Comic Review: Rat Queens #2

A bit of a departure from writer Kurtis Wiebe’s usually somewhat more serious work, Rat Queens is a fantasy-comedy by Wiebe and co-creator/artist Roc Upchurch. The titular Rat Queens are an all-female group of adventurers that keep the town of Palisade safe from all kinds of monsters, goblins, bandits, and assorted beasties. But, the raging parties and barroom brawls started by the Rat Queens have done more damage than all the monsters ever did. After another such destructive brawl, the Rat Queens are sentenced to community service, clearing out a cave, much to their chagrin.

With the mysterious assassin from last issue and the untimely appearance of a troll, the Rat Queens have seen better days. After Hannah takes a big hit, the rest of the Queens take down the troll in an inventive manner. After the battle, the group heads back to Palisade, only to find that they did much better than most of the adventuring groups. The night, of course, ends with rounds at the tavern and the next day begins with a hangover and curiously missing Hannah.

Kurtis Wiebe makes this whole fantasy/comedy comic thing look completely effortless. There have been few comics in the last year, or few year for that matter, that hit their stride so well and early on and do it completely naturally. Rat Queens has a cast of diverse and developed characters that are immediately loved by the reader. Even better are all the subtle jokes and quips between the group, really showing their relationships. The world of the book is, again, well done, being a typical fantasy world with some very modern and interesting twists. All in all, it’s just a well constructed story and cast, making the book a joy to read.

Roc Upchurch makes the world of Rat Queens all the richer with his art. It’s especially nice to note that each of the female adventurers is drawn in a complete realistic way. Betty, a Hobbit-like Smidgen, is drawn extremely petite in comparison to the others and has a small figure, while the larger races, such as the human Dee and the elf Hannah, are drawn a bit more full-figured. Upchurch adds an incredible amount of expression and personality to the characters with the way he draws their facial expressions and body language. When Hannah and Violet have a quick tiff, it’s easy to see just how irritated Hannah is about Violet only drinking wine on principle.

Rat Queens is one of those rare books that seems to hit all the right notes with its first few issues. It’s everything you’d expect from a lewd game of all-girl D&D, and so much more. It blends the fantasy aspects with the comedy and the action so effortlessly that it’s almost like this is the book Wiebe was born to write and Upchurch was always meant to draw it. Long story short, buy this book and be sure to pick up the reprint of issue one if you missed out.

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