Category: fantasy

Ladies of the Knight Review on Comics Beat

~ Kathryn ~ Leave a comment

Comics Beat recently gave the opportunity to write a review for the graphic novel Ladies of the Knight, which just came out earlier in July. This book is so much fun! If you’re into knights and ladies and lady knights and nonbinary knights of all shapes and sizes, this one is for you.

I’m not typically a fan of sports stories. A great deal of the culture surrounding sports in real life has always felt unwelcoming to me, especially as someone who has trouble navigating gender binaries. Thankfully, Ladies of the Knight is modeled on the colorful inclusivity of roller derby, and it brings the same joyful spirit of competition to a story about an older knight who has to learn how to deal with her squire’s youthful enthusiasm.

Here’s an excerpt from my review:

From the immense mainstream popularity of the dark fantasy game Elden Ring to the continued success of the crowdfunded series of knight-themed art books published by Dames Productions, medieval knights seem to be having a cultural moment.

Given the enthusiasm of young and queer art communities, I suspect this love for knights has less to do with a conservative interest in the history of Western Europe and more to do with a speculative imagination that has shifted away from science fiction as the technological dreams of the twentieth century have been tainted by recent associations with the dystopian realities of corporate enshittification. Fantasies celebrating difference and otherness were once projected onto robots free of human limitations, but perhaps it now makes more sense to tell stories about knights who aim for greatness while still being bound within the confines of their humanity and human relationships.

You can read the full review on Comics Beat here:
https://www.comicsbeat.com/ladies-of-the-knight-review/

The Book of Murmurs Review on Comics Beat

~ Kathryn ~ Leave a comment

I recently had the opportunity to write a review of The Book of Murmurs, a new graphic novel from Fantagraphics about a young girl who goes on a magical journey through a fantasy world.

You probably think you know what you’re getting from that description, but this is an incredibly rich and dense story. I actually had to push back my review because, as I explained to my editor, I wasn’t expecting this book to be House of Leaves Junior. Formulating the basic outline of the plot was an intriguing challenge, and I had to do a fair bit of outside research, which included finding interviews with the artist while studying her social media posts. In case this sounds like a bad thing, please rest assured that The Book of Murmurs is well worth the time and effort.

Here’s an excerpt from my review:

In a launch day interview, Purwin describes her work as a reflection of her experience as a child growing up in the 1980s, when lush fantasy films like Labyrinth and The Secret of Nimh were suffused with sinister undertones and didn’t always make sense. Purwin says that she created The Book of Murmurs for her younger self, who would stay up late to watch movies like Stand by Me and then spend days dwelling on the unfamiliar imagery while processing a lingering sense of unease. The Book of Murmurs perfectly captures the sense of fascination with forms and meanings half-glimpsed through shadows, always asking compelling questions that don’t have straightforward answers.

I’d like to expand on my review here and say that I would have loved The Book of Murmurs as a kid. As an adult who appreciates the fragmented and nonlinear storytelling of The Magnus Archives and Bloodborne, I really enjoyed getting lost in this graphic novel. Based on the artist’s gorgeous and heartbreaking social media minicomics about Palestinian refugees, I also get the sense that there are strong political currents underlying the adventure story, and I hope this book receives the sympathetic scholarly attention it deserves. It’s so good.

You can read my full review on Comics Beat here:
https://www.comicsbeat.com/book-of-murmurs-review/

Forest of Fallen Knights

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Forest of Fallen Knights
https://felrasyr.itch.io/forest-of-fallen-knights

Forest of Fallen Knights is a free-to-play Game Boy narrative adventure game that takes about 30-40 minutes to finish. Though the game is visually modeled after Link’s Awakening, its setting and story are a homage to Dark Souls.

You play as a nameless adventurer who’s found himself alone and unarmed at the bottom of a cave. After the ghost of a knight offers him a sword, the adventurer emerges into a dense forest dotted with ruined houses that were once inhabited by the knights who fled from a devastating war. Though no longer alive, neither can the knights die. Your job, as the still-living adventurer, is to help them make peace with their regrets.

Admittedly, it’s unclear what purpose your good deeds will serve in the long run, given that the knights are eternally unable to pass on. Perhaps the adventurer should take care that their curse doesn’t pass to him as well…

Forest of Fallen Knights consists of about twenty overworld screens, as well as an additional dozen screens inside caves and houses. The gameplay involves walking around, talking to everyone, and taking on simple fetch quests. There’s some (very) basic combat, as well as a small dungeon that requires a moderate level of pattern memorization and dexterity. Save crystals are generously scattered throughout the forest, so you won’t lose much progress if you happen to die. For the most part, the swordplay serves to add texture to what is largely an exploration-based adventure.

The game’s writing is simple but effective. Now that everything they once fought for is gone, the undead knights are attempting to maintain their hold on what was most important to them in life. Any one of their fetch quests might come off as sentimental on its own; but, in aggregate, the player gets a strong sense of how pathetic and regrettable the situation truly is.

There are a few secrets to find in the game, though they aren’t too terribly well-hidden. If the player is moderately observant, perhaps the adventurer might reveal his reason for venturing into the forest, and perhaps he might even find a means to release the fallen knights from their curse. If not, the default ending is more than sufficiently satisfying.

As a fan of both Link’s Awakening and Dark Souls, I feel like Forest of Fallen Knights was made for me specifically, and the time I spent with this game coalesced into a pocket of unadulterated joy. It’s therefore difficult for me to be objective, but I still think it’s fair to say that Forest of Fallen Knights is well-crafted, thoughtfully considered, and at the top of the pile of homebrew Game Boy adventure games.

Many kudos to the developer, NeroGames (who is on Bluesky here). I’m always here for indie artists who use the retro gaming medium to share strange and haunting stories.

Under the Temple

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The Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time is one of the most intriguing dungeons in the Zelda series. It’s so beautiful and full of mystery! One of my favorite areas of the temple is the peaceful underground waterway connecting the two courtyards on either side of the main hall. This is not in the least because the upper walkway provides healing hearts that are extremely welcome after Link’s first battle against a Stalfos. If Link grabs all three hearts the first time through the sewer, there will only be one heart on his return through the passage.

Where did that additional heart come from? Where do any of these hearts come from? Perhaps it’s best not to think about it too hard.

I have very little experience drawing architecture, but hopefully this works to my benefit in conveying the brutalism of the building lines in early 3D games. The primitive perspective scaling isn’t an issue in open spaces with organic shapes like the Kokiri Forest, but it feels somewhat uncanny in confined interior spaces. I get the sense that the game developers understood this, as the slightly off-kilter straight lines of the sewer tunnel are a nice foil against the luxurious twisting corridors of the temple’s upper levels, which are equally confounding to the eye. Poor Link… that kid has seen some shit.

Review of Shadows of the Sea on Comics Beat

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I recently had the privilege of writing a review for Comics Beat about Cathy Malkasian’s new graphic novel, Shadows of the Sea. I have to admit that I struggled with Malkasian’s previous books, which are brilliant but tonally dark and emotionally devastating. Shadows of the Sea is just as strange and heartbreaking as the artist’s earlier work, but it ends on a gloriously high note that gives me hope for the future. I was prepared to write a review about the value of portraying despair in dark times, but man. Hope is good too.

Here’s an excerpt:

In his review on The Beat, John Seven assesses Malkasian’s 2017 graphic novel Eartha as one of the artist’s characteristic “gloomy, apocalyptic parables that don’t make you feel so great about humankind.” It’s difficult to disagree, as Eartha is deeply disquieting. In contrast, Shadows of the Sea feels like a gentler turn of the same thematic wheel, presenting a story that’s smaller in scope but richer in emotional immediacy. The fantastic world Malkasian has painted is cruel and strange, to be sure, but it still affords the possibility of healing. Shadows of the Sea lingers not because of its darkness, but because of the hope that emerges after a brave confrontation with bitter truths.

You can read the full review on Comics Beat here:
https://www.comicsbeat.com/graphic-novel-review-shadows-of-the-sea/

Green Dreams: Tales of Botanical Fantasy

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I’m excited to announce that I published a new zine! Green Dreams: Tales of Botanical Fantasy collects six illustrated stories about our relationships with plants and nature.

“Each turn of the seasons brings an end to lives both large and small, but new seeds sprout joyously from the ruins” is the zine’s tagline, and disaster is a major theme of the collection. One of the opening stories is about the gradual effects of climate change; and, in the closing story, environmental catastrophes have become so severe that humans have disappeared completely. The zine also features stories about a medical tragedy narrowly averted, the aftermath of a devastating war, and a porous biological quarantine.

I considered subtitling the zine “Tales of Botanical Dark Fantasy,” but the truth is that none of the stories are actually that “dark.” In fact, I’d say the main theme of the collection is a persistent hope for the future. At this particular moment in history, the state of the world seems very bleak, so it’s good to remember that the environment that surrounds us is much larger – but also much more personal – than whatever horrors are currently unfolding.

Precisely because are so many fires burning in the world, I think it’s important to spend time in thriving green spaces that suggest futures of shifting and changing growth. I believe that a mindful contemplation of our natural environment can also be useful in the uncomfortable but necessary process of decentering normative humanity while challenging the artificial divisions we impose on ourselves and each other.

The incredible cover art by Frankiesbugs captures the mood of these stories perfectly.

Frankie creates bold and imaginative botanical fantasy art, and I asked them to illustrate the pagan archetypes of the flower maiden and the horned god, who together represent the endless natural cycle of death and rebirth. In this zine, I wanted to play with symbols that convey the beauty and mystery of the natural world, and Frankie embraced this theme, tinging the painting with potent Christian motifs and a powerful sense of fertility.

It’s an extremely impressive piece of art, and you to check out more of the artist’s work on Instagram (here), on Bluesky (here), and on Redbubble (here).

In this collection, I did my best to share a sense of fertile “green dreams” for the future. Mostly, though, I just really wanted to write some fun ecofiction about plants and mushrooms.

If you’re interested, you can read a free digital version of the zine on Itch.io or order a print copy from Etsy.

🌿 https://digitalterrarium.itch.io/green-dreams
🌿 https://www.etsy.com/listing/4351990958/green-dreams-fantasy-fiction-zine

Review of Hero Cave on Comics Beat

~ Kathryn ~ Leave a comment

My review of Hero Cave, a dark fantasy comedy, was recently published on Comics Beat (here). This graphic novella is only about fifty pages long, but it’s surprisingly powerful and cathartic. Here’s an excerpt from my review…

It’s easy to look down on NPCs, the “non-player characters” who seem shallow and uninteresting when compared to the protagonists. It’s not so easy to realize that, in certain aspects of your life, you’re not much better than an NPC yourself. In Player vs. Monster: The Making and Breaking of Video Game Monstrosity, Jaroslav Ŝvelch explains how the construction of monsters in Dungeons & Dragons reflects the concerns of the white-collar managerial class. To the dungeon master, even a creature as miraculous as a walking skeleton is little more than a series of numbers to be entered into a spreadsheet. Given how frequently we’re all reduced to data points — by social media algorithms, by insurance companies, and certainly by employers — perhaps it’s worthwhile to extend a bit of sympathy to a low-level skeleton.

You can read the full review on Comics Beat here:
https://www.comicsbeat.com/graphic-novel-review-hero-cave/

As an aside, Hero Cave features a type of nonbinary representation that I love to see. Waifishly thin models with stylishly androgynous faces are all well and good, but it’s frustrating that only attractive and nonthreatening “childlike” body types are commonly understood as being nonbinary. I believe we should have a bit more range in our representation, while also not limiting ourselves to conventional notions of “humanity.”

Why, for example, does a cartoon skeleton need to fit into a binary notion of gender? Also, if a character is an undead eldritch monstrosity, it’s silly to think that their nonbinary gender identity is the most interesting thing about them. Hero Cave demonstrates a refreshing lack of concern for the gender of its skeleton protagonist, but that doesn’t preclude the possibility of queer sexuality serving as an escape from the restrictive confines of hellworld capitalism. I didn’t want to get into this aspect of the book in my review, but it’s brilliant, and it means a lot of me personally.

Review of Bramble on Comics Beat

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My review of Hollow Press’s newest publication, Bramble, was posted on Comics Beat!

Hollow Press is an Italian micropress that publishes strategy guides for dark fantasy adventure games that don’t exist. Their most well-known book is Vermis (which I wrote about here), but I think Bramble is probably more accessible to a wider readership. It’s very weird and creative, and the art style is a lot of fun. Here’s an excerpt from my review…

Bramble is a worthy successor to Vermis, and the book proudly stands on its own as an accessible introduction to the emerging genre of original strategy guides. Its story is driven by the forward momentum of a traditional graphic novel and augmented by the intriguingly fragmented worldbuilding presented by digital RPGs. As a physical object, Bramble also suggests the nostalgic mystery of forgotten media, and the reader can easily imagine coming across this book hidden in the back of a closet or buried at the bottom of a box at a flea market. 

You can read the full review on Comics Beat here:
https://www.comicsbeat.com/graphic-novel-review-bramble/

The Wisdom of the Waiting Princess

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The Wisdom of the Waiting Princess is an empowering feminist reading of how the trope of the “captive princess” applies to the Zelda of the original 1986 game. While this Zelda is an action hero in her own right, her wisdom manifests in her remarkable ability to lay plans for the future.

You can read the essay on AO3 here:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/67410167

I had the honor of contributing this essay to Silent Princess: A Zelda Zine. The zine’s website is on Carrd (here), and you can check out the art and writing featured in the zine on its Tumblr site (here). Leftover sales of the zine merch are currently open (here), and you can still pick up a digital copy of the zine (here). All profits from zine sales will go to support Doctors Without Borders.

This original design for Princess Zelda was created by Hollarity, who put an incredible amount of love and care into portraying the character as a courageous young woman who is fully capable of going on her own adventures. You can find more of Holly’s gorgeous artwork on her website (here).

Escaped Chasm

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Escaped Chasm
https://tuyoki.itch.io/escaped-chasm

Escaped Chasm is a 25-minute dark fantasy adventure game created in RPG Maker with a mix of retro Game Boy graphics and anime-style cutscenes. Originally released in 2019, it’s the first stand-alone project of Temmie Chang, a longtime collaborator of Toby Fox who contributed character designs and graphics to Undertale and Deltarune.

You play as a young teenage “Lonely Girl” who doesn’t leave the house and lives vicariously through her dreams and art. Her parents appear to have gone missing, and she doesn’t know what to do. To make matters worse, she’s tired all the time, and a strange man has started appearing in her house.

Something is seriously wrong, and the Lonely Girl has four days to figure it out and escape. If leaving the house isn’t an option, where can she go? And how can she find the courage to leave?

Escaped Chasm is free to download, and the zip file contains an illustrated guide to the game’s four endings. I get the feeling that most players will probably see the good ending simply by playing the game naturally, but it’s nice to have grimdark alternatives. After unlocking the good ending, the player is able to enter and explore a bonus “developer’s room” that I love with all my heart. It’s fascinating to read Chang’s thoughts about making the game while checking out extra material that fills out a few gaps in the story.

Both Toby Fox and Temmie Chang were fans of and contributors to Homestuck, and it’s possible to see its influence on Escaped Chasm. It’s difficult to summarize Homestuck, but the webcomic begins as a story about four young teenagers who can’t leave their houses because they’re the last remaining survivors of a universe that’s unraveling around them. I get the sense that the Lonely Girl in Escaped Chasm is based on one of the four teenagers in Homestuck, Jade Harley, and it’s probably not a coincidence that she’s found herself in a remarkably similar situation.

Escaped Chasm is like a bridge between Homestuck and Deltarune in its theme of “using art and imagination to escape into another world,” but it’s also very much its own thing. I love Chang’s illustration style and narrative voice, and I admire how she pushes the boundaries of the medium to create a palpable sense of liminality and dread – and of catharsis and joy. Escaped Chasm is atmospheric horror with a (potentially) happy ending, and it’s idiosyncratic and self-indulgent in interesting ways that elevate it above the level of mere pastiche.

Escaped Chasm is a short test project made in preparation for Dweller’s Empty Path (on Itch.io here), a more extensive Game Boy style narrative adventure game. I really enjoyed Escaped Chasm, and I’m looking forward to jumping into Dweller’s Empty Path.