I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: KACY & CLAYTON-“How to Fight Loneliness” (from WILCOvered, UNCUT Magazine November 2019).

The November 2019 issue of UNCUT magazine had a cover story about Wilco.  It included a 17 track CD of bands covering Wilco (called WILcovered or WILCOvered).  I really enjoyed this collection and knew most of the artists on it already, so I’m going through the songs one at a time.

I was not familiar with Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum (a Canadian folk duo).

This song has a bit of menace in the delivery.  I’m not sure if it’s the way Kacy sings a bit like Aimee Mann or in the bass/organ combination.  The original is a bit more spare (although still minor key).

The guitar work (from Clayton) is very pretty, both the initial acoustic and then the sharper electric. There’s a great guitar solo mid-song.

I really like this version and will definitely check out more from this duo.

[READ: February 19, 2020] Princeless: Book One

After heaving read book three in this series, I figured I should go back and see how it all started.  This book collected issues 1-4.

This book opens with a cartoony drawing of a fairy tale.  A princess in a tower is saved by a handsome knight and they get married and live happily ever after.

On the next page, the little girl hearing the story says it is complete hogwash.

Then the girl, who is our heroine, Adrienne, lists the plot holes:

What kind of dragon dies from one blow?
How does the prince get the princess from the tower.  He climbed?  And then climbed down with her?  Because she sure didn’t with those toothpick arms.
And who would put a princess in a tower, what kind of grudge would you need against her to do that?
Plus, the cost of a tower would be more than her dowry!
You’re gonna put a dragon, a wild animal, in charge of your daughter.  What if it wanders off?  What if it kills her?

All she knows is when she turns 16 her parents better not put her in a….

cut to next page tower.  We see poor 16 year-old Adrienne locked in a tower guarded by a (very pink) dragon. The dragon is named Sparky and this dragon is not too scary.  Well, she is since she is a dragon, but she’s not as scary as some dragons.  I mean, she does manage to eat all of the knights who try to rescue the princess.

Turns out that all of her sisters have been locked in their own towers and none have been rescued yet.  Their dad, the king, is pretty intense.

While looking around her room, she finds a sword under her bed.  Where did that come from?  She asks Sparky if she can become a hero, but Sparky is having none of it.  Until Adrienne reveals that Sparky is part of the problem–that she was hired to guard Adrienne against princes.  Sparky is devastated when she learns this.  She thought the princes were just showing up as snacks.

They agree to go on a quest to save the other princesses and maybe to help Sparky find her own family (om a dragon farm up north).

We cut to the king who is yelling at another failed prince.  He says that he hired the dumbest dragon he could find in hopes that someone would rescue Adrienne.  But no. What is wrong with these princes?

He wants a king for his kingdom!

When his wife asks about their son Devin, he scoffs that the boy would rather play dress up than rule.

We see Devin training in sword fighting with his father (and he is terrible).  During the training, a guard runs in to say that Adrienne is dead!  Her tower was burnt to the ground and there is no sign of her or the dragon.

The king plans to hunt the knight and the dragon who killed his daughter.  But as he assembles his men, Sparky flies up to the castle and Adrienne (covered in armor) jumps through the window to encounter Devin.  Devin is so upset about Adrienne’s death that he charges the knight.  Eventually Adrienne reveals herself and Devin is so happy that she is alive that he starts crying.

He also reveals that he put the sword in her room because he knows how much better at sword fighting she is.  The king’s guard rush in and Adrienne jumps out the window only to be saved by Sparky.

They fly away and go to an armor maker.  It is Bedelia Smith. She shows off the armor for women and it is all terribly sexist.  The outfits are very popular–at least among fans of women warriors.

Adrienne reveals to Bedelia that just because a warrior is a woman doesn’t mean they have to wear a chain mail bikini.  They could wear real armor.  “Just because I have a woman’s body doesn’t mean I have to show it to everyone, especially if I’m on a quest.”  NICE!

Bedelia is inspired to make proper armor for a proper female warrior.  And she makes something beautiful.  But Adrienne will need money to buy the armor so she asks Sparky if she knows where there’s some gold.  Sparky flies away and comes back with a chest filled with gold (as a dragon, of course she has some in her lair).  While Adrienne is bringing it to Bedelia, some soldiers spot her and confrontation ensues.  It tracks also the way back to Bedelia’s shop.

Bedelia is able to break up the fight with a big blow of her massive hammer (she is part dwarf after all).  Bedelia thinks that was so much fun and she wants to go on a quest with Adrienne.

The book ends with a shot of her youngest sister Appalonia with a giant Minotaur hovering over her.

It’s a terrific story and there are about ten books in the series!

This book has a bonus cartoon called “Mr Froggy.”

It stars Prince Wilcome as a bratty kid who does not want to go to Prince Charming school. He’d much rather just hang out with frogs.  But he is forced to go to Prince Charming school (which he hates, until he realizes he’s pretty good at it).  Turns out Prince Wilcome was the prince we saw try to rescue Adrienne who was defeated.  We see him locked in a dungeon, but at least there’s a frog there.

I didn’t really love the drawing style in this book. The colors were also kind of flat.  It’s entirely possible that this was a poor quality book (it was a small size rather than standard graphic novel size) and the print was very faint.  But I like the art in future issues much more.