Title:
Rat Queens Deluxe Edition Volume 1.
US Title Link.
Author:
Kurtis J Wiebe.
Contributors: Stjepan Šejić, Tess Fowler, Roc Upchurch.
Genre:
Graphic Novels, Fantasy, High Fantasy.
Series: Rat Queens (#1-10.)
A
few starting notes:
I
received a free digital review copy of this book via NetGalley.
NetGalley provides review copies from publishers in exchange for fair
and honest reviews.
I'd heard Rat Queens talked about on various sites as being worth the read, so when the chance to review the Deluxe Edition (US link) of Volume 1 came up, I decided to give it a shot.
Premise:
Palisade is a city filled with adventurer gangs - the toughest being the Rat Queens. The Queens are made up of Violet the dwarf, Hannah the elven mage, Dee the apostate (ex) cult priestess, and Betty, the smidgen (kind of like a small elf.)
Unfortunately, the girls are soon going to have something more on their minds than just the normal bar-brawls and quest-type cash jobs.
Best
bits:
This has a fab style, bright but with a real gothic-fantasy-art kind of vibe. It's not unlike the style of artwork in Death Vigil Volume 1 (you can see my review of that here,) and when I saw that Stjepan Šejić was a contributor, that kind of made sense.
What I really loved was that here were female characters who, yes, are beautiful, and yes, enjoy their sex lives, but also have wobbly bits and (relatively) realistic curves. They're shaped like actual people - which is a little odd considering most of them aren't human, but meh, c'est la vie.
The whole book has a vivacious blend of humour and seriousness, which keeps the plot positively zipping along.
And you have to laugh at Betty - she's a weird mix of adorable and terrifying: what's not to love?
The extras (cover gallery, shorts, and special 'Braga' story,) are a nice addition.
Not
so great bits:
This isn't a book for the easily offended (man, I end up saying that a lot - is it just the type of thing I read?) There's a bunch of violence and drugs and swearing, some sexual content, and some full-frontal nudity. So, yeah, just a day at the office really.
It did take me a while to get into this book - I don't know why, it just didn't grab me straight off. Once I got into it though, I was hooked.
The only other thing I would really mention in terms of down-sides is that some of the details of the Rat Queens' lives pre-Queens feels a little stuffed in. I don't think that that level of detail was actually needed for all four of them at this point. An off-hand comment here and there would've cut whole pages with very little disadvantage to the story as a whole. But, as complaints go, it's a very minor one.
Verdict:
A fun and bold graphic novel where the ladies take centre stage without losing the complexity of their characters. These chicks kick butt, with plenty of sh**s and giggles along the way.
