Deep Sequencing: The Rodent Royalty Line Of Succession

Or a look at the art hand off in Rat Queens Volume Two
by Kurtis J Wiebe, Roc Upchurch, Stjepan Sejic, and Ed Brisson; Image Comics

When it comes to comics I think there are two essential, but opposing truths: the very soul of a comic book is indelibly linked to its artist, and it is really difficult logistically for a single artist to indefinitely draw a monthly comic book. This often leads to a conflict between what makes for the best reading experience and the production cycle of a comic. Often this conflict is handled in systematic ways: delays between chapters for an artist to catch up, or alternating artists between distinct episodes in a story where art hand offs are a feature. Sometimes, though, due to unfortunate circumstances, art changes have to occur within a story, which risks the visual style and, in my eyes, the very identity of a comic.

Rat Queens had one of these hand offs, and I think it's instructive how it went.

There may be *SPOILERS* for Rat Queens Vol. 2 below.

Rat Queens Vol. 2 tells a single concrete story about vengeance and consequences and the eponymous Rat Queens facing off against the latest threat to shadow fair Palisade. Every chapter in the comic is meant to follow directly into the next and there is no in story reason for their to be substantial shifts in the artwork between chapters. Or, in other words, there isn't a creative reason within the comic to swap artists. 

That said, sad real life stuff meant that a change in artist was needed midway through Rat Queens volume two. The first chapters were drawn by Roc Upchurch, the series regular artist and co-creator of the Queens. Following his departure, the comic was taken over by Stjepan Sejic. And I think, given the circumstances, this creative change was handled exceedingly well.

While no two artists are ever completely interchangeable, since, you know, artists are actual human beings and not soulless art machines, I feel that Upchurch and Sejic have highly complementary styles. Both artists are quite skilled at facial acting and employ a highly painted style that emphasizes light in their composition. This means that the trademark character work the series relies on is well served by either artist. It also means the colours, which I think are under appreciated for their ability to impart a distinct visual tone and identity, do a really good job bridging the change and maintaining a consistent feel.  I mean, there are still obvious differences: Sejic uses bolder inks and a more photo-realistic style than Upchurch, but to my eyes I think the two artists share a common aesthetic while working on Rat Queens.

And I think this complimentary style really saves Rat Queens Volume 2. What was already a turbulent change in creative team was minimized in the actual comic by being judicious about  the creation of a new team. This meant, essentially that while the people behind Rat Queens changed, the comic itself remained familiar and visually Rat Queens. Which I think was massively important to my enjoyment of the book.

While I still think switching artists, particularly mid story is pretty much never the best creative decision, I think Rat Queens Vol. 2 teaches us that with careful attention to style, disruptions to a comic can be mitigated.

So I Read Rat Queens: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N'Rygoth

A 250 word (or less) review of Rat Queens Volume 2
by Kurits J Wiebe, Roc Upchurch and Stjepan Sejic, Image Comics

Rat Queens is an ongoing comic. To read about the first chapter go here.

Rat Queens is an extremely fun swords and sorcery adventure comic. It features the Rat Queens, Hannah the ill-tempered elven mage, dwarven warrior Violet, cultist cleric Dee, and hard-partying smidgen thief Betty. This chapter of the comic picks up in the aftermath of the last volume, with the town of Palisade recovering from the Rat Queens' last adventure a mysterious force with a powerful artifact from Dee's N'Rygoth worshipping past emerges bent on revenge against the city. But with Plaisade's defences already weakened its up to the Rat Queens and their rag-tag adventurer allies to save the town. Rat Queens Volume Two was another really enjoyable, funny fantasy story comic that does a great job building on the first chapter to make for an even better comic experience. I felt that the first Volume of Rat Queens, while really fun, relied a bit too much on character stereotypes. This was an understandable choice since it allowed the comic to quickly tell a great adventure without overtly building backstory, but resulted in some shallow feeling characterization at times. Rat Queens Volume Two manages to complicate these stereotypes and really build the characters of the world into captivating, believable people, which makes the comic feel so much richer. This volume is really where Rat Queens goes from a fun premise to a properly good comic. And, if it is any indication of the comics to come, a book I'll be reading for years to come.

Word count: 241

Previously:
Rat Queens Volume 1
Sound Advice: Rat Queens Vol. 1

Sound Advice: Rat Queens Vol. 1

Advisement on Rat Queens: Sass and Sorcery

by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch, Image Comics

Rat Queens is a title that was recommended to me by a number of comic-reading friends well before I ever considered picking up an issue. Their enthusiastic, shouted recommendations had me picking up a copy during a sale at my favorite store, where even the owner ringing up my purchase said to me “Call us when you finish that, you’re going to want more.” I devoured Rat Queens over the course of 2 days, and by the end of the trade I was mad at myself because this book was so great and I wasn’t already reading it.

Rat Queens Vol 1 Feels like an amorphous combination of straight up paperback fantasy adventure story and what I think of as trashy “chick lit”—the sort of book that I read for pure enjoyment, with no goal of educational or literary enrichment (This is not a bad thing—reading is sometimes quite legitimately about escapism). The story of Rat Queens is well-versed and grounded in the tradition of fantasy/adventure tales, but so fun and funny that it feels like it should be a guilty pleasure. It’s also unapologetically foul-mouthed and bloody, which I appreciate from my fantasy tales.

This book is straight-up fun to read.

But if you haven’t read it, assume some mild *SPOILERS* below.

This book had been described to me by numerous friends as a fantasy story if fantasy stories happened with the same dialogue as a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.  As I read through it, I was surprised with how accurate this description was—I had heard this said about the book so many times that I kept expecting to turn the page and be confronted with the tabletop game controlling the Rat Queens, but it never happened.

Rat Queens is almost the antithesis of trying too hard—the book flows, with casual dialogue, a quick-paced and easy to follow plot, and characters that are entertaining and relatable, while remaining interesting. In all of the best ways, reading Rat Queens fells akin to watching a well-done sitcom—I’m laughing, I care about the characters, and I want to keep exploring more. 

Wiebe and Upchurch do a fantastic job balancing this fun style with the hallmarks of a fantasy tale. Our heroines fight, swear, revel, drink, and fight some more.  The embark upon a quest, encounter a mystery, and must work together with people and groups outside of their own to confront a problem. For all that the story arc feels almost comfortingly familiar to this long time fantasy reader, Rat Queens is a breath of fresh air. The Queens are self-aware enough to give credit to others for great lines said in battle, or mock fantasy-world stereotypes, such as the good sight of elves, embracing the best fantasy tropes without feeling weighted down by them.

 One of the things Rat Queens does incredibly well is the causal, free dialogue, peppered with a large number of jokes. The choice to use modern language and slang is one of the elements of the story that had me flipping pages and rooting for our characters – If I was fighting monsters, my vocabulary would be much closer to that of the Queens than of those fantasy novels I grew up on. The Rat Queens and company are foul-mouthed in the way you would expect a person to be when faced with an army of trolls.

 The interesting supporting characters also play into my enjoyment of this story – The Rat Queens themselves are interesting and becoming more and  more multifaceted as the story goes  on, but I’m just as charmed by the Sawyer, the captain of the guard, by the other bands of adventures (The Four Daves make me smile all the way through), and even by the band of trolls the Queens eventually fight. I want to know more about our main quartet of heroes, but I also really want to spend more time with these awesome supporting characters.

Wiebe and Upchurch should also get some real credit for a book with consistently diverse representation. I noticed this immediately with our four main characters, women of different body types and ethnicity, but as I read I also noticed it in the background—the setting is populated by characters with a range of skin colors and body types. We also see some representation of diverse sexual orientation and religious beliefs and ideologies, though this is a harder type of diversity to represent in a visual medium. I did find that occasionally this can feel a bit forced—Dee and Betty talking about Dee’s religious beliefs while working to infiltrate a guild office comes to mind – but intent is there, and the heart of the story is in the right place.

Rat Queens will be staying on my list as a book I follow in trades. Volume One is a solid opening arc, a full story that leaves tendrils of further story to be explored in future installments. I want to know more about the characters, sure, but more than anything else, I want to spend more time in the world Wiebe & Upchurch have created—a diverse fantasyland populated by foul-mouthed, bad-ass adventurers. There is always space in my life for a read that gets me turning pages and leaves me smiling. I’ve already begun to shout my own loud, enthusiastic recommendations at friends.

Post by Jennifer DePrey

Previously:

So I Read Rat Queens

So I Read Rat Queens: Sass And Sorcery

A 250 word (or less) review of Rat Queens Volume One
By Kurtis J Weibe and Roc Upchurch; Image Comics Shadowline

Palisade is an idyllic fantasy town filled with gorgeous houses, bustling commerce, and ruckus taverns where the races of the world can meet in peace and goodwill. Except for those damn riotous adventurers. The worst and best of which are The Rat Queens: Hannah the tattooed and vulgar elven sorceress, Betty the mischievous Smidgen thief, Violet the deeply-unique Dwarven warrior, and Dee the agnostic cleric of the flying squid god N'Rygoth. And so the town of Palisade sends The Rat Queens and the other adventuring bands of the town on a series of quests. Quests designed to take care of the adventurer problem once and for all. Rat Queens is the definition of a fun comic: it's a rollicking swords and sorcery adventure with a modern sensibility and cheeky sense of humour. It's also a pretty involving comic: a core cast of charismatic characters and decent little mystery manage to keep Rat Queens racing along. This is a comic that, for all of its fun, manages a level of complexity that keeps things engaging and from devolving into just a silly romp. Also so much cussing and vulgarity! If you are looking for an exciting, character driven comic that doesn't take itself too seriously, Rat Queens would be an excellent comic to try.

Post by Michael Bround

Word count: 213