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Valor: Comic Anthology #2
Valor: Wands
What is Valor? Valor is a comic anthology project composed of adapted, re-imagined, or invented fairy tales showcasing the talent of numerous creators. The anthology is aimed at all-age readers, and is LGBTQA+ friendly.
The purpose of the stories is to pay homage to the strength, resourcefulness, and cunning of female heroines in fairy tales. Although fairy tales are often presented as a "feminine" form of literature due to the abundance of princesses, a lot of classic princess archetypes are passive, asleep, imprisoned, or offered as a prize. Valor, and all the creators participating in it, want to give female heroines the roles they deserve, to inspire young and old readers alike.
The purpose of the stories is to pay homage to the strength, resourcefulness, and cunning of female heroines in fairy tales. Although fairy tales are often presented as a "feminine" form of literature due to the abundance of princesses, a lot of classic princess archetypes are passive, asleep, imprisoned, or offered as a prize. Valor, and all the creators participating in it, want to give female heroines the roles they deserve, to inspire young and old readers alike.
272 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2018
2 people are currently reading
190 people want to read
About the author
Isabelle Melançon
22 books40 followersIsabelle Melançon is a French-Canadian artist born in 1985. She grew up in a family of book and comic-lovers. She reads manga, European comics and American comics and has been drawing ever since she could lift a pencil. She used to want to be a dragon-riding knight, then envisioned a career change as a fantasy writer at the age of 10.
Since then, Isabelle has been drawing her way through school, which included doodling on lockers, and graduated from the University of Ottawa with a visual arts and administration double-major. Isabelle has a few published graphic novels and art exhibits under her belt. Namesake is her first long-term project.
Isabelle’s drawing style is heavily influenced by American and Japanese animation, as well as older Victorian and french illustration work, creating a fluid yet detailed mix.
She is madly in love with fairy tales and literature and enjoys playing with the classics in her comic and written works.
She has been maintaining a LiveJournal “comic journal” about her life and favorite fandoms for the past five years. She currently lives in Montréal, Québec with her significant other, “Link”.
She bites and pokes with a rusty spoon when provoked and believes that sarcasm can be an art form.
Since then, Isabelle has been drawing her way through school, which included doodling on lockers, and graduated from the University of Ottawa with a visual arts and administration double-major. Isabelle has a few published graphic novels and art exhibits under her belt. Namesake is her first long-term project.
Isabelle’s drawing style is heavily influenced by American and Japanese animation, as well as older Victorian and french illustration work, creating a fluid yet detailed mix.
She is madly in love with fairy tales and literature and enjoys playing with the classics in her comic and written works.
She has been maintaining a LiveJournal “comic journal” about her life and favorite fandoms for the past five years. She currently lives in Montréal, Québec with her significant other, “Link”.
She bites and pokes with a rusty spoon when provoked and believes that sarcasm can be an art form.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 20, 2019
A strong follow up to the first book, with some returning artists and some new ones. The same mix of graphic art stories and prose as before. As with any collection, some spoke to me more, but it was overall quite solid.
Some favorites of mine (though not the only good stories by a long shot, for brevity's sake.):
"Mom Knight and the Centipede" Sara Goetter
No actual dialogue, but tells a sweet story with plenty of emotion.
"The Magnificent Daji" Alex Singer & Diana Hua
Prose with some gorgeous art. A spin on a wicked stepmother/empress story.
"The Laughing Queen" Gisele Weaver
The power of a story.
"Swan Lake" Natalie Riess
More cartoon-style. I love the ending!
"Dragonslayers are Not Permitted" Jasmine Walls
Grayscale with pops of color. An adventure from an orc's pov. Clever and funny.
"Heartless" Nicole & Kelly Matthews
Gorgeous detailed art. A classic tale with a kinder ending.
Some favorites of mine (though not the only good stories by a long shot, for brevity's sake.):
"Mom Knight and the Centipede" Sara Goetter
No actual dialogue, but tells a sweet story with plenty of emotion.
"The Magnificent Daji" Alex Singer & Diana Hua
Prose with some gorgeous art. A spin on a wicked stepmother/empress story.
"The Laughing Queen" Gisele Weaver
The power of a story.
"Swan Lake" Natalie Riess
More cartoon-style. I love the ending!
"Dragonslayers are Not Permitted" Jasmine Walls
Grayscale with pops of color. An adventure from an orc's pov. Clever and funny.
"Heartless" Nicole & Kelly Matthews
Gorgeous detailed art. A classic tale with a kinder ending.
January 22, 2025
Well, there's still a few prose stories and I didn't get the retelling of The Light Princess that I was crossing my fingers for, but this edition holds up about as well as the original.
We start off with the beautiful story of The Prince's New Clothes by Isabelle Melançon and Megan Lavey-Heaton. The prince is due to marry and has seized all the fabrics from the seamstress’s guild for his own use. His future wife is dismayed that this act would be connected to her as her first royal impression, but the leader of the seamstress’s guild may have come up with a way to protest against the prince’s thoughtlessness. Melançon’s artwork takes this story to a new level, with a setting reminiscent of India with lush fabrics and minute patterns filling the page. Interestingly, the story continues past the usual ending point - the emperor getting humiliated - and makes a point of showing that the prince learned a valuable lesson, that he and the guild leader both profited from the story (morally and financially), and that no one was beheaded for making him look like an idiot (what undoubtedly would have happened off-screen in the original version if the con men had been caught).
Mom Knight and the Centipede by Sara Goetter is a sequel to Lady Tilda from the first book. Tilda is a little older and so is her family, but one recent addition is having trouble fitting in and Tilda isn’t going to be enough to solve the problem this time. I’m a sucker for stories involving siblings showing their love for each other. This is just familial support on a larger scale. Cute.
The Magnificent Daji by Alex Singer and Diana Huh is the first prose story of the collection (as mentioned in the review of the first Valor book, these comic anthologies have chosen to include several prose entries as well), and it's probably my favorite submission in the book. The story is amazing: of a fox-woman who'd risen to the rank of empress and now must decide on a new path for herself upon the death of her husband (before the next assassination attempt). Her self-assurance and confidence is spellbinding, and her final choice is so heartwarming and striking that this will be one story I'll be thrilled to reread.
Nicole Chartland's Maleen is so beautiful that I want to cry, and dream, and read it again and again. Two warring kingdoms (in steampunk-esque flying cities) are in a battle to the death, and the heirs to the thrones are working behind their parent's backs to stop the war. It's heartbreaking and bittersweet and full of hope.
Marie and the Nutcracker by Emily Hann is just a retelling of The Nutcracker with a female nutcracker, and even that took me a while to notice. Nothing else is changed, and I didn’t care for the artwork.
A hunter takes a break after making a kill and The Laughing Queen comes to beg for meat. The two come to an arrangement - food for a story. Gisele Weaver's story is sweet and endearing, even if you know where it's going pretty quickly.
The art of The Princess With No Reflectionis the only thing I found memorable about it, as it's full of floofy dresses and fancy, silky dogs, and was reminiscent of a painting style I can't place but would guess to be Rococo. Camilla Fortuna's story, I think, is about a little princess told she's ugly but who can't see it in her reflection, so she convinces herself she has no reflection. The moral is strangely demoralizing, and most of the story is just pretty, silent, painted scenes of the girl playing outside with the dogs. The entire plot is all crammed in at the end.
The Promise by J.M. Frey and Angelica Maria Lopez picks from folktales and history to create a love story at the meeting of a Filles du Roi (one of the 800 women recruited to travel to New France to even out the population of the early settlers) and an Iroquoian werewolf. It's a charming story where they don't necessarily live happily ever after together, but the characters are wise enough to understand that their love isn't happening in a vacuum and they need to act responsibly. They do have a kind of happy ending, and I loved this prose story for treating their characters' situation with responsibility and empathy.
The Six adventurers who’d crashed into their little Utopia tell the story of how they came to discover it. Faye Simms’s story is cute and charming, and perfect if you want a story that’s insubstantial but will keep you day dreaming about further adventures.
I'm in love with Lizard King by Abby Howard. There's no way to explain why without spoiling the greatness of it. I'm not even going to describe the plot, it's so cheerfully silly that I'm just going to let you look it up on your own. I'm literally sitting here giggling just thinking about it.
A Valkyrie and a raven meet in the post-battle quiet, and tales are told. A Little Bird Told Me by Justin Lanjil was cute, pretty, and left an interesting question of motivation for the characters. The Valkyrie is eager to get on with her business, as can be expected, but the raven is equally eager to share their morality tale, which is a little harder to understand from the lack of clues given. Ravens are usually trickster figures; are they distracting the Valkyrie for a reason? Ooh! Is there a quest going on that requires the raven companion to stall the collector of the battle spirits? Maybe a fallen warrior needs to pass on information! A necromancy spell can't work if the spirit is taken to Valhalla! This is actually really interesting; I need to know what's going on in the background of this frame story!
The Dance of Spring brings the warmth of the new season to the world, but one year Spring is late. Luckily, one of the creatures who love her most knows her dance by heart, and follows it to her rescue. Aliza Layne's story fell pretty flat for me. The 'spring/fae queen/etc. hasn't woken' plot has never been personally satisfying because I have yet to see one where the sleeping figure isn't woken incredibly easily. The same goes for this story.
Once upon a time, The Giant Who Dreamed of Elves got the chance to become friends with the delicate creatures, but lost something even more important in the process. Isabelle Melançon and Megan Lavey-Heaton strike again with a sweet story of love, dedication, and selflessness.
Sisters by Ru Xu isn't a comic. It isn't even a prose story. It's just a two page art piece of a reinterpretation of Rose Red and Snow White with elements of Swan Lake . The inclusion of prose stories was annoying enough. Yes, it's pretty, but his is a comic anthology; what is this submission doing here?
Natalie Riess retells the climax of Swan Lake with a happier and somewhat more badass ending. Nothing much else to say about it. The artwork was a little odd but the story was perfectly decent and Odile got some character development.
In the story of the Snow Queen, one of the trials Gerta goes through is being captured by a band of robbers and befriending the daughter of their leader. The Robber Girl Tells Her Story Over a Round of Cards in Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein and Sarah Stern's story, recounting this episode of Gerta's tale through her eyes. It's a faithful retelling, just the point of view has changed, and it was aready a good story to start with so I have no complaints except to say that it's yet another prose story.
A lonely witch builds a girl of glass to provide her with companionship, but The Glass Knight has higher dreams that can't be accomplished by staying home and carrying flowers. Capp & Lin's story has a strong moral lesson about allowing your children to have their freedom and face the consequences of their choices. It's well told, up to the climax which was very melodramatic and had no lead-up suggesting that the witch could do this. Where is her home that this could happen? Is it in a bowl, like Louisiana? Have her powers always been tied to the elements like that? If she was aware enough to pull an Avatar Aang on herself, why not stop the destruction instead?
Questing adventurers are worth their weight in trouble, and an orc tribe is faced with a poisoned water source after a group of such annoyances carelessly leave black magic in their stream after a battle. An orc warrior sets out to parley with a dragon for the cure for their troubles. Dragonslayers Not Permitted by Jasmine Walls is funny, charming, and with a monochrome style that uses only one or two colors per species (pale blue for the orcs and red and gold for the dragon) the artwork pops off the page.
A scholarly witch has to Spell it Out to a dragon who refuses to leave without the secret to her word magic. A sweet little granny is the heroine in Ashanti Fortson's story of a rap battle between two powerful magical creatures. The story is cute and it's got a good ending, but the artwork didn't do much for me. The dragon looked like a hairy purple worm with wings.
I don't really know what's happening in Rennie Kingsley's Song Without End. It starts as the ending to the basic Tam Lin story, but I feel like I missed something important. But the artwork is very pretty.
Urgh, another one. Sunkissed by Sam is a silent story that I also can't really figure out. I think it might be the personification of the Sun and, maybe, the awakening Spring.
Amet's The Dragon Princess is short and pretty and has a thoughtful ending. It's a princess's thoughts on her habit of hoarding beautiful things. The entire story is skipped, if that makes sense, and the story is more of an ending and the explanation of motivations. You make up the story yourself. It was interesting and lends itself to many questions. Not the least of which is 'Is this actually the beginning of the story?'.
The Rose by Mildred Louis is actually just a splash page of a beautiful woman, accompanied by the poem The Rose by Christina Rossetti. Lovely poem, but I'm not sure how much credit I should give Mildred Louis for this piece. Also, again, not a comic. There are words and there's art, so it's closer than Ru Xu's entry, but still not a comic.
A Heartless giant wreaks havoc on the country-side until he's outsmarted by a young woman with some very helpful friends. Kickingshoes's story is entertaining and beautiful, and a morality tale on top of it all.
In spite of my documented dislike of prose stories in this anthology, The Doctor and the Curse is one of the best stories of the book. Joanne Webster's creative retelling of Beauty and the Beast is clever, and has an air of mystery to it as a doctor works to cure a nobleman of a curse inflicted on him by a capricious fairy. Stuck in a beastly form, he risks losing his place as head of the family unless the matter can be resolved. With art by the ever talented Isabelle Melançon whom creates a beast that looks part ox, part lion, and part tree, the story is crafty, charming, and mysterious, but most of all unique.
EDITING:
For the last time, this book is advertised as a comic anthology! The prose stories were bad enough, but Mildred Louis's and Ru Xu's entries are too much.
ARTWORK:
It's all different artists so this part isn't being counted.
ENJOYABILITY:
I enjoy Wands less than Swords , and there’s more variety in the 'not a comic' cheats, but it still does a great job at keeping you entertained.
OTHER ASPECTS:
As mentioned above, these books are crowdfunded, and one of the rewards to donors of a certain rank are portraits done by the talented Isabelle Melançon. The portraits, as well as the list of donors, are at the back of the book and are beautiful.
THE VERDICT?
The compilation had some good and some mediocre choices, but overall I'm pleased to have it in my collection. I'm also pleased to be finished with this review at last. I've been fighting my way through it all month.
We start off with the beautiful story of The Prince's New Clothes by Isabelle Melançon and Megan Lavey-Heaton. The prince is due to marry and has seized all the fabrics from the seamstress’s guild for his own use. His future wife is dismayed that this act would be connected to her as her first royal impression, but the leader of the seamstress’s guild may have come up with a way to protest against the prince’s thoughtlessness. Melançon’s artwork takes this story to a new level, with a setting reminiscent of India with lush fabrics and minute patterns filling the page. Interestingly, the story continues past the usual ending point - the emperor getting humiliated - and makes a point of showing that the prince learned a valuable lesson, that he and the guild leader both profited from the story (morally and financially), and that no one was beheaded for making him look like an idiot (what undoubtedly would have happened off-screen in the original version if the con men had been caught).
Mom Knight and the Centipede by Sara Goetter is a sequel to Lady Tilda from the first book. Tilda is a little older and so is her family, but one recent addition is having trouble fitting in and Tilda isn’t going to be enough to solve the problem this time. I’m a sucker for stories involving siblings showing their love for each other. This is just familial support on a larger scale. Cute.
The Magnificent Daji by Alex Singer and Diana Huh is the first prose story of the collection (as mentioned in the review of the first Valor book, these comic anthologies have chosen to include several prose entries as well), and it's probably my favorite submission in the book. The story is amazing: of a fox-woman who'd risen to the rank of empress and now must decide on a new path for herself upon the death of her husband (before the next assassination attempt). Her self-assurance and confidence is spellbinding, and her final choice is so heartwarming and striking that this will be one story I'll be thrilled to reread.
Nicole Chartland's Maleen is so beautiful that I want to cry, and dream, and read it again and again. Two warring kingdoms (in steampunk-esque flying cities) are in a battle to the death, and the heirs to the thrones are working behind their parent's backs to stop the war. It's heartbreaking and bittersweet and full of hope.
Marie and the Nutcracker by Emily Hann is just a retelling of The Nutcracker with a female nutcracker, and even that took me a while to notice. Nothing else is changed, and I didn’t care for the artwork.
A hunter takes a break after making a kill and The Laughing Queen comes to beg for meat. The two come to an arrangement - food for a story. Gisele Weaver's story is sweet and endearing, even if you know where it's going pretty quickly.
The art of The Princess With No Reflectionis the only thing I found memorable about it, as it's full of floofy dresses and fancy, silky dogs, and was reminiscent of a painting style I can't place but would guess to be Rococo. Camilla Fortuna's story, I think, is about a little princess told she's ugly but who can't see it in her reflection, so she convinces herself she has no reflection. The moral is strangely demoralizing, and most of the story is just pretty, silent, painted scenes of the girl playing outside with the dogs. The entire plot is all crammed in at the end.
The Promise by J.M. Frey and Angelica Maria Lopez picks from folktales and history to create a love story at the meeting of a Filles du Roi (one of the 800 women recruited to travel to New France to even out the population of the early settlers) and an Iroquoian werewolf. It's a charming story where they don't necessarily live happily ever after together, but the characters are wise enough to understand that their love isn't happening in a vacuum and they need to act responsibly. They do have a kind of happy ending, and I loved this prose story for treating their characters' situation with responsibility and empathy.
The Six adventurers who’d crashed into their little Utopia tell the story of how they came to discover it. Faye Simms’s story is cute and charming, and perfect if you want a story that’s insubstantial but will keep you day dreaming about further adventures.
I'm in love with Lizard King by Abby Howard. There's no way to explain why without spoiling the greatness of it. I'm not even going to describe the plot, it's so cheerfully silly that I'm just going to let you look it up on your own. I'm literally sitting here giggling just thinking about it.
A Valkyrie and a raven meet in the post-battle quiet, and tales are told. A Little Bird Told Me by Justin Lanjil was cute, pretty, and left an interesting question of motivation for the characters. The Valkyrie is eager to get on with her business, as can be expected, but the raven is equally eager to share their morality tale, which is a little harder to understand from the lack of clues given. Ravens are usually trickster figures; are they distracting the Valkyrie for a reason? Ooh! Is there a quest going on that requires the raven companion to stall the collector of the battle spirits? Maybe a fallen warrior needs to pass on information! A necromancy spell can't work if the spirit is taken to Valhalla! This is actually really interesting; I need to know what's going on in the background of this frame story!
The Dance of Spring brings the warmth of the new season to the world, but one year Spring is late. Luckily, one of the creatures who love her most knows her dance by heart, and follows it to her rescue. Aliza Layne's story fell pretty flat for me. The 'spring/fae queen/etc. hasn't woken' plot has never been personally satisfying because I have yet to see one where the sleeping figure isn't woken incredibly easily. The same goes for this story.
Once upon a time, The Giant Who Dreamed of Elves got the chance to become friends with the delicate creatures, but lost something even more important in the process. Isabelle Melançon and Megan Lavey-Heaton strike again with a sweet story of love, dedication, and selflessness.
Sisters by Ru Xu isn't a comic. It isn't even a prose story. It's just a two page art piece of a reinterpretation of Rose Red and Snow White with elements of Swan Lake . The inclusion of prose stories was annoying enough. Yes, it's pretty, but his is a comic anthology; what is this submission doing here?
Natalie Riess retells the climax of Swan Lake with a happier and somewhat more badass ending. Nothing much else to say about it. The artwork was a little odd but the story was perfectly decent and Odile got some character development.
In the story of the Snow Queen, one of the trials Gerta goes through is being captured by a band of robbers and befriending the daughter of their leader. The Robber Girl Tells Her Story Over a Round of Cards in Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein and Sarah Stern's story, recounting this episode of Gerta's tale through her eyes. It's a faithful retelling, just the point of view has changed, and it was aready a good story to start with so I have no complaints except to say that it's yet another prose story.
A lonely witch builds a girl of glass to provide her with companionship, but The Glass Knight has higher dreams that can't be accomplished by staying home and carrying flowers. Capp & Lin's story has a strong moral lesson about allowing your children to have their freedom and face the consequences of their choices. It's well told, up to the climax which was very melodramatic and had no lead-up suggesting that the witch could do this. Where is her home that this could happen? Is it in a bowl, like Louisiana? Have her powers always been tied to the elements like that? If she was aware enough to pull an Avatar Aang on herself, why not stop the destruction instead?
Questing adventurers are worth their weight in trouble, and an orc tribe is faced with a poisoned water source after a group of such annoyances carelessly leave black magic in their stream after a battle. An orc warrior sets out to parley with a dragon for the cure for their troubles. Dragonslayers Not Permitted by Jasmine Walls is funny, charming, and with a monochrome style that uses only one or two colors per species (pale blue for the orcs and red and gold for the dragon) the artwork pops off the page.
A scholarly witch has to Spell it Out to a dragon who refuses to leave without the secret to her word magic. A sweet little granny is the heroine in Ashanti Fortson's story of a rap battle between two powerful magical creatures. The story is cute and it's got a good ending, but the artwork didn't do much for me. The dragon looked like a hairy purple worm with wings.
I don't really know what's happening in Rennie Kingsley's Song Without End. It starts as the ending to the basic Tam Lin story, but I feel like I missed something important. But the artwork is very pretty.
Urgh, another one. Sunkissed by Sam is a silent story that I also can't really figure out. I think it might be the personification of the Sun and, maybe, the awakening Spring.
Amet's The Dragon Princess is short and pretty and has a thoughtful ending. It's a princess's thoughts on her habit of hoarding beautiful things. The entire story is skipped, if that makes sense, and the story is more of an ending and the explanation of motivations. You make up the story yourself. It was interesting and lends itself to many questions. Not the least of which is 'Is this actually the beginning of the story?'.
The Rose by Mildred Louis is actually just a splash page of a beautiful woman, accompanied by the poem The Rose by Christina Rossetti. Lovely poem, but I'm not sure how much credit I should give Mildred Louis for this piece. Also, again, not a comic. There are words and there's art, so it's closer than Ru Xu's entry, but still not a comic.
A Heartless giant wreaks havoc on the country-side until he's outsmarted by a young woman with some very helpful friends. Kickingshoes's story is entertaining and beautiful, and a morality tale on top of it all.
In spite of my documented dislike of prose stories in this anthology, The Doctor and the Curse is one of the best stories of the book. Joanne Webster's creative retelling of Beauty and the Beast is clever, and has an air of mystery to it as a doctor works to cure a nobleman of a curse inflicted on him by a capricious fairy. Stuck in a beastly form, he risks losing his place as head of the family unless the matter can be resolved. With art by the ever talented Isabelle Melançon whom creates a beast that looks part ox, part lion, and part tree, the story is crafty, charming, and mysterious, but most of all unique.
EDITING:
For the last time, this book is advertised as a comic anthology! The prose stories were bad enough, but Mildred Louis's and Ru Xu's entries are too much.
ARTWORK:
It's all different artists so this part isn't being counted.
ENJOYABILITY:
I enjoy Wands less than Swords , and there’s more variety in the 'not a comic' cheats, but it still does a great job at keeping you entertained.
OTHER ASPECTS:
As mentioned above, these books are crowdfunded, and one of the rewards to donors of a certain rank are portraits done by the talented Isabelle Melançon. The portraits, as well as the list of donors, are at the back of the book and are beautiful.
THE VERDICT?
The compilation had some good and some mediocre choices, but overall I'm pleased to have it in my collection. I'm also pleased to be finished with this review at last. I've been fighting my way through it all month.
July 19, 2018
Disclosure - I backed this book on Kickstarter -
An amazing group of talented creators come together for an anthology with amazing art styles to tell fairy tales. The opening sets of stories just didn't feel like they were for me it wasn't until The Laughing Queen that I started to really get into the anthology. The pros inside the book were something I just passed over although I have intent to get to them I have other reading oblations so I just wanted to be done. I found the second half of the anthology had the majority of my favorite stories inside the book. Swan Lake, Dragon Slayers Not Permitted, Song Without End, and Dragon Princess in particular really stood out to me (as well as The Giant Who Dreamed Of Elves from the earlier half).
There is a solid enough amount of queer content although I don't think every kind of person will feel represented I think that there was a solid amount of the cute lady loving lady stories that I will want to revisit. This is going to be a great book for children of all kinds and it will also be great for a lot of adults who love great art styles and fun spins on classic tales.
An amazing group of talented creators come together for an anthology with amazing art styles to tell fairy tales. The opening sets of stories just didn't feel like they were for me it wasn't until The Laughing Queen that I started to really get into the anthology. The pros inside the book were something I just passed over although I have intent to get to them I have other reading oblations so I just wanted to be done. I found the second half of the anthology had the majority of my favorite stories inside the book. Swan Lake, Dragon Slayers Not Permitted, Song Without End, and Dragon Princess in particular really stood out to me (as well as The Giant Who Dreamed Of Elves from the earlier half).
There is a solid enough amount of queer content although I don't think every kind of person will feel represented I think that there was a solid amount of the cute lady loving lady stories that I will want to revisit. This is going to be a great book for children of all kinds and it will also be great for a lot of adults who love great art styles and fun spins on classic tales.
June 16, 2020
Like most collection of stories, there were some that I really, really enjoyed and others that were just okay to me. I think what really pulled me out of the collection were the certain stories that were written in prose. As a reader, obviously I love stories written in prose and were they in a collection of other written works, I probably would have enjoyed them more. However, because they were in a collection of comics, they just felt off to me and I probably rushed through them simply because of their format. Most of the stories were LGBTQ+ and I loved that - if I had to pick my favourite in the collection, I think it would Swan Princess.
July 5, 2018
I don't think I enjoyed this *quite* as much as the first, but omg I can't wait for the 3rd one. The prose stories don't interest me as much, but I loved SO MANY of the comic stories. And the artwork is faaaabulous.
March 18, 2019
Most of the art is beautiful and the stories are clever/have good messaging. Still, I don't find them that engaging or memorable in the long run. My favorite, art and story both, was The Dragon Princess by AmetAlias.
September 8, 2019
Really neat anthology. The art is consistently excellent, and in many different styles. The stories themselves can be a bit hit or miss, and some wrap up a bit too quickly (and with the same sort of "twist" at the end), but overall it's a cute collection.
June 14, 2018
A sweet anthology.
June 26, 2018
This anthology is amazing! The first one was so good, and book two does not disappoint. Can't wait for the third!
August 29, 2018
Such a great anthology. I loved it just as much as the first volume. I think the Lizard King was my favorite story.
December 26, 2019
Just like any collection (especially one written by different authors) there are some that are amazing and some that are only so-so. Three stars!
March 18, 2020
Really fun concept for an anthology. I always love seeing the different art styles.
June 1, 2020
Another fantastic anthology!
January 2, 2022
So so so so very pretty!
And all the rep!
I think some of the girls in my life might enjoy this series now!
And all the rep!
I think some of the girls in my life might enjoy this series now!
September 5, 2023
DNF'd at 39%
February 13, 2021
Proper review to come, but by the Flame, I want to dive inside most of these worlds. Jaw dropping art, I say.
Holy shit balls there's a 2nd volume?!?! How did I miss this? HOW, I say??
*furiously puts a copy on hold*
Seriously, I'd be lost without the Toronto Public Library, I shudder to think.
Holy shit balls there's a 2nd volume?!?! How did I miss this? HOW, I say??
*furiously puts a copy on hold*
Seriously, I'd be lost without the Toronto Public Library, I shudder to think.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews