The Legend of Bold Riley #1

The Legend of Bold Riley #2

by Leia Weathington, Jonathon Dalton (Artist), Brittney Sabo (Artist)

Bold Riley - who has set out to find adventure in the lands beyond her home of Prakkalore - comes across a fragment of bone that shares a tale of lost love. Riley tries to reunite the lost spirit with its beloved, but soon discovers that all is not as it seems. (Near Mint)

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

24 pages, Comic

First published August 9, 2015

Reviews

[Zimmy W]

Hm I'm not really sure how to rate this one.

It's hard to read about a character when we don't really learn anything about her. There's no exposition, and we are simply throw in, slice of life style. I didn't hate it - I love sapphic stories! - but I didn't like it.

[Quinn]

It was fine, if unexceptional. The story starts "in medias res," with the eponymous "Bold Riley," having already given up her title of princess for a life of freedom. The opening pages gesture toward grand adventures and heartbreak (and presumably, a relationship with another woman), but none are explicitly shown in the work itself. The artwork is also fine, if a bit lo-res (I'm reading this work on a tablet via the Kindle app, for whatever that's worth).

With that being said, I would hesitate to give the work more than three stars for a variety of reasons. Riley doesn't really grow over the course of the work; she seemed righteous and adventurous before the start of the story, and ended that way too. The main "threat" of the story wasn't a threat to our protagonist, and their "conflict" was resolved in a pretty anti-climactic way, too*. Finally, the story is so short and the characters so broadly rendered I found it hard to get invested.

Ultimately, I found the work to be an easy, quick read. It didn't impress me, but it didn't overstay its welcome either. Perhaps the next volume will be better?

* SPOILERS: The main conflict is between Riley and a malicious well spirit that eats the bones of young men. The two never really come into direct conflict, though, since Riley doesn't stop the spirit from eating the bones of a young man and the spirit never attacks Riley. Ultimately, their interaction ends with Riley putting a large stone slab atop the spirit's well before riding on to her next destination. Like I said above: pretty meh.

[Megan]

I loved this!! I'm going to look for the first trade paperback.

[Ali]

It seems perhaps too simple. Am I missing something? Still, the art and adventure is good, and the tale seems complete if somewhat lacking somehow.