack Russell Terrier who lives a simple life with his giant, Bo. (Giants are huge sapient ape-like creatures.) The relationship is not unlike humans and their pets. One night Bo is unusually pensive and Dunbar spends some time with him before falling asleep. The next morning, the giant is different. His brown and tan fur have turned completely black, and the creature’s skin and muscles seem to be cracking. Without a word or any explanation, Bo seizes Dunbar and unceremoniously drops him off a cliff.
The dog lands in a bush, and is confused by his surroundings. Before he can fully gather his bearings, a strange voice speaks to him. It calls Dunbar a stray and says it’ll take care of him from now on. Suddenly, tendrils of blue mist waff into the cave and the canine Critter finds the scent irresistible. He follows the scent until he reaches a town blanketed in the same mist. Dunbar realizes this is the town he once called home, but he doesn’t recognize anyone. Finding his old trailer house, he knocks on the door expecting to see his parents. Instead, he’s greeted by a different family of canine Critters who mistake him for a social worker.
The confusion is quickly cleared up, but Dunbar asks for an explanation of what’s going on with the town. The father of the family tells him that the town has been taken over by a demon. He also states the town has brought this misery on themselves by not following five rules set by the canine protector deity, Lord Huntan. As the father mentions the rules, he notices Dunbar is wearing a collar, meaning he’s owned by a giant. That’s the biggest rule to be broken, and the family kicks Dunbar out of their house. He then immediately comes face to face with a large quadrupedal wolf who has devoured the social worker he was mistaken for.
He survives the encounter when the wolf walks off. Later, Dunbar learns that the wolf is a Therian that controls the town. Critters can enter, but they can never leave thanks to the wolf’s mist veil. As the Jack Russell Terrier looks for a place to spend the night, he’s quickly roped into a murder investigation by a private eye in exchange for a place to stay. The mystery of the murder, the wolf Therian, and why Dunbar’s giant abandoned him are all intertwined by a series of tragic events.
Going by the promotional art for The Wolf’s Veil, I can’t say I was expecting a noir style murder mystery, but that’s exactly what I got. I loved every page of said mystery. Not only is Dunbar helping the private eye, a Beagle named Meliot Stains, he’s trying to figure out what happened when he left town so many years ago. His family is gone, and only a few people in town remember his face. The Terrier is caught between wanting to do the right thing by helping Stains, and simply wanting to return to Bo. Of course getting to the bottom of the murder mystery might not even guarantee Dunbar can leave town, but he has nothing better to do with his time.
On the technical side, the artwork is amazing. Cho does a fantastic job of blending together two different styles. One style is the toony, funny animal side of furry art the Critters are depicted in. They are extremely expressive, and they’re reminiscent of a fusion between a Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera style. Even down to the characters having three fingers instead of four. In a curious design twist, the Critters eyes don’t have visible pupils unless they’re shocked, angry, or otherwise distressed. Combine that with the simple shapes of the characters– especially Dunbar, and the choice almost reminds me of Jeff Smith’s Bone comics. If I’m being completely honest, I’m torn on the characters only having visible pupils in some situations. It highlights their emotions better, but they’re also more visually pleasing when the pupils are visible. A lot of people must have preferred the Critters to have pupils all the time, as this is the style going forward in book two. (They were also given four fingers.)
On the other side, we have a different art style for the Therians. They’re drawn realistically, always have pupils, four digits on their paws, and a dew claw. Unlike the simple shapes of the Critters, Therians have cheek fluff, manes, and extremely detailed teeth. The contrast to the Critters can be unsettling at times, which seems to have been the purpose.
I’m just impressed at how these two art styles not only clash visually in the comic, but form a basis of visual storytelling. The Therians are almost otherworldly creatures who mentally and physically dominate their more human-like counterparts. And they are tyrants in every sense of the word as they rule, and demand living sacrifices of the populace they control. Worse yet, as I stated earlier, any Critter has the ability to become a Therian which makes the concept even more unsettling.
In The Lion’s Den is a fascinating ride. I also love how everything in book one is neatly wrapped up by the time everything is said and done. Sure, The Wolf’s Veil is one part of a larger world contained within ITLD, but it also serves as a standalone series. As of this writing, book two is still early in production and probably won’t be finished for a few years. Thankfully, there’s no need to wait for each book to be finished before giving this series a try. This book is an easy recommendation for anyone who likes action series, mystery, and can vibe with an animal people aesthetic.
New public pages of Book Two, The Scarlet Uproar release once or every other month. Prepare to follow this excellent series for the long haul.
The eyes were a topic I and Respeanut privately discussed over time, and we came to the conclusion that having pupils would help make characters seem more expressive.
But due to how book 1 already had its distinctive style established, the decision was made to introduce an updated style in the next book.
Thank you for the clarification! Looking at how they have pupils all the time in book two, they are more expressive. As a reader, I do appreciate not having the style changed in book one. 😀