Over the past few years, many comics take a quick break before returning to their worlds. Creative teams need breaks. While some never come back after their first arc and stay unfinished for years, we do see others pop back up after brief pauses to finish the next steps in their stories. After covering the first four issues of Briar back in November, I didn’t know when the series was going to return. But finally, last month, writer Christoper Cantwell returned with a new creative team in Alex Lins and Luis NCT for the start of the next arc in Briar #5. 

This arc begins not long after the previous issue ended—maybe as many months as the break between issues—as Briar Rose and her companions look to make some money before confronting Rose’s godmother, Grendrid. If they were close to their lowest before this issue, they’re even lower now as they barely make enough money to support themselves taking odd jobs in Shadow Village and getting into fights with local authorities.

While all of this can seem like typical D&D party shenanigans, we’re quickly reminded of the core drama of the first arc: why Briar Rose was put to sleep by her godmother. As Rose and her companions flee the town, a crack opens in the ground, swallowing the town with fire and brimstone while the party watches from a distance and Grendrid’s words echo in her head. 

But for this issue of Briar, we’re given that sense of a returning series that we haven’t felt in a while. As I mentioned in my previous writing about the series, this was originally only a four issue miniseries until the publisher extended it into a continuing series. And while this has happened recently with a few other series from Boom, seeing Briar come back after its hiatus and slip right into a continuing series feels like a logical step for many series. These miniseries become the pilot episodes before being green-lit for a full season of comics gives a creative team time to re-calibrate and consider how much more they can do with more time and space for their stories. The process draws readers into the world with a small hint of what could come before finally opening up the world for them to dive in further. 

Briar is just one of many series that follows this format, but it’s the one that’s most fascinating to watch as its own narrative matches its publication with Briar Rose herself sleeping and returning for us. As a series itself, the creative team still brings us a retelling of a fairy tale heroine without falling into the dark edgyness that plagues other fairy tale retellings. For publishing, it can show us a new way forward for some smaller series. 

Get excited. Get back. 

Drew Barth (Episode 331, 485, & 510) resides in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida.