Writer: Marguerite Bennett | Illustrator: Trungles | Letterer: Rachel Deering
Fairytale Retelling, Comic, Fantasy
Digital (23 pages, Rosy Press)
Enter a beautiful fantasy kingdom with writer Marguerite Bennett, artist Trungles, and letterer Rachel Deering! A young woman and her lover risk everything to be together. Readers will find a very different retelling of the classic fairy tale, although this version has many beasts and a few beauties!
A lush, poetic must-read retelling! (5 stars)
If you've been following RhiReading since its inception you've probably noticed how fairy tale obsessed I am. I'm honestly not sure where my interest in them began but I have a very vivid memory of listening to a vinyl record of Beauty and the Beast over and over as a little girl. My interest has persisted for as long as I can recall and variations on the Beauty and the Beast theme continue to be one of my favorites.
Having backed Fresh Romance from Rosy Press on Kickstarter earlier this year I have been continually impressed with the work they put together so I was very excited to pick up my copy of BEAUTIES today. I had seen the gorgeous preview pages at Comic Book Resources yesterday so I was certain it would be worth every penny and I can happily report that it is.
I'm almost embarrassed to report that I devoured this in one sitting then immediately wanted to go tag a couple of my author friends whom I know would love it too. The illustrations are so bright and vivid, so elegant and expressive that I just want to stare at them for hours. The lettering is never distracting and has a delicate flow that very much suits that style of the art. But the writing is what really got me. It's poetic and luminous in a way that I've never seen in a comic. I want to read it aloud to myself.
While it feels as if this is a finished tale, I hope that there will be more Beauties comics in the near future. I highly recommend this to fairy tale retelling fans and in particular women with a desire to read more comics that just can't get into superheroes or the middle-grade characters that seem to be popular. Check this out if you love The Last Unicorn or Fables.
Find Beauties, Fresh Romance, and more fantastic romance comics at: