Last month I posted a second plug for Image’s Sci-Fi offerings. With WizWorld merely days away (I have a ticket to meet Matt Smith, Karen Gillan bailed), why not cover the realm of Fantasy. Here Image is doing pretty well. OK, enough to attract my money.
Rat Queens is about four women who act like 14-year-old boys or more accurately, what 14-year-0ld boys (who play D&D and listen to Van Halen) think grown women act like in the context of a fantasy filled with the usual gaming tropes. Despite my dig on the characterizations, I do enjoy the tongue-in-cheek approach and gaming clichés; namely, fantasy characters taking on “jobs” such as clearing out sewers or caves filled with goblins. The story is actually more complicated though. The Rat Queens are really good friends trying to make a living while overcoming adversity both personal and professional. There are times I cringe when reading it because I’ve encountered players reminiscent of Hannah, the troubled “elven” necromancer, and Betty the drug-using, horny “halfling.”
The writer has made Pathfinder and D&D 5E versions of the Rat Queens available. I might use them as NPCs in a light-hearted encounter or comic relief.
For now, the title is on an indefinite hiatus after #16. The hiatus element of Image’s stuff is one big downside to their comics. Sometimes it works out well (Saga, Low), other times…not really (Pisces). I’m optimistic it will eventually return. Having a physically published comic is more profitable than a Web series.
Birthright treads on a well-worn premise…a little boy named Mikey from our contemporary world disappears and returns as a full-grown man. While only a year has passed, he’s spent about two decades in a horrific Fantasy world becoming one of its greatest warriors. Sadly, Mikey’s family fell apart shortly after his departure; his parents divorced with his father remaining the primary suspect in an “unproven murder.”
Why did Mikey come back? Unknown to the “real” world, creatures and denizens from the Fantasy world hide amongst us, namely three wizards he is trying to find and kill. Mikey’s older brother Brennan joins the quest and quickly realizes that something appears “off” about Mikey at times, like he’s possessed.
Sure the premise is tired yet I enjoy Birthright immensely. It’s one of the best executions of the He-Man movie’s premise I’ve seen in a long time.
I Hate Fairyland begins like Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz but then turns those plots 180 degrees by having the six-year-old heroine Gertrude stranded in this fantasy land for 27 years. This results in her transformation into a little psychopath the other residents fear. Since Queen Cloudia, the ruler of Fairyland, isn’t allowed to harm any guests, she sends other residents to kill Gertrude and they fail disastrously.
It isn’t a comic for the squeamish (plenty of gore) but it’s fun to see a mean take on the overdone Disney Princess trope.