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dereksilva 's review for:
Princeless: Save Yourself
by Jeremy Whitley
A princess realizes the whole princess-locked-in-a-tower story is dumb and decides to save herself (and her sisters). To do so, she enlists the help of the dragon who was supposed to be keeping her in the tower and then makes more friends along the way. The premise is great and Princess Adrienne is fantastic. It shouldn't have taken until the 2010s for someone to write this story but I'm glad it's finally here.
There are multiple times where the writer points out the silly stereotypes that exist around women in comics (like when she tries to buy women's armor and finds that it's all just bikinis). Sometimes the writing is clever but sometimes the stereotypes are quite obviously stated (in a reductio ad absurdum type of way though). The writing actually reminded me of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Young, kick-ass characters who win you over with their wit and surprising depth of knowledge. Plus, the lesser characters actually add to the story instead of just filling space.
The art style paired well with the story and reinforced to me that Princeless is well-suited for a younger audience. It gave off a vibe of My Little Pony, which I guess makes sense since Jeremy Whitley also wrote for My Little Pony. (I don't often admit it but yes, I know My Little Pony quite well. I had some strange roommates in college and, well, it's actually a pretty great show. Deal with it.)
With that being said, this story had the potential to be better. Some niggling issues:
-There were times where I felt the dialogue was forced and not completely natural. It wasn't awful but this is something I look at closely when I'm reading- especially in a short form story like a comic book. (I'm kind of an annoying person. I know.)
-The layout of speech bubbles was not always intuitive and I read out of order multiple times. Maybe that doesn't matter to you seasoned-comic-book-readers out there, but for someone like me who only started reading comics a year ago, the intuitiveness of speech bubbles is a big deal.
-I feel like there could've been more character and plot development. I know a comic book issue is only like 20-30 pages and people want action, but I thought the story was fun and I wanted it to dig a little deeper.
All-in-all, Princeless Book 1 was really good. I'm excited to read more!
There are multiple times where the writer points out the silly stereotypes that exist around women in comics (like when she tries to buy women's armor and finds that it's all just bikinis). Sometimes the writing is clever but sometimes the stereotypes are quite obviously stated (in a reductio ad absurdum type of way though). The writing actually reminded me of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Young, kick-ass characters who win you over with their wit and surprising depth of knowledge. Plus, the lesser characters actually add to the story instead of just filling space.
The art style paired well with the story and reinforced to me that Princeless is well-suited for a younger audience. It gave off a vibe of My Little Pony, which I guess makes sense since Jeremy Whitley also wrote for My Little Pony. (I don't often admit it but yes, I know My Little Pony quite well. I had some strange roommates in college and, well, it's actually a pretty great show. Deal with it.)
With that being said, this story had the potential to be better. Some niggling issues:
-There were times where I felt the dialogue was forced and not completely natural. It wasn't awful but this is something I look at closely when I'm reading- especially in a short form story like a comic book. (I'm kind of an annoying person. I know.)
-The layout of speech bubbles was not always intuitive and I read out of order multiple times. Maybe that doesn't matter to you seasoned-comic-book-readers out there, but for someone like me who only started reading comics a year ago, the intuitiveness of speech bubbles is a big deal.
-I feel like there could've been more character and plot development. I know a comic book issue is only like 20-30 pages and people want action, but I thought the story was fun and I wanted it to dig a little deeper.
All-in-all, Princeless Book 1 was really good. I'm excited to read more!