Damsels Volume 1

Damsels #1

by Leah Moore, John Reppion, Aneke (Illustrations)

Once upon a time, the princesses of classic fairytales banded together to save their kingdoms from war! Rapa, a redheaded girl with a fiery spirit and lost memories, discovers a conspiracy that threatens the peace among all the mythical creatures of the land. Joined by the Little Mermaid, the Frog Prince, and Red Riding Hood, Rapa journeys through fabled forests and legendary realms on a quest to foil the scheme! Who has stolen the identities of Rapunzel, Belle, and Talia, the beloved heroines, and plot to destroy all the Faerie races? As an added bonus, Damsels includes "Behind the Magic," a collection of whimsical prose tales from The Brothers Grimm and 1,001 Arabian Nights!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Comics, Adventure, Fiction, Fairy Tales, LGBT

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 10, 2017

About the author

LEAH MOORE is an author born in Northampton, England in 1978.

Leah's comic writing career began in 2002 with stories for America's Best Comics. Most recently her solo comics scripting has appeared as part of Dynamite Entertainment's Gail Simone masterminded crossover series Swords of Sorrow (2015, with Francesco Manna).

In 2006 Leah wrote the story and copy to accompany The Royal Mail's 40th anniversary Christmas Stamps. She has written columns and articles for The Big Issue, Lifetime TV online, and Comic Heroes Magazine.

In 2013 Leah was the Project Manager of digital comics reading platform Electricomics. She was also the contributing editor of Electricomics flagship release, co-writing the sci-fi story Sway, with art by Nicola Scott.

Leah and her husband, John Reppion, have been scripting comics together since 2003, writing for the likes of 2000 AD, Channel 4 Education, Dark Horse, DC Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, Electricomics, IDW, and Self Made Hero.

They have written established characters such as Doctor Who (The Whispering Gallery, 2008 with Ben Templesmith) and Sherlock Holmes (The Trial of Sherlock Holmes, 2009 with Aaron Campbell, and The Liverpool Demon, 2012 with Matt Triano), as well as creating their own including Brit-Cit Psi Division, Judge Lillian Storm (Storm Warning, 2015 with Tom Foster).

Together they have faithfully adapted notable works by Lewis Carroll (The Complete Alice, 2010), H. P. Lovecraft (The Shadow Over Innsmouth, 2012), Bram Stoker (The Complete Dracula, 2009), and M. R. James (Ghost Stories of an Antiquary Vol 1, and 2) into comics and graphic novels.

Most recently she wrote an adaptation of The Doors Morrison Hotel album , and Motley Crue, The Dirt Declassified, for Z2 comics, as well as stories for their Joan Jett Anthology and the Tori Amos Little Earthquakes Anthology. She is currently working on The Tarot Circle for Liminal 11, as well as several other books yet to be announced.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts off very strong when the focus is completely on Rapa. But once the focus shifts to new character after new character the story falls apart. The second half of the book felt very rushed as if the book had been cancelled and Moore needed to cram the rest of the story into a few issues. The book had potential but it never came to fruition.

[Cale · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this in single issues, rather than the collected edition, and I'm not sure how much of what I read is in this TPB. I read all 13 issues, and it looks like this volume may only include the first 9, which made mostly a single story.

I've never looked back in a comic so many times in my life - not to refresh my memory, but to make sure I didn't accidentally skip a page. This story is so fragmented, so poorly laid out, that I constantly felt I was missing something. Which is a shame, because the story that is present is interesting.
This is another retelling of fairy tale characters in a combined world, as Rapunzel, the Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, and more interact to fight off a trio of witches who have taken over their lives and are now taking over the world. The heroines are definitely pulling from their classic fairy tale mold over anything Disneyfied, and some are rearranged a bit to represent a wider variety of women. Some of it works well, some of it feels forced, and very little of it brings anything particularly new to the table. That, plus the side stories that slip in and out of the narrative, and the villains being doppelgangers of the heroines, all add up to a story that spends a fair bit of time forcing you to stop and review to figure out where in the story you are. It was nice to see some less common characters and stories represented (I haven't come across 12 dancing princesses for a long time), but ultimately there's really nothing here to recommend the series. Fables has done it better for longer, and provides a richer overall story.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you stay with this, including the confusing beginning, it really does repay you. Nice twist to the established tales as well as quite a bit about narrative and story telling. Quite lovely and surprising in a good way.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't tell you how many times I flipped back thinking I had skipped a page. I never had; the story was just that fragmented. Good art, some interesting plot choices, but I wouldn't recommend this because of the overall story weakness.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely a Females lead this series into a twisty fate which you'll have to see for yourself. Hence the 5 stars

[Aleah Romer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love fairytale retellings, but I went into this one with too high expectations. The plot is pretty standard, and though it seems like a good idea it's poorly done. The storyline is rushed and fragmented. The plot twists are easy to spot, and the explanations aren't well done. It's as if the author wanted to leave some mystery, but didn't do a good job of wrapping it up. There's romance that comes out of nowhere, and then gets dropped just as quickly. It's reads more like a series of connected drabbles than a cohesive story. I felt like the author was trying to cram as many fairytales as possible into the story, without doing justice to any of them. Overall I was disappointed. The art was really cool though, and I really enjoyed the frog prince's character.

[Jamey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as individual comics, because this book isn't actually out yet. I think they're fun, and creepy with great art. Lots of fairytales were turned on their heads in unique ways, and that was entertaining as well. I'm interested to see how the next issues play out.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This big fairy-tale crossover primarily stars Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, the Frog Prince, and the Little Mermaid. It's a great foundation for storytelling that could offer great new stories.

Unfortunately, Damsels turns out to be muddy and unfocused. The first issue is muddled mess that only makes sense in retrospective. The rest of the issues are better, but the story never seems to know what it is. A few issues suggest that it's meant to deconstruct fairy-tale tropes ... but most of the volume could be a straight-up fairy tale, with some fun crossing over. The somewhat flat characters and occasionally cringe-worthy dialogue also hold the book back.

Which isn't to say that the volume doesn't have good aspects. The frequent inclusion of various fairy tales is great, especially when they're lesser known stories, like the story of the 12 dancing princesses, which appears in one of the early issues. There also are a few poignant, touching, and surprising events that give Damsels some depth. It's still just OK though

[Erin Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this first volume of mixed up fairy tale being retold via Rapa. I thought the art was beautifully done, but the women were overly sexualized, and drawn disproportionately which detracted with the theme of this series. I took the underlying theme to be that when women take charge of themselves and become self aware they can do amazing things, however then don't quite fit into a mold which an overarching culture and social structure wishes to place them in. To me that almost seems like these women are being punished for not fitting into the mold after fighting off their individual curses, by not allowing them to connect with others or have the meaningful relations with their intendeds (not necessarily romantic). I felt that it would have really pushed the point across if the genders coexisted, cooperated, and formed less stereotypical ways to interact. In this the story fell short.

[Christina Getrost · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more, but the story was confusing right off the bat and it took me awhile to get into it. I like the updating of traditional fairytale princess tropes, but this had too much going on--Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty have been replaced by imposters (witches), their memories erased so that they don't remember who they really are (but it takes a while for the reader to figure this out); there is a big tree that somehow connects to giving nightmares to children all over the world? King Oberon and the fairies are involved, and Belle and the Beast, AND the Little Mermaid...good grief! They were all in overlapping stories that were a little hard to follow. The art wasn't that great, and there were multiple typos and grammatical errors in the narration bubbles. "A" for effort but "C" for execution.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read on Hoopla. Interesting reworking of multiple fairy tales, although very little of it surprised me. I also felt like there was a lot of retelling what had happened up to that point, which may have been necessary in issues but was redundant in a collected trade. The art is fine but not really to my taste.

UPDATE: I tried to continue with Volume 2, since there are only two volumes (sounds like the series was canceled rather suddenly) but the art got suddenly horrible (all '90s and male-gaze-y) and all reviews point to the plot going downhill at the end too, so I'm going to go ahead and abandon it here. May 2019 be the year of bailing on what doesn't seem worth it!

[Drucilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this is listed as volume 1, it contains a complete story. There are a few loose threads for future issues, but, all in all, evil is defeated, love is found, and every one lives, well, at least better than they did before. My only complaint is that, because of this, everything is a bit rushed, but it is nice to see an arc finish and not dragged out. The characters are intriguing and this is a fun take on fairytales, specifically the princesses of said fairytales. Here's hoping they comes out with a volume 2.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would say this was 1.5

This tried to be too many things and dropped the ball on many things.

It jumped around a lot and I thought I had missed a page or something. Nope, they just skipped over chunks of information and it just felt incomplete. Plus you got no real sense of the characters or really their motivation for the most part.

The artwork was nice enough though.

Maybe if this had been more flushed out and some things trimmed out instead of trying to be too many things it could have worked.

[Kogiopsis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like everyone and their cousin has done a fairy-tale mashup at this point, but honestly... I'm still a sucker for them. This one's not too shabby, but it is incredibly hard to follow at the beginning, given that for plot reasons several characters are identical to one another. That said, I enjoyed it, and it was definitely rollicking fun - plus woods-savvy lesbians, which is always a welcome addition.

[Katie Whitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just read this in one sitting with the second volume and I'm in love! This is more of what I'd hoped the series Fable would have been-an interesting twist on fantasy/mythology. I loved the art style and the characters, especially Heinrich. I did find the tone a little choppy with how it leaped from different points of the stories, but in my opinion it was pretty easy to follow. The only thing I'm a little confused about is whether this series is still ongoing, but here's hoping it is!

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was cute, with some fun references to the fairy tales it twists. The art was very up and down for me. Some of the character art was great (the witches in particular) and some felt pretty old-fashioned. The narration is also told in a very old-school high fantasy style and that's not my favorite voice, but it is a story with modern ideas told through that lens so I appreciate that. Probably won't continue on, though.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy retold faerie tales. This was a bit confusing to follow at times, but overall pretty good. Some characters were not fully developed, &some plot points a bit muddled. Fast-paced at the end. A decent book if you want a quick read. Always interesting to see how authors will twist classic tales. I like the illustration style. I will be looking for Vol 2 to read next to see where this goes.

[Joel Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mash-up of fairy tales where everything is a little bit different than you might remember. Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty have been replaced by imposters who want to dominate the surrounding kingdoms, Red Riding Hood is a gay wolf slayer, the original Rapunzel has lost her memory and has a variety of adventures involving disparate elements of various fairy tales.

[Woowott · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. It has potential, but the cast isn't very diverse compared to other fantasy titles I've read lately; the art is a bit over-processed but still really awkwardly rendered; the pacing is choppy. Still, there were some interesting enough ideas here that I'd look at the next volume.

[Drea Razer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reimagined fairy tales with women featuring as most of the heroes and the villains. The story jumps around a bit, but I enjoyed it. A light read, with plenty of action, love, and witchcraft. Def interested to read Volume 2.

[Scott Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read pretty much in a sitting. This is a fairly effective reimagining of several fairytales, and the mashup works great as far as the world-blending/world-building goes. I like the tying in of our world with the fantasy world a few issues in, the manner that was accomplished was creative.

[Madhuri (Mads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love alternate retellings of fairytales and this one was absolutely fascinating to read. Though the format was a bit difficult to understand in the beginning, I got the hang of it half way through and thoroughly enjoyed the story. Can’t wait to get my hands on Volume II.

[Jean Doherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good start to what promises to be a good series.

[Nicole Westen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like there is some good potential here.

[AC · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this, but it just wasn't for me. Aspects of this reworked merging of fairytales were really clever, but as a whole it just didn't quite keep me engaged.

[Kate McCartney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fractured fairytale, giving these princess a great new story.

[theGraveyard Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice twist/combination of multiple fairytales and characters. At times disjointed but overall exciting and powerful. Great artwork and color.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me several chapters before I started to feel invested in the story. And it took some time to understand what was going on.

[Caytie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was good but then it got weird and convoluted and confusing, I don't think I'll be picking up the next one.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 3.5