Rat Queens

A series review

Rat Queens series

1. Sass & Sorcery by Kurtis J. Wiebe with Roc Upchurch (Illustrator), Ed Brisson (Illustrator)
2. The Far Reaching Tentacles of N’Rygoth by Kurtis J. Wiebe with Roc Upchurch (Illustrator), Stjepan Šejić (Illustrator)
3. Demons by Kurtis J. Wiebe with Tess Fowler (Illustrator), Tamra Bonvillain (Illustrator)
4. High Fantasies by Kurtis J. Wiebe with Owen Gieni (Illustrator)
5. The Colossal Magic Nothing by Kurtis J. Wiebe with Owen Gieni (Illustrator)
6. The Infernal Path by Kurtis J. Wiebe with Owen Gieni (Illustrator)
7. The Once and Future King by Ryan Ferrier with Marco Lesko(Illustrator), Priscilla Petraites(Illustrator)
8. The God Dilemma by Ryan Ferrier with Casey Silver(Illustrator), Marco Lesko(Illustrator), Priscilla Petraites(Illustrator), Moritat(Illustrator)

Volumes are 128 to 160 pages. Published by Image Comics from 2014 to 2021.

Graphic Novel – Fantasy – Comics

Synopsis:

Who are the Rat Queens? A pack of booze-guzzling, death-dealing battle maidens-for-hire, and they’re in the business of killing all god’s creatures for profit. It’s also a darkly comedic sass-and-sorcery series starring Hannah the Rockabilly Elven Mage, Violet the Hipster Dwarven Fighter, Dee the Atheist Human Cleric and Betty the Hippy Smidgen Thief. This modern spin on an old school genre is a violent monster-killing epic that is like Buffy meets Tank Girl in a Lord of the Ringsworld on crack.

My thoughts:

This was a fun series to read. We follow a group of hard drinking mercenaries on multiple adventures and quests in search of enough money to cover the bar tab.

There was a single underlying story that went through the whole series as well as side quests that didn’t have much or anything to do with the main story.

It did get a little confusing because it jumped around a bit with the storyline. For example, when I started volume 4 I was confused enough to go back to the end of volume 3 to make sure I was remembering it correctly. Some things were explained, others never were.

The multiple change of artists was a bit off putting too, but after a couple of pages you get used to each new style. My favorites being the the less cartoonish, most realistic style of the first 3 volumes. All 8 were well drawn in their own way though.

Series rating: 4⭐️

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