This is a comic that combines several fairy-tales and folk-tales into one cohesive story, and pulls it off amazngly well. I may be biased toward this from liking it too much.
No Rest For The Wicked is a story about Princess November, the youngest of four daughters, who had not been able to sleep ever since the moon had disappeared. Her father decided that a royal wedding would cure her ailment, but November knew that it would help nothing, so she decided to run away, seeking the help of the most clever man in the kingdom in that he may be of some help in finding the missing moon. This "man," Perrault, turns out to be the mastermind behind the most successful fraud in the entire kingdom, and he is more than happy to simply stay where he is at first. She does convince him to come with her after some clever negotiations, however, and when they come to the forest, they meet Red, a cold, mysterious girl that November had met before.
I love several things about this comic, but formost are the characters, art and pacing. The characters are extremely well-defined, the art is very expressive, giving us poses and facial expressions that let us get even more into character, and the dialogue follows a certain flow that makes me have to look at the next page. Not many comics do all that for me.
Princess November
Original: As the titular character from the Princess And The Pea, she came into a prince's home one night in the rain, looking for shelter. The prince was rather snotty, looking for a true princess without flaw. She lay on twenty mattresses with a pea underneath all of them, and she somehow managed to become "black and blue" since the pea disturbed her sleep. According to the prince, someone so delicate must be a true princess.
Wicked: Still not able to sleep, November has a hard time doing anything by herself. She is used to someone always assisting her in all her activities, including getting in and out of bed. This offsets her royal indignity, which is rather innefective once she is outside of her castle. She is very perceptive, though, able to sense things that most others cannot.
Perrault
Original: As the sole possession of an orphaned boy, Puss In Boots not only ensured the boy's survival, but composed an elaborate series of tricks in order to make the boy seem like a Marquis and be wed into the royal family.
Wicked: Still doing all of the work for his "master," Perrault has become content with his life of eating whenever he wants, sleeping wherever he wants and chasing mice for sport. He is cynical and very Machiavellian, but also rather polite and funny. When November presents him witha new challenge, he is intrigued...
Red
Original: Little Red Riding Hood went through the woods to her grandmother's house, where the wolf ate the grandma, disguised himself, then ate Red as well. If you're a Neil Gaiman fan, you've probably read about the darker version of the story, in which the wolf had her throw her clothes on the fire and eat her grandmother's flesh and blood, thinking it was bread and wine. Ew.
Wicked: After somehow getting better, Red has taken up residence in her grandmother's house where she makes a living by killing wolves. She is cold, mysterious, dark and makes no pretenses of who she really is or what she thinks, although her motives are a bit shrouded in mystery. She and Perrault don't get along very well.
The art in this comic is really good. Layout is imaginative and easy to follow, as well as pleasing to look at. Linework is great and varied, and combined with different shades it makes a fine level of detail. Character postures and faces really let us into their soul, and what little coloring there is is also well-placed. The only problem with the art is perspectives, as sometimes things that are supposed to look far-away appear closer than they should be, and vice-verca. Also, whenever someone is travelling uphill, it looks funny. The perspectives can be a bit jarring, taking me temporarily out of the story to notice them, but I quickly learned to overlook them.
Dialogue and pacing is also incredible. Perrault, being as clever as he is, has the best lines, but November (with her delicate indignity) and Red (with her dark cynicism) give us some good ones too. The converstations flow so well that it's hard for me to stop reading, even if I've read the comic ten times already.
All in all, this is one of my favorites. I just love good characters and pacing. It's a bit of a shame that it's so short right now (nearly done with the second chapter) but that won't be a problem forever. I just hope it keeps up what it's been doing so far. |
