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Real Hero Shit #2
Harder Than It Looks
200 pages, Paperback
Expected publication July 28, 2026
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Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The Dirty Boots of Consequence
Kendra Wells lets comedy keep its footing in “Harder Than It Looks,” even as royal letters, poisoned rivers, and old names track mud across the quest.
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | July 16th, 2026
Difficulty, in “Harder Than It Looks,” is not the monster fight, the tavern escape, the royal summons, or the trick of keeping a sword in one hand and a secret in the other. Difficulty is responsibility arriving late, half-dressed, overconfident, and holding paperwork. Kendra Wells’s sequel to “Real Hero Shit” begins in the campfire clatter of adventuring-party life: sex, sniping, bruises, bad sleep, worse decisions. Then it asks who pays when freedom has been charged to someone else’s account.
Eugene, the pampered horned prince of Marble, has been on the road for six months with Michel, Hocus, and Ani. They work; he adventures. They calculate danger; he samples personality development with tavern access. Then the letters he has ignored from Queen Emilia turn out not to be maternal scolding but royal warning: if he does not return home, his companions may be arrested for kidnapping him. It is a comic premise with a warrant tucked under the cushion. Eugene’s “I was having fun” is both charmingly stupid and morally exact. Of course he was. That is the problem.
Maybe the smartest early move is Wells’s refusal to treat the adventuring crew as a gag with swords attached. A party is a social contract with weapons. Eugene’s unseriousness endangers the others because he is title, bloodline, rumor, a throne waiting open-mouthed. Michel’s reserve is survival practice. Hocus’s solemnity has been drilled into em by the Holy Legion. Ani’s irritation is often the least deluded person in the room.
Early on, the book invites the reader to take it as a profane queer quest-comedy, closer in surface swagger to “Rat Queens: Sass and Sorcery” by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch than to grand court fantasy. There are horny misunderstandings, bedroom embarrassments, tavern bravado, monster trouble, and enough profanity to keep the banners from looking too recently blessed. Under the racket is a hidden stair: the danger of being recognized by the wrong person, office, document, accent, wound, or door.
The joke does not disappear once the bill arrives. It stays in the room and starts noticing the exits. Eugene performs charm because charm has worked. Michel refuses conversation because refusal has kept him alive. Hocus speaks in the drilled syntax of faith and service because the Fort that raised em gave em those words. Ani cuts through everyone’s nonsense because somebody has to, and because tenderness, unarmored, would be eaten alive by this group before lunch.
Rather than send the whole group down one road, Wells splits the party. Hocus and Ani detour to Fort of the Moth, the garrison where Hocus grew up; Eugene and Michel stop at a tavern on the way to Marble. Both routes lead backward. Hocus is summoned back by rank, oath, and religious command. Michel, loosened by drink and Eugene’s infuriating attention, is overheard, identified, and hunted. His buried Fiershen life has found a mouth.
In the Fort chapters, the cold comes from how carefully cruelty has been filed and blessed. Captain Mexlim and the Holy Legion make their violence sound well tended. Hocus is reminded that e is Avah’s blade, that es travels were permitted as pilgrimage, that obedience proves righteousness. Later, Wells shows what that language covered: a poisoned river, a dead caravan, a child spared for conscription. “Mercy” becomes one of the book’s dirtiest words – impressive in a volume where several competitors arrive enthusiastically undressed.
Put beside that, the tavern plot turns Eugene’s talent for fun into everybody else’s problem. He wants Michel to drink, relax, flirt, tell stories, perhaps do several things no responsible person would schedule before a royal deadline. Michel resists with the stiffness of someone whose privacy has load-bearing walls. Still, something tender and foolish happens between them. Desire slips in through mockery. Then recognition arrives with a hand on the latch. Michel’s accent, scars, and guardedness become evidence with a pulse; tavern warmth curdles into kidnapping.
Across Wells’s speech balloons, talk is action. The party’s language is fast, profane, interruptive: insults, sexual bluntness, refusals, apologies disguised as complaints. Official speech walks in wearing gloves: “Your Highness,” “pilgrimage,” “Avah’s blade,” “relinquished of your title,” “misconduct toward a superior officer.” Wells knows that friends interrupt you because they know you. Institutions finish their sentences because they have already decided where you belong.
Page by page, Wells refuses to polish the surface flat. Roads, gates, tavern rooms, horns, armor, amulets, flowers, blood – the imagery is carried by the drawn world rather than lacquered onto the prose. The text names the thing; the image charges it. The dialogue moves in short-to-medium bursts, all shove and recoil, with punch lines landing close to wounds. Occasionally the speech balloons haul too much backstory at once, especially in the accusation scenes, but the best pages understand panel timing as sentence rhythm by other means.
Across the art, color and posture keep sorting freedom from capture. Green road openness gives way to brown tavern compression; garrison rooms stiffen into verticals; blue-black action pages make magic feel less like glitter than exposure. Red divider pages and chapter portraits work like warning signals and held breaths. Faces stretch, blush, harden, flinch; bodies crowd, recoil, collapse, lunge. There is no interest here in fantasy pageantry polished smooth enough to lose fingerprints. The cartooning wants the fingerprints.
Details keep changing their testimony. Eugene’s horns gather royal myth, demonic rumor, ransom value, family panic. Michel’s armor is protection, yes, but also presentation, privacy, self-making. Hocus’s amulet is faith made portable, then cracked. Hovir flowers are buried memory blooming too close to the path. Official letters translate friendship into criminal exposure. These returning objects are not garnish. They revise the scene behind them.
It is Hocus’s storyline that gives the sequel its hardest chill. The Fort initially appears as backstory with walls: the place that trained em, housed em, gave em language, discipline, and family. Then the buried story surfaces. Hocus was not simply rescued from tragedy. Es caravan and family were poisoned and erased as part of expansion and control; Hocus was spared, conscripted, and taught to call survival itself a mercy. No one would call the turn delicate. Its force is in how it curdles words Wells has already made familiar: blade, light, mercy.
Michel’s plot is less fully resolved, but it contains the book’s most precise scene of care. After the tavern kidnapping turns violent and Michel is wounded, Eugene has to help dress the injury. Removing Michel’s armor becomes care before explanation, an act of trust more intimate than the flirtation that preceded it. Eugene recognizes, awkwardly and carefully, that the armor matters to how Michel wants to look and be seen. “Harder Than It Looks” is rarely quiet for long, yet here it finds a small still pocket of attention: blood, panic, desire, and respect sitting together without being made tidy.
In every direction, escape turns out to have left a trail. Eugene’s flight from court becomes legal threat for his friends. Michel’s flight from his past becomes a route others can follow. Hocus’s flight from the Fort becomes the condition for seeing what the Fort did. Even chosen family, the warmest term available to this kind of story, is treated with necessary suspicion. It is not just the people who accept your mess. It is the people endangered by the parts of your mess you have not explained.
The split-party structure makes Hocus and Michel parallel figures without turning them into neat mirrors. Both are read by hostile systems; both have survived by not knowing, not saying, or not being found; both discover that the past is less behind them than trained on them. Eugene’s plot supplies the hinge that makes the joke lock. He begins by wanting a little more road, a little more fun, a little more time before home. He ends with Queen Emilia sick and a throne suddenly much closer than he is ready to stand.
Roughness enters when too many revelations crowd the doorway at once. Hocus’s shattered origin story, Michel’s Fiershen past, Eugene and Michel’s charged intimacy, the tavern violence, supernatural intervention, royal illness, and succession crisis all press into roughly 200 pages. Some moments need a few more panels of silence after impact. Wells sometimes lets the next crisis enter before the previous one has finished taking off its boots. The volume runs hard enough that, now and then, it sends its own cups skittering.
Overstuffed, yes; shapeless, no. Running and letters, horns and gates, flowers and amulets, armor and wounds, sacred formulas and official reprimands all return with altered meanings. Michel’s opening sense of being chased becomes literal. Eugene’s ignored correspondence proves that documents can bite. Hocus’s “mercy” becomes an accusation thrown back at the man who taught em the word. Earlier jokes sour productively in retrospect. The reread value lies in watching the book quietly mark the place where the bruise will later bloom.
Pleasure, here, comes from Wells’s refusal to make queer fantasy behave at dinner. The book is adult not because it contains sex jokes, though it arrives well supplied, but because it understands sex, presentation, secrecy, rank, and danger as things that touch and bruise one another. Its queerness is not decorative inclusion. It shapes the emotional logic: how bodies are interpreted, how names and roles can trap, how care may begin before explanation, how being seen can be rescue or threat depending on who is looking.
Only in a few places does the velocity cheat the aftershock. Alize, the being who tells Hocus that e need only doubt, enters with mythic force but not yet enough room to feel fully integrated. Michel’s past is exposed as a fuse, then saved for a later match. Queen Emilia’s illness is a strong ending turn, yet it adds one more major pressure just as Hocus and Michel’s crises still ache. Some of that is the bargain of a sequel; some of it is simply too many matches struck in one room.
Under the monsters and maps, “Harder Than It Looks” catches an ordinary terror with fantasy horns: private life becomes dangerous when institutions decide to name it. A title turns friends into kidnappers. An accent turns a survivor into a target. A horn turns a son into prophecy. A holy word turns massacre into benevolence. A piece of armor turns wound-dressing into a test of trust. These concerns rise naturally from the fantasy materials; the book does not stop to become a pamphlet, thank Avah. It has tavern floors to stain.
Like “The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins” by Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy, and Carey Pietsch, Wells’s book knows the charm of party-chaos fantasy. Like “Squire” by Nadia Shammas and Sara Alfageeh, it is interested in what military institutions teach the young to call honor. But “Harder Than It Looks” is rowdier than the latter and more bodily, politically barbed, and sexually frank than the former. Its territory lies in the narrow, noisy corridor between drinking song and indictment.
Overfull but alive, the book is emotionally quick, visually alert, and willing to let comedy keep its dirty boots on while consequence enters the room. Its final rating is 84/100, corresponding to 4/5 Goodreads-compatible whole stars. That rating recognizes Hocus’s Fort revelation, Michel’s wound scene, and the visual motif-work as the book’s most persuasive achievements, while leaving room for the way its heaviest turns arrive shoulder to shoulder. It is not a perfect volume. It throws sparks anyway.
So the title stops being a gag. The hard thing was never only getting Eugene back to Marble, killing a beast, escaping a tavern, or surviving the Fort’s sanctified lies. The hard thing is learning that freedom has witnesses, care has costs, fun can leave paperwork, and mercy may need to be taken away from the people who have been using it as a blade. Wells leaves the party at a threshold with the bill already open: Hocus without the Fort, Michel without the cover of distance, Eugene before a throne he is not ready to touch. Behind them, the road remains, but it has stopped pretending to be empty.
Kendra Wells lets comedy keep its footing in “Harder Than It Looks,” even as royal letters, poisoned rivers, and old names track mud across the quest.
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | July 16th, 2026
Difficulty, in “Harder Than It Looks,” is not the monster fight, the tavern escape, the royal summons, or the trick of keeping a sword in one hand and a secret in the other. Difficulty is responsibility arriving late, half-dressed, overconfident, and holding paperwork. Kendra Wells’s sequel to “Real Hero Shit” begins in the campfire clatter of adventuring-party life: sex, sniping, bruises, bad sleep, worse decisions. Then it asks who pays when freedom has been charged to someone else’s account.
Eugene, the pampered horned prince of Marble, has been on the road for six months with Michel, Hocus, and Ani. They work; he adventures. They calculate danger; he samples personality development with tavern access. Then the letters he has ignored from Queen Emilia turn out not to be maternal scolding but royal warning: if he does not return home, his companions may be arrested for kidnapping him. It is a comic premise with a warrant tucked under the cushion. Eugene’s “I was having fun” is both charmingly stupid and morally exact. Of course he was. That is the problem.
Maybe the smartest early move is Wells’s refusal to treat the adventuring crew as a gag with swords attached. A party is a social contract with weapons. Eugene’s unseriousness endangers the others because he is title, bloodline, rumor, a throne waiting open-mouthed. Michel’s reserve is survival practice. Hocus’s solemnity has been drilled into em by the Holy Legion. Ani’s irritation is often the least deluded person in the room.
Early on, the book invites the reader to take it as a profane queer quest-comedy, closer in surface swagger to “Rat Queens: Sass and Sorcery” by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch than to grand court fantasy. There are horny misunderstandings, bedroom embarrassments, tavern bravado, monster trouble, and enough profanity to keep the banners from looking too recently blessed. Under the racket is a hidden stair: the danger of being recognized by the wrong person, office, document, accent, wound, or door.
The joke does not disappear once the bill arrives. It stays in the room and starts noticing the exits. Eugene performs charm because charm has worked. Michel refuses conversation because refusal has kept him alive. Hocus speaks in the drilled syntax of faith and service because the Fort that raised em gave em those words. Ani cuts through everyone’s nonsense because somebody has to, and because tenderness, unarmored, would be eaten alive by this group before lunch.
Rather than send the whole group down one road, Wells splits the party. Hocus and Ani detour to Fort of the Moth, the garrison where Hocus grew up; Eugene and Michel stop at a tavern on the way to Marble. Both routes lead backward. Hocus is summoned back by rank, oath, and religious command. Michel, loosened by drink and Eugene’s infuriating attention, is overheard, identified, and hunted. His buried Fiershen life has found a mouth.
In the Fort chapters, the cold comes from how carefully cruelty has been filed and blessed. Captain Mexlim and the Holy Legion make their violence sound well tended. Hocus is reminded that e is Avah’s blade, that es travels were permitted as pilgrimage, that obedience proves righteousness. Later, Wells shows what that language covered: a poisoned river, a dead caravan, a child spared for conscription. “Mercy” becomes one of the book’s dirtiest words – impressive in a volume where several competitors arrive enthusiastically undressed.
Put beside that, the tavern plot turns Eugene’s talent for fun into everybody else’s problem. He wants Michel to drink, relax, flirt, tell stories, perhaps do several things no responsible person would schedule before a royal deadline. Michel resists with the stiffness of someone whose privacy has load-bearing walls. Still, something tender and foolish happens between them. Desire slips in through mockery. Then recognition arrives with a hand on the latch. Michel’s accent, scars, and guardedness become evidence with a pulse; tavern warmth curdles into kidnapping.
Across Wells’s speech balloons, talk is action. The party’s language is fast, profane, interruptive: insults, sexual bluntness, refusals, apologies disguised as complaints. Official speech walks in wearing gloves: “Your Highness,” “pilgrimage,” “Avah’s blade,” “relinquished of your title,” “misconduct toward a superior officer.” Wells knows that friends interrupt you because they know you. Institutions finish their sentences because they have already decided where you belong.
Page by page, Wells refuses to polish the surface flat. Roads, gates, tavern rooms, horns, armor, amulets, flowers, blood – the imagery is carried by the drawn world rather than lacquered onto the prose. The text names the thing; the image charges it. The dialogue moves in short-to-medium bursts, all shove and recoil, with punch lines landing close to wounds. Occasionally the speech balloons haul too much backstory at once, especially in the accusation scenes, but the best pages understand panel timing as sentence rhythm by other means.
Across the art, color and posture keep sorting freedom from capture. Green road openness gives way to brown tavern compression; garrison rooms stiffen into verticals; blue-black action pages make magic feel less like glitter than exposure. Red divider pages and chapter portraits work like warning signals and held breaths. Faces stretch, blush, harden, flinch; bodies crowd, recoil, collapse, lunge. There is no interest here in fantasy pageantry polished smooth enough to lose fingerprints. The cartooning wants the fingerprints.
Details keep changing their testimony. Eugene’s horns gather royal myth, demonic rumor, ransom value, family panic. Michel’s armor is protection, yes, but also presentation, privacy, self-making. Hocus’s amulet is faith made portable, then cracked. Hovir flowers are buried memory blooming too close to the path. Official letters translate friendship into criminal exposure. These returning objects are not garnish. They revise the scene behind them.
It is Hocus’s storyline that gives the sequel its hardest chill. The Fort initially appears as backstory with walls: the place that trained em, housed em, gave em language, discipline, and family. Then the buried story surfaces. Hocus was not simply rescued from tragedy. Es caravan and family were poisoned and erased as part of expansion and control; Hocus was spared, conscripted, and taught to call survival itself a mercy. No one would call the turn delicate. Its force is in how it curdles words Wells has already made familiar: blade, light, mercy.
Michel’s plot is less fully resolved, but it contains the book’s most precise scene of care. After the tavern kidnapping turns violent and Michel is wounded, Eugene has to help dress the injury. Removing Michel’s armor becomes care before explanation, an act of trust more intimate than the flirtation that preceded it. Eugene recognizes, awkwardly and carefully, that the armor matters to how Michel wants to look and be seen. “Harder Than It Looks” is rarely quiet for long, yet here it finds a small still pocket of attention: blood, panic, desire, and respect sitting together without being made tidy.
In every direction, escape turns out to have left a trail. Eugene’s flight from court becomes legal threat for his friends. Michel’s flight from his past becomes a route others can follow. Hocus’s flight from the Fort becomes the condition for seeing what the Fort did. Even chosen family, the warmest term available to this kind of story, is treated with necessary suspicion. It is not just the people who accept your mess. It is the people endangered by the parts of your mess you have not explained.
The split-party structure makes Hocus and Michel parallel figures without turning them into neat mirrors. Both are read by hostile systems; both have survived by not knowing, not saying, or not being found; both discover that the past is less behind them than trained on them. Eugene’s plot supplies the hinge that makes the joke lock. He begins by wanting a little more road, a little more fun, a little more time before home. He ends with Queen Emilia sick and a throne suddenly much closer than he is ready to stand.
Roughness enters when too many revelations crowd the doorway at once. Hocus’s shattered origin story, Michel’s Fiershen past, Eugene and Michel’s charged intimacy, the tavern violence, supernatural intervention, royal illness, and succession crisis all press into roughly 200 pages. Some moments need a few more panels of silence after impact. Wells sometimes lets the next crisis enter before the previous one has finished taking off its boots. The volume runs hard enough that, now and then, it sends its own cups skittering.
Overstuffed, yes; shapeless, no. Running and letters, horns and gates, flowers and amulets, armor and wounds, sacred formulas and official reprimands all return with altered meanings. Michel’s opening sense of being chased becomes literal. Eugene’s ignored correspondence proves that documents can bite. Hocus’s “mercy” becomes an accusation thrown back at the man who taught em the word. Earlier jokes sour productively in retrospect. The reread value lies in watching the book quietly mark the place where the bruise will later bloom.
Pleasure, here, comes from Wells’s refusal to make queer fantasy behave at dinner. The book is adult not because it contains sex jokes, though it arrives well supplied, but because it understands sex, presentation, secrecy, rank, and danger as things that touch and bruise one another. Its queerness is not decorative inclusion. It shapes the emotional logic: how bodies are interpreted, how names and roles can trap, how care may begin before explanation, how being seen can be rescue or threat depending on who is looking.
Only in a few places does the velocity cheat the aftershock. Alize, the being who tells Hocus that e need only doubt, enters with mythic force but not yet enough room to feel fully integrated. Michel’s past is exposed as a fuse, then saved for a later match. Queen Emilia’s illness is a strong ending turn, yet it adds one more major pressure just as Hocus and Michel’s crises still ache. Some of that is the bargain of a sequel; some of it is simply too many matches struck in one room.
Under the monsters and maps, “Harder Than It Looks” catches an ordinary terror with fantasy horns: private life becomes dangerous when institutions decide to name it. A title turns friends into kidnappers. An accent turns a survivor into a target. A horn turns a son into prophecy. A holy word turns massacre into benevolence. A piece of armor turns wound-dressing into a test of trust. These concerns rise naturally from the fantasy materials; the book does not stop to become a pamphlet, thank Avah. It has tavern floors to stain.
Like “The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins” by Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy, and Carey Pietsch, Wells’s book knows the charm of party-chaos fantasy. Like “Squire” by Nadia Shammas and Sara Alfageeh, it is interested in what military institutions teach the young to call honor. But “Harder Than It Looks” is rowdier than the latter and more bodily, politically barbed, and sexually frank than the former. Its territory lies in the narrow, noisy corridor between drinking song and indictment.
Overfull but alive, the book is emotionally quick, visually alert, and willing to let comedy keep its dirty boots on while consequence enters the room. Its final rating is 84/100, corresponding to 4/5 Goodreads-compatible whole stars. That rating recognizes Hocus’s Fort revelation, Michel’s wound scene, and the visual motif-work as the book’s most persuasive achievements, while leaving room for the way its heaviest turns arrive shoulder to shoulder. It is not a perfect volume. It throws sparks anyway.
So the title stops being a gag. The hard thing was never only getting Eugene back to Marble, killing a beast, escaping a tavern, or surviving the Fort’s sanctified lies. The hard thing is learning that freedom has witnesses, care has costs, fun can leave paperwork, and mercy may need to be taken away from the people who have been using it as a blade. Wells leaves the party at a threshold with the bill already open: Hocus without the Fort, Michel without the cover of distance, Eugene before a throne he is not ready to touch. Behind them, the road remains, but it has stopped pretending to be empty.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Quick Synopsis: A spoiled prince seeks adventure for some fun and stumbles across a wanted sign that fits the bill. He joins a party that doesn’t quite want him, and they set out on their way.
Book One: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars.
With all of the new Dungeons and Dragons stuff going on in my life, I may be biased. ALAS! I enjoyed this alot. BUT BOI WHEN I SAY I WAS BEGGING FOR HOCUS TO BE A PALADIN! (Is a paladin in my own campaign). A Cleric suits them just fine, but a Paladin would have been awesooommmmeeeeee! Regardless, I loved the squabbles amongst the crew and the characters in general. I feel like a story like this just wouldn’t work without super good, fleshed out characters and this one hit the target dead on. AND LET’S TALK ABOUT THE SURPRISE SMUT I DIDN’T SEE COMING! GIRL WHEN I SAY I FLIPPED THAT PAGE BACK AND FORTH, COMPLETELY UNABLE TO COMPREHEND WHAT I WAS SEEING. Now… the couple it involved?… Meh…
I’m rooting for Hocus and Michel in book two ya’ll. Fingers crossed.
Harder Than It Looks-Book Two: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars.
So glad I was able to jump back into this world as fast as I did lol You could say I partially got my wish lmao I won’t spoil this time around, but let’s just say Michel really showed himself in this book. WINK WINK
I think the ‘Character driven’ Goal may have backfired tho… This one was good, don’t get me wrong. I was hollering and squealing the entire time, BUT I feel like there was a little too much going on with the characters in this one. Normally I would be completely okay with that, but in this case, it was like we were given a goal and because that goal would have been too simple to just ‘accomplish’ our characters were thrown right into the shit of it involving things that weren’t exactly important to the main goal. Hmmm… Like I said, not bad. The story is still super good, the characters are great, and the artwork is phenomenal… I just didn’t like it as much as the first one.
My thanks to Iron Circus Comics, the Author, and NetGalley for the Digital ARC. This book is expected to be published July 14th, 2026! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧Bye~Bye~
Book One: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars.
With all of the new Dungeons and Dragons stuff going on in my life, I may be biased. ALAS! I enjoyed this alot. BUT BOI WHEN I SAY I WAS BEGGING FOR HOCUS TO BE A PALADIN! (Is a paladin in my own campaign). A Cleric suits them just fine, but a Paladin would have been awesooommmmeeeeee! Regardless, I loved the squabbles amongst the crew and the characters in general. I feel like a story like this just wouldn’t work without super good, fleshed out characters and this one hit the target dead on. AND LET’S TALK ABOUT THE SURPRISE SMUT I DIDN’T SEE COMING! GIRL WHEN I SAY I FLIPPED THAT PAGE BACK AND FORTH, COMPLETELY UNABLE TO COMPREHEND WHAT I WAS SEEING. Now… the couple it involved?… Meh…
I’m rooting for Hocus and Michel in book two ya’ll. Fingers crossed.
Harder Than It Looks-Book Two: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars.
So glad I was able to jump back into this world as fast as I did lol You could say I partially got my wish lmao I won’t spoil this time around, but let’s just say Michel really showed himself in this book. WINK WINK
I think the ‘Character driven’ Goal may have backfired tho… This one was good, don’t get me wrong. I was hollering and squealing the entire time, BUT I feel like there was a little too much going on with the characters in this one. Normally I would be completely okay with that, but in this case, it was like we were given a goal and because that goal would have been too simple to just ‘accomplish’ our characters were thrown right into the shit of it involving things that weren’t exactly important to the main goal. Hmmm… Like I said, not bad. The story is still super good, the characters are great, and the artwork is phenomenal… I just didn’t like it as much as the first one.
My thanks to Iron Circus Comics, the Author, and NetGalley for the Digital ARC. This book is expected to be published July 14th, 2026! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧Bye~Bye~
Read
June 29, 2026Harder Than It Looks has strong marketing potential, particularly within the growing markets for fantasy graphic novels, LGBTQ+ fiction, and young adult/adult crossover storytelling. Even with limited public information currently available, the combination of its genre, visual format, and upcoming release positions it well for a targeted promotional campaign.
The title is concise, memorable, and emotionally resonant. Harder Than It Looks immediately suggests themes of perseverance, identity, personal growth, and overcoming unexpected challenges—all of which are highly relatable and marketable. Titles that evoke curiosity without revealing too much often encourage readers to explore the story further.
Fantasy graphic novels continue to enjoy significant popularity among readers seeking immersive world-building paired with compelling artwork. Coupled with LGBTQ+ representation, the book has the opportunity to connect with audiences looking for inclusive stories featuring authentic characters and emotional depth. Graphic novels also perform well across bookstores, libraries, schools, comic shops, and digital reading platforms, expanding the book's potential reach.
As an anticipated July 2026 release, Harder Than It Looks is well positioned to benefit from advance review campaigns, BookTok and Bookstagram promotion, graphic novel reviewers, LGBTQ+ media outlets, comic conventions, library marketing, educator recommendations, and independent bookstore events. If supported by a strategic pre-publication campaign, the book has strong potential to build early buzz and establish a dedicated readership.
The title is concise, memorable, and emotionally resonant. Harder Than It Looks immediately suggests themes of perseverance, identity, personal growth, and overcoming unexpected challenges—all of which are highly relatable and marketable. Titles that evoke curiosity without revealing too much often encourage readers to explore the story further.
Fantasy graphic novels continue to enjoy significant popularity among readers seeking immersive world-building paired with compelling artwork. Coupled with LGBTQ+ representation, the book has the opportunity to connect with audiences looking for inclusive stories featuring authentic characters and emotional depth. Graphic novels also perform well across bookstores, libraries, schools, comic shops, and digital reading platforms, expanding the book's potential reach.
As an anticipated July 2026 release, Harder Than It Looks is well positioned to benefit from advance review campaigns, BookTok and Bookstagram promotion, graphic novel reviewers, LGBTQ+ media outlets, comic conventions, library marketing, educator recommendations, and independent bookstore events. If supported by a strategic pre-publication campaign, the book has strong potential to build early buzz and establish a dedicated readership.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
I went into "Harder Than It Looks" without many expectations after not being that impressed by the cover. I meant it to be a fun filler read, and downloaded it to support a graphic novel with LGBT characters.
I was even more disappointed when I realised that this was a sequel, even if one that promised it could be read as a standalone, which I doubted. I was wrong about that and everything else I thought about this graphic novel because 5 stars isn’t enough for how much I enjoyed reading this. This has fanfic levels of deliciousness and originality.
This is like if Nimona had a child with Six of Crows and they turned out a bit more well-adjusted than their parents.
I fell in love with the art, particularly the way the women were drawn to look strong, which made sense because they are supposed to be mercenaries and fighters, and it's ridiculous that this was one of the few books where I saw women being drawn as they should.
This is such a hot book without showing that much or sexualising the character's nakedness. There are so many queer and trans characters whose stories are drawn so beautifully and respectfully. I'm mad I never heard about this before.
There are so many books where I hope it ends in a polycule, but I know it will never happen. In this one, there's a real chance.
I need to read the first volume, and I need more of this as soon as possible.
Thank you to Edelweiss, Iron Circus Comics and Consortium Book Sales & Distribution for this DRC.
I was even more disappointed when I realised that this was a sequel, even if one that promised it could be read as a standalone, which I doubted. I was wrong about that and everything else I thought about this graphic novel because 5 stars isn’t enough for how much I enjoyed reading this. This has fanfic levels of deliciousness and originality.
This is like if Nimona had a child with Six of Crows and they turned out a bit more well-adjusted than their parents.
I fell in love with the art, particularly the way the women were drawn to look strong, which made sense because they are supposed to be mercenaries and fighters, and it's ridiculous that this was one of the few books where I saw women being drawn as they should.
This is such a hot book without showing that much or sexualising the character's nakedness. There are so many queer and trans characters whose stories are drawn so beautifully and respectfully. I'm mad I never heard about this before.
There are so many books where I hope it ends in a polycule, but I know it will never happen. In this one, there's a real chance.
I need to read the first volume, and I need more of this as soon as possible.
Thank you to Edelweiss, Iron Circus Comics and Consortium Book Sales & Distribution for this DRC.
July 6, 2026
THE WAIT IS OVER!!
Harder Than It Looks by Kendra Wells returns readers to one of my favorite worlds. It is full of equal parts heartfelt, funny, and painfully relatable all wrapped within a magically delightful package. Wells captures the awkwardness of figuring yourself out much warmth and authenticity and layers it with a mystery and unique family dynamic that brought some tears to my eyes at times. The overall vibe is also hysterical. It’s humorous in a way that lets you know you can laugh. The story tackles identity, friendship, expectations, and self-acceptance with a light touch that never diminishes the emotional weight underneath. Our main characters, Eugene, Hocus, Michel, and Ani all get more emotional arcs in this story. Michel staying exasperated (or is he?) and along for the ride. While Hocus got some of the biggest reveals in this story. I’m desperate to know more in particular about our religious Hocus and what might be their next step. I found myself laughing one moment and nodding along the next as the characters stumbled, grew, and learned (and battled and fought and were….. well sexy). Paired with Wells’ expressive artwork and charming visual storytelling, this graphic novel delivers a genuinely uplifting reading experience that left me smiling long after I turned the final page. These characters may be fictitious, but you’ll never feel that way while reading this story! Check it out!
Harder Than It Looks by Kendra Wells returns readers to one of my favorite worlds. It is full of equal parts heartfelt, funny, and painfully relatable all wrapped within a magically delightful package. Wells captures the awkwardness of figuring yourself out much warmth and authenticity and layers it with a mystery and unique family dynamic that brought some tears to my eyes at times. The overall vibe is also hysterical. It’s humorous in a way that lets you know you can laugh. The story tackles identity, friendship, expectations, and self-acceptance with a light touch that never diminishes the emotional weight underneath. Our main characters, Eugene, Hocus, Michel, and Ani all get more emotional arcs in this story. Michel staying exasperated (or is he?) and along for the ride. While Hocus got some of the biggest reveals in this story. I’m desperate to know more in particular about our religious Hocus and what might be their next step. I found myself laughing one moment and nodding along the next as the characters stumbled, grew, and learned (and battled and fought and were….. well sexy). Paired with Wells’ expressive artwork and charming visual storytelling, this graphic novel delivers a genuinely uplifting reading experience that left me smiling long after I turned the final page. These characters may be fictitious, but you’ll never feel that way while reading this story! Check it out!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I absolutely loved the continuation of this story! Real Hero Shit 2: Harder Than It Looks by Kendra Wells picks up 6 months after the first story, but is itself a self-contained adventure that can be read as a standalone story.
The adventuring party needs to get Prince Eugene back to the kingdom because there is a bounty out on their heads. They split up and things go immediately sideways as chaos ensues. The story is messy and slice of life-esque; filled with bad decisions, self doubt, genre expected tomfoolery, violence, destiny come to roost and damning secrets.
It is adventure, romance, representation and queer goodness, with a healthy side of fantastical adventure shenanigans that will appeal to the adult reader seeking a low-stakes but interesting quest.
The illustrations are very detailed and vivid. The colours used tie the scenes together and cycle the story through its arcs ranging from warm to vibrant to vivid to stark and back again. Overall, a fast-paced and funny graphic novel that is witty and sexy and emotional; can’t wait for the next instalment.
Thanks NetGalley and Iron Circus Comics for this free arc/copy of Real Hero Shit 2: Harder Than It Looks; all opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
The adventuring party needs to get Prince Eugene back to the kingdom because there is a bounty out on their heads. They split up and things go immediately sideways as chaos ensues. The story is messy and slice of life-esque; filled with bad decisions, self doubt, genre expected tomfoolery, violence, destiny come to roost and damning secrets.
It is adventure, romance, representation and queer goodness, with a healthy side of fantastical adventure shenanigans that will appeal to the adult reader seeking a low-stakes but interesting quest.
The illustrations are very detailed and vivid. The colours used tie the scenes together and cycle the story through its arcs ranging from warm to vibrant to vivid to stark and back again. Overall, a fast-paced and funny graphic novel that is witty and sexy and emotional; can’t wait for the next instalment.
Thanks NetGalley and Iron Circus Comics for this free arc/copy of Real Hero Shit 2: Harder Than It Looks; all opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
A great continuation to this story. The illustrations were just as wonderful as the first volume. They go along perfectly with the world, characters, and story.
I loved getting to know each of the characters better in this volume especially Michel and Hocus. This time around the group have to separate. It was enjoyable seeing the dynamic between Eugene and Michel. Also, the storyline with Hocus and Ani was very interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next with them.
Love the diversity in this series and seeing this group working together again. I'm hoping the next part of the story comes out soon because I really want to know what is going to happen with the gang. Especially after that ending.
*Thank you to Edelweiss, the publisher, and Kendra Wells for my ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.*
I loved getting to know each of the characters better in this volume especially Michel and Hocus. This time around the group have to separate. It was enjoyable seeing the dynamic between Eugene and Michel. Also, the storyline with Hocus and Ani was very interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next with them.
Love the diversity in this series and seeing this group working together again. I'm hoping the next part of the story comes out soon because I really want to know what is going to happen with the gang. Especially after that ending.
*Thank you to Edelweiss, the publisher, and Kendra Wells for my ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.*
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Real Hero Shit ★★★★☆
Harder Than It Looks ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Happy to be back with these characters, although I'm sad that the party was split for most of the book. This didn't feel like a standalone adventure; what this volume chiefly accomplished is introducing character backstory and setting stakes for the next installment. Hopefully that will come sooner than later! 3.5 stars
TW: nudity, violence and murder, animal attack, blood and injury depicted, misgendering, captivity, past death of loved ones, genocide recounted, terminally ill parent
Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this eARC via Edelweiss and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!
Harder Than It Looks ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Happy to be back with these characters, although I'm sad that the party was split for most of the book. This didn't feel like a standalone adventure; what this volume chiefly accomplished is introducing character backstory and setting stakes for the next installment. Hopefully that will come sooner than later! 3.5 stars
TW: nudity, violence and murder, animal attack, blood and injury depicted, misgendering, captivity, past death of loved ones, genocide recounted, terminally ill parent
Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this eARC via Edelweiss and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Humorous, sexy, inclusive.
The gang is back for another bit of adventuring. The story is a bit wispy, but I'm here to hang with the characters, and they reward my time with secrets revealed and new developments in their relationships with each other.
I re-read the first volume before tackling this one because the story had sort of evaporated from my brain, but it was fun relearning everything. I anticipate that when a third one comes -- and those cliffhangers demand it -- I'll happily re-read both of these volumes before forging ahead again.
FOR REFERENCE:
Contents: Chapter 1. And All the Things That I Don't Talk About -- Chapter 2. Here We Are, an Atom and a Star -- Chapter 3. Swinging by My Neck from the Family Tree -- Chapter 4. That's His Curse, That's My Name
The gang is back for another bit of adventuring. The story is a bit wispy, but I'm here to hang with the characters, and they reward my time with secrets revealed and new developments in their relationships with each other.
I re-read the first volume before tackling this one because the story had sort of evaporated from my brain, but it was fun relearning everything. I anticipate that when a third one comes -- and those cliffhangers demand it -- I'll happily re-read both of these volumes before forging ahead again.
FOR REFERENCE:
Contents: Chapter 1. And All the Things That I Don't Talk About -- Chapter 2. Here We Are, an Atom and a Star -- Chapter 3. Swinging by My Neck from the Family Tree -- Chapter 4. That's His Curse, That's My Name
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
I absolutely adore this cast of characters! In this second volume Prince Eugene is forced to make his way home or his mom will have the others arrested for kidnapping. Along the way the team splits up when Hocus gets sick. Hocus and Ani make there way to Hocus' old garrison where e must face the past. Michel and Eugene carry on to the Kingdom but on a fun detour they find themselves in some trouble. I loved how this had a nice mix of fun and rowdy with serious. I also love the art and how much personality each person has. Eugene is definitely a favorite of mine!
Thank you to Iron Circus Comics for a review copy.
Thank you to Iron Circus Comics for a review copy.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
This book continues the story from volume 1, and for anyone who has forgotten what happened, it includes a handy summary at the start of the book. I did enjoy the story, but at times it felt more of a stepping stone between volume 1 and a future book, rather than a standalone story. I enjoyed the art style, the adventures and getting to know each of the four main characters a little better.
[Free ARC from Edelweiss+]
[Free ARC from Edelweiss+]
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This book was received as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I'll agree with the few reviews so far that have noted this is and I'm not mad about it. Another hit, and I love the way the characters are developing, I'm just upset I got it so early so I have to wait so long for the next one!
I'll agree with the few reviews so far that have noted this is and I'm not mad about it. Another hit, and I love the way the characters are developing, I'm just upset I got it so early so I have to wait so long for the next one!
Review of advance copy received from Author
I'm really oscillating between 3 and 4 stars for this one, because on one hand it introduces some really good drama and character hooks, but on the other it splits the party in two for most of the book and it's entirely setup for the future. Much like at the end of book 1, I feel like I've just read a few chapters of a larger serial, and I really hope we won't have to wait another 4 years for more.
July 13, 2026
Harder Than It Looks was an engrossing follow-up to Real Hero Shit. Kendra Wells returns to the enchanting DnD-inspired world, but brings a whole lot more adventure. While Real Hero Shit served as an introduction to Prince Eugene, Michel, Ani, and Hocus, Harder Than It Looks dives deeper as we start to learn more about the main quartet’s backstories.
I really enjoyed learning about Hocus’ past and origin. And as humorous as Ani and Prince Eugene are playing off each other, I preferred the Hocus and Ani pairing during their adventures this time around. There was a more serious and heartfelt tone to their friendship that provided Hocus the support e needed during the exploration of es origin with the Holy Legion Guard.
I also found the Prince Eugene and Michel partnering more interesting during their adventures. Ani and Eugene both being loud and expressive personalities while Michel and Hocus are both more quiet and grounded made the swapped pairings from the first book more satisfying. Michel being so stoic and private while Prince Eugene is uninhibited and open created a dynamic that lent itself well to the higher stakes conflict towards the end of the book.
Overall, I enjoyed this second installment even more than the first and hope that the story continues. It will be interesting to see where the characters, their histories, and their relationships go.
Thank you to Iron Circus Comics and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.
I really enjoyed learning about Hocus’ past and origin. And as humorous as Ani and Prince Eugene are playing off each other, I preferred the Hocus and Ani pairing during their adventures this time around. There was a more serious and heartfelt tone to their friendship that provided Hocus the support e needed during the exploration of es origin with the Holy Legion Guard.
I also found the Prince Eugene and Michel partnering more interesting during their adventures. Ani and Eugene both being loud and expressive personalities while Michel and Hocus are both more quiet and grounded made the swapped pairings from the first book more satisfying. Michel being so stoic and private while Prince Eugene is uninhibited and open created a dynamic that lent itself well to the higher stakes conflict towards the end of the book.
Overall, I enjoyed this second installment even more than the first and hope that the story continues. It will be interesting to see where the characters, their histories, and their relationships go.
Thank you to Iron Circus Comics and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A typical adventuring
party from your
run of the mill
fantasy world.
Except in this
party everyone is
a different degree
of screwed up.
Real people
having adventures.
Imagine Legolas
having a nervous breakdown?
Clever storytelling
and great art.
party from your
run of the mill
fantasy world.
Except in this
party everyone is
a different degree
of screwed up.
Real people
having adventures.
Imagine Legolas
having a nervous breakdown?
Clever storytelling
and great art.
Review of advance copy
i love this story and these characters. kendra's art and story telling us so beautiful, and i've been following them for so long. i hope we get a bunch more books to finish the stories!!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The art is not my style, the characters seem a bit bland and 2d. Apparently there's only ine thing in the Prince's head and that is sex. But it's fine and it is a quick read.
Review of advance copy
truly delicious....
Read
July 22, 2026Booklist review pending
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!!!
I didn't like it as much as the first one, but still really fun!
I didn't like it as much as the first one, but still really fun!
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