Princeless
Books: Graphic Novel | Adventure | Children
Save Yourself (2012), Get Over Yourself (2013), The Pirate Princess (2014), Be Yourself (2015), Make Yourself (2016), Short Stories Collection ()
Save Yourself (2012) Jeremy Whitley and Mia Goodwin
OMG.
This. Is. Awesome.
I've had it for awhile, but hadn't gotten around to reading it, because reading comics now requires me to find a pair of reading glasses. O.o
I should not have waited. Princeless is a delight and a marvel and I LOVE IT.
Adrienne Ashe is the next to youngest princess in her family, and when she comes of age, like her older sisters she is locked in a tower guarded by a dragon, waiting for a prince to come and rescue her.
She is not impressed by this, and decides things would be MUCH better if she rescued herself.
Since she's made friends with the dragon guarding her tower, she collects some of the spare armor lying around and heads off to rescue her sisters.
This is simply wonderful.
Adrienne rescues herself (with, she later discovers, the secret help of her twin brother) and manages to make friends with the daughter of a blacksmith in a marvelous scene that completely mocks all the typical woman warrior stereotypes and tropes.
Plus, there was a marvelous bit about her getting her hair brushed that I adored, but couldn't find a cap of online.
I am definitely getting this for all the small people in my life once they reach 9 or so.
Published by Action Lab Entertainment
Rating: 10/10
Get Over Yourself (2014) Jeremy Whitley and Emily Martin
Fun! Although not quite as good as the first.
Adrienne has rescued herself and has now decided to rescue the rest of her sisters–even if said sisters are not quite sure they need rescued.
Boy is Adrienne's older sister Angelica irritating. Part of me was irritated that she remained irritating at the end, but the more reasonable part of me realized that was probably more realistic.
And I LOVE the bits about Adrienne's hair.
Another thing I liked is that we're starting to get a more multi-dimensional picture of her family.
Yes, it's ridiculous that her dad locked her (and her sisters) away in towers, but we are learning more about her father, which I like. (Though of all her siblings we've met, I like her twin the best so far).
Definitely something for the bigger small people.
Published by Action Lab
Rating: 8/10
The Pirate Princess (2014) Jeremy Whitley, Rosy Higgins, Ted Brandt
Volume three finds Adrienne rescuing another princess locked in a tower–Raven aka The Black Arrow aka the Pirate Princess.
Raven is a bit of a trickster figure, with her own agenda. But she isn't a bad character–just one who knows what she wants and is willing to use underhanded measures if need be.
A rather nice and complicated addition to the crew.
I'm very much enjoying this series, and highly recommend it to anyone with small people in their lives.
Published by Action Lab
Rating: 8.5/10
Be Yourself (2015) Jeremy Whitley, Emily Martin and Brett Grunig
This is the fourth Princless book and finds Adrienne off to attempt to rescue her middle sister, Angoisse.
This was good, but I think the bits about Adrienne were weaker than the previous volumes.
She and Bedelia are more witnesses to events than catalysts or driving forces. That's not bad per se, because we get to see her brother starting to take action on his own, but her bits are a little less interesting.
And it is good to see her sister essentially saver herself. But overall I didn't like it quite as well as previous versions.
Published by Action Lab
Rating: 7/10
I am very conflicted about this volume. First, it's only Part 1 (although it doesn't say that on the cover). Second, there are 26 pages of ads for other comics. That made it feel like it was padded out with ads to make up for being split in half.
That didn't particularly amuse me.
However.
It had this:
And this:
Which pretty much would redeem almost anything in my eyes.
We also get to visit the dwarves.
The dwarves have a very interesting society, where the women are the warriors because the men are too busy being smiths.
We also learn more about Bedelia the Blacksmith, and get to meet her mother. And see that Bedelia has a very difficult relationship with her mother.
And Prince Devin has gained more companions on his quest to rescue his mother.
So it was interesting and parts were good, but I was disappointed in the number of ad pages.
Published by Action Lab Comics
This is what it says on the tin: a short story collection.
It's really backstory for the different characters filled in, including the king and Kira (the wolf) and Angoisse (Adrienne's sister) and Bedelia.
I can see why these stories didn't necessarily belong in the main volume, however, considering how slim Vol 5 was, I think they could have gone in there.
Published by Action Lab Comics