(courtesy Abrams Books)
Think you know the legend of King Arthur?
Think again, my friends in the yelling, scremaing, frenetically colourful and boisterous chaos of Fierce the Fcked-up Fairytale of a Fed-up Princess by Geoffroy Monde (story) and Mathieu Burniat (artwork/layout/colours), the much-told story of the fictional (?) hero of English fightback against invading forces and rampant injustice, gets a whole other sheen added to it.
Specifically, the idea that King Arthur, long past his glory days, has had his mind addled by the powerful influences of his sword Excalibur and lost in addiction and befuddlement, has bequeathed his kingdom chaos and hellish frantic madness as its day-to-day defaults.
In the midst of all this madness, and there is much about the kingdom that is far from a normal sane conduct of affairs, lives a very frustrated princess named Ysabelle who does what she can to shake up the suffocating contraints of life in the Arthurian court but who chafes at almost every turn over edicts and events over which she has no control.
Even worse, her father has agreed to marry her off to an odious baron who seems to view it as his birthright to take what is his, whether those being taken, in this case, Ysabelle, want to be taken at all.
Which, it will surprise you not a jot to learn, our feisty, independent protagonist very much does not want to be taken, embarking on a huge adventure through her father’s kingdom, and well beyond, to chart her own path in life, even though that is very much not the done thing for princesses who are supposed to be seen and not heard.
And who are definitely not supposed to wield swords, and fight in battles, and gasp! shock! horror! have control over any part of their destiny.
Ysabelle fights against the status quo at every turn, and much of the great joy of Fierce the Fcked-up Fairytale of a Fed-up Princess is the way in which she launches boldly into the fray, sometimes getting it right, often getting it wrong but always sticking to a deep sense of her worth and sense of vibrant independence.
As stataments of feminist ideals and authentic self go, Fierce the Fcked-up Fairytale of a Fed-up Princess can’t be beat, with every gorgeously colourful abd vivaciously evocative page – the world-building is sublime and magically real in ways that delight the ideas and charm the soul, even in the darkest scenes – underscoring what a badass Ysabelle is, or at least wants to be.
That’s the thing about Fierce the Fcked-up Fairytale of a Fed-up Princess – Ysabells is very much a work in progress, and though she knows what she wants to be in general, macro terms, much of the narrative momentum comes from her figuring out what the micro manifestation of those sizably independent goals looks like.
It’s also a story of healing and of coming to terms with the fact that what you think should or needs to happen may not be what you or your home or those around need at all, and that if you get it wrong, it’s okay to admit that and try again.
Which Ysabelle does and it’s gloriously good and wonderfully to read every enchantingly written and illustrates step of the way.
Fierce the Fcked-up Fairytale of a Fed-up Princess is an absolutely gutsy, fun and frantic gem that’s funny, dark, sad, alive, happy and energetically determined, every page alive with punchy words and gorgeously vibrant inages, their collective impact being to sing a love letter to authenticity, truth and self-determination and to how it’s totally okay to figure things out as you go along, because if you’re paying attention, and Ysabelle most certainly is, you’ll get it right in the end.
Fierce the Fcked-up Fairytale of a Fed-up Princess is available from Abrams ComicArts.
