I've been promising to write a review of the Action Lab Comics fantasy adventure title Princeless for a minute. I bought the first issue last fall and eventually copped all four issues, and was really excited by it. Now that this fresh tale of a fed up young princess taking matters into her own hands has swept the Glyphs and been collected into the trade paperback Save Yourself (yes, I bought that too), I guess I need to get in gear and review this thing...I'm not gonna lie to you: I initially bought
Princeless because I have a three year old daughter, and the book had a black girl as its star. One of my goals as a parent is to raise a comics reader, and another (more important) goal is to help her grow up with a good healthy self-image. So this book would help me knock out two birds with one stone, even if it sucked! As it turns out, it's also freaking awesome! BONUS POINTS!!!
Princeless stars Adrienne, a princess stuck in a tower by her ruthless dad the King. Rather than be obligated to marry whichever prince that manages to rescue her, Adrienne makes a deal with her dragon and sets out on a quest to rescue her sisters who are likewise imprisoned.
While Adrienne may not be "fair", she is responsible, ambitious and resourceful... all the things a dad would want his daughter to be. She's also hilarious and outspoken, so your daughter will probably want to be just like her. And since I'm not evil, that's fine with me.
Princeless Book One: Save Yourself sees Adrienne escape from captivity and enlist the aid of the dragon who initially held her prisoner, not by batting her eyelashes, but by using good, old-fashioned reason. By the end of
Save Yourself, Adrienne is outfitted in her custom-made armor, with her new sidekick/ blacksmith in tow, ready to save her sisters. Meanwhile, the King is moving his forces to stop her with extreme prejudice, never suspecting that his daughter is the culprit of her own kidnapping.
I'm not sure when the next story arc of the Princeless saga will begin, but hopefully Action Lab will strike while the iron is hot, because Save Yourself left me (and my daughter) ready for more! So I definitely recommend adding Princeless Book One: Save Yourself to your bookshelf by any means necessary, so I'm adding it to the BegBorrowSteal list! enjoy!-samax.
