Courageous Princess Volume 3

The Courageous Princess #3

by Rod Espinosa

Princess Mabelrose has journeyed far and saved herself and others from danger and tyranny, but she has yet to make her way home.

In the conclusion to the Courageous Princess trilogy, Mabelrose must use her generous spirit, as well as her brains, to melt the heart of the Dragon Queen and gain her freedom. But she still has to bring her father and her friends back from the queen's unreachable Unremembered Lands . . .

Author Rod Espinosa proves once again that compassion and intelligence are more than a match for any danger!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Comics, Childrens, Middle Grade, Fiction, Young Adult

184 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2015

About the author

Espinosa's work on The Courageous Princess (Antarctic Press) got him on the nomination list for “Promising new talent” and also “Best artist” for the 2000 Ignatz Awards and the 2002 Eisner Award nomination list for “Best Title for Younger Readers”.

As both writer and artist, he has also authored the Neotopia series (4 volumes, 140 pages each), which was published in graphic novel form. In 2006, Novotopia, the German edition of Neotopia, got a nomination for the Max und Moritz Prize in the category 'Bester Comic für Kinder' (best comic book for younger audience).

His past work include the Battle Girlz series, a manga adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, The Alamo and Metadocs. He has also written and conceptualized popular Antarctic Press titles such as I Hunt Monsters, and Herc and Thor. His work is also be featured in a series of American History comic books dealing with the subjects of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Lewis and Clark, The Boston Tea Party, The Alamo, Jackie Robinson, The Underground Railroad, Abraham Lincoln, Patrick Henry, Cesar Chavez, The American Revolution, the Transcontinental Railroad, and Clara Barton. He has also worked on Classics such as: Around the World in Eighty Days, Moby-Dick, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and William Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. His latest graphic novel from Antarctic Press, is called Dinowars. He is currently working on an online graphic novel entitled The Prince of Heroes.

(Taken from here.)

Reviews

[Shadowdenizen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 3 of this series closes out the "Courageous Princess" trilogy, and does so in fine style. This book is just pure gold, from first page to last.

Highly recommended, even to those who might not normally be comic (graphic novel) fans.

Of course, since it's a continuining story, you'd want to start with Book One, (and I envy you the journey if you haven't read it yet!)

[Sarri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Courageous princess sai tästä sarjan kolmannesta osasta ihan arvoisensa lopetuksen. Enempää varmaan juonesta paljastamatta, loppui tämäkin satu lauseeseen "ja he elivät elämänsä onnellisena loppuun saakka". Sitä ennen tosin koetaan epätoivon hetkiä loputtomassa erämaassa, tutustutaan pahan tädin kotilinnaan ja elämän tarkoitukseen, opetellaan soittamaan pilliä, taistellaan ilkeän lohikäärmekuningattaren ja hänen kauhean lohikäärmeensä kanssa, ollaan neuvokkaita ja koetaan niin surun kuin ilon hetkiä.

Courageous princess - sarjakuvaromaanisarja oli mukava lukukokemus, jossa oli kaikkea, mitä kunnon saduissa kuuluukin olla ja vähän vielä päälle. Mukana on kyllä melko raakojakin kohtauksia, mutta kyllä kai nämä nykylapsoset ja teinit jo kaikenlaista kestävät. Ihan on tämä kertomus tähtensä ansainnut.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Courageous Princess book 3. Spoilers ahead for the first two.

Because it opens with Mabelrose the prisoner of her aunt, in the castle as Ursula finishes her preparations to conquer the world -- she will never have enough -- and her father and his companions and her companions from earlier hearing of how dangerous it is to escape the land they were imprisoned in.

Mabelrose wanders about and does this and that. Her aunt subjects her to lessons because her niece ought to be a proper princess. Her father and the rest try to escape. It involves accidental mentions, the library, music, the breaking of spells, a flying carpet, and more.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most certainly the best book of the series! Mabelrose is separated from everyone. They all have a journey full of danger to make their way to her. But meanwhile, Mabelrose is planning a cunning ruse to outwit the Dragon Queen. Ends with the perfect "happily ever after". Highly recommended for young girls.

[Loz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this trilogy. Good example of a young girl getting stuff done and saving the day. A bit of 'not like other girls' but there are enough rounded female roles to balance.

[DJL · Rating 5 out of 5]

~~Re-read in 2019~~

Again, the conclusion to Mabelrose's story gets to me as I teared up at several points in the last volume. What I truly love and enjoy is how many different fairy tales (both old and contemporary) Rod Espinosa interwove into this trilogy. It is truly the land of the Hundred Kingdoms that is open to all readers ready to seek it out and find this story of a most courageous princess.

~~

With almost 15 years in the making, a wonderful ending to an amazing and courageous story! I highly recommend this trilogy as a gateway for mainstream readers to start reading graphic novels. Not only is Mabelrose a princess, she is as unconventional as it gets, and readers will enjoy watching her story unfold. Thank you, Mr. Espinosa, for delivering a solid story!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Espinosa ends the tale of Princess Mabelrose in the best way he can - she is honored for her courage, loved for her strength and intelligence, and free to chose her own suitor when she gets older. It's a lovely story and a great counterbalance to most princess fiction, and it manages to be this without getting a little preachy like the Princeless Volume 1: Save Yourself series can.

[Shanni · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic conclusion to a beloved series. As always, Rod Espinosa crafts each page with loving full-color detail. Each page is absolutely stunning. In the tradition of the first two compendiums, the story stays true to its roots, emphasizing Princess Mabelrose's intelligence, resourcefulness, and compassion as her most important and admirable traits. In addition, the most powerful villain of the series is also a woman. I highly recommend this series to young readers -- and us "kids-at-heart" adults -- and commend the author's empowering reinterpretation of the "kidnapped princess" story.

[Thomas Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool and fun to read. (Watch me comment like a critic.)

[Madeline J. Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great conclusion to a really great series.
I really enjoyed it!

[Dolores · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice ending for a great series.

[emyrose8 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice end to the series. :) Loved the ending.

[Reb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fabulous!

[birdie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the best one.

[Casey Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great series to read with my daughter!

[Artemis Crescent · Rating 4 out of 5]

'The Courageous Princess Volume 3: The Dragon Queen' - what a grand, exciting, action-packed, and lovely and touching conclusion to 'The Courageous Princess' comic series.

What a nice, expanded story, that may waver somewhat in quality - mainly in the second volume, and even this one has its issues - but it is an enjoyable, heartfelt, sweet and funny multi-fairy tale homage, retelling and subversion.

'The Dragon Queen' is the shortest of the volumes. Maybe too short, but it manages to keep a good, steady pace, and it balances out an awful lot of elements, ideas and characters in such a small space of time fairly well.

Character development is had by all.

Princess Mabelrose remains the sweetest, and the most good and caring of them all.

Her relationship with the Dragon Queen herself - wow, what a highlight.

The princess and the queen. It could have been developed a bit further, in a longer story, and therefore better, but oh well.

Ursula, aka the Dragon Queen - this queen subverts the fairy tale evil queen archetype after all. Just because she's an unmarried and childless ( !!! ) power-mad and greedy female monarch, it doesn't mean she's one dimensional and irredeemable. Also, come on, her reasons for being evil are mostly justified anyway; certain cowardly and stupid men in her family need to be held accountable for what they did to her (no, nothing like that , thankfully, this isn't that kind of fairy tale). They are not held accountable, however, and they receive no comeuppance, nor page time, for that matter, which is a flaw in the comic.

But, love and care - i.e. Mabelrose, the embodiment of kindness, brightness and joy - are powerful and do conquer everything else in anyone's life. Or they should.

"What is life without love?" - something we should all take to heart.

I'm sure there are still some retcons done in regards to the first volume, particularly with certain main characters and their relatives, which I won't disclose due to spoilers.

How does Puss in Boots, or PIB, know so much?! Who is he, really?

Why is Mabelrose's treacherous and sketchy fairy godmother, Mem, forgiven so easily? Villainous women are forgiven easily in this series, with varying scales of earnestness and being earned.

The fairy tale references, including the Disney versions, are great. As are the callbacks to the first volume. Is there a crafty, multifaceted reason for the villainess's name to be Ursula?

Are all giants (who look like ogres here) bad guys? Are they all a threat to the kingdoms? Are all dragons evil, too? Does the love and anti-prejudice message not apply to those species'? Uh, why?! Some giants seem to die by the end, as well, and literally no one cares.

The series is fast and loose when it comes to violating and manipulating people's free will, even by the good guys, especially in this volume. Very troubling.

The climax and ending montage and scene really make sure that none of the hundreds of characters are forgotten about, don't they?

Finally, slight spoiler, but Mabelrose doesn't really have a love interest, ever. As eager for courtship as she is infrequently shown to be, she never settles on anyone, let alone a prince. She doesn't need one, and in a subtle touch to her character development, she comes to realise this. And she's the embodiment of love in the series; of different, no less important kinds of love.

Hoo-hopping-ray!

No I don't care that she's still young and may likely marry one of her prince friends in the future, shut up!

That's all I'll reveal.

'The Courageous Princess' is a flawed but fun epic fantasy, fairy tale princess comic book trilogy. It's a nostalgic treat, containing awesome action sequences and set pieces, and strong characterisation, without being completely, perfectly feminist. I still like it.

Princess Mabelrose, of the tiny kingdom of New Tinsley, is a hero. Who is capable of anything she sets her mind to. She can save herself, and her kingdom and beyond, and be loved, respected, and appreciated for it.

My review of the first volume link.

My review of the second volume link.

Final Score: 3.5/5

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Princess Mabelrose continues to display the qualities that make her a superb example of royalty. She’s consistently thoughtful, clever, kind, gentle, sympathetic, compassionate and generous. She also has the cunning of a fox and the incisive focus of a successful general.

However, she’s up against a worthy foe...her aunt Ursula. From the moment I saw Ursula in action, I found her intriguing and quite sympathetic. Far from being an evil despot bent on destruction for its own sake, she showed compassion for her enemies. In volume two of this series, she treated Mabelrose well. She didn’t attack Mabelrose’s companions or her brother-in-law’s band. She only retaliated when they attacked her. She sent King Jeryk and his followers to a comfortable oasis, filled with plenty of food, water and shelter, when she could have killed them outright.

In this volume, Ursula lets Mabelrose stay in a pampered room, gives her lovely soft robes and sumptuous meals. She lets Mabelrose roam freely throughout her castle rather than shutting her up in a dungeon. She also reveals how she was ill done by when Mabelrose’s uncle Philippe supposedly slew a dragon--a tale that turns out to be a complete lie. Given what we know about how knights fared against the fearsome Shalathrumnostrium, we can easily believe that Philippe told a fib that made him considered a hero (and explains why he turned down his brother Jeryk’s request to rescue Mabelrose from the clutches of Shalathrumnostrium).

It would have been wonderful and a truly brilliant twist in the story if Mabelrose had passionately debated her aunt into giving up her dreams of conquest and using her magic for good. Ursula had proven she could be merciful in victory. Ursula shows many signs of tenderness, especially when watching Mabelrose as the princess deals kindly with those around her. Ursula wants Mabelrose to rule by her side, seeing Mabelrose’s special qualities in a way that others may not. Ursula boasted that her wand could create buildings; she had enough wealth to feed and house every starving and homeless person in the Hundred Kingdoms. With a powerful dragon at her command, she could have sailed triumphantly back into New Tinsley and told King Jeryk about his lying brother’s perfidy.

But this isn’t that kind of story. Instead, we have a rebel girl who once singlehandedly defeated eight terrible witches becoming corrupted by an evil weapon and therefore she’s incapable of being redeemed...only defeated in battle. And what a battle we get! All the beings come into play as they might for a battle royale. The graphics lead us all over the castle, within and without, as the combatants rage against each other. It’s epic stuff, enhanced by the little references to other fairy tales that Mr. Espinosa has sprinkled throughout this series.

These references are part and parcel of what makes this such a stirring series to read. We get nods to Beauty and the Beast, The Frog Prince, Sleeping Beauty, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Aladdin and His Magic Lamp, Rapunzel, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, e.g. I’m sure there are others I’ve missed. Fantasy lovers will no doubt take much delight in ferreting out the signs for themselves.

This is a great tale of a most atypical princess and her loyal entourage. I recommend it for all girls who like their heroines feisty, brave and smart.

[Tim O'neill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A satisfyïng and often thrilling conclusion to a sometimes meändering and unwieldy narrative.

It begins, thankfully, with a summary of the first two volumes, since it”d been a year-and-a-half synce we last dipped into this universe, but my main issue w/Volume 2 continued here: all those new characters that were dropped in maintained just a superpower but not really a character trait. It was solved in the same was as in Volume II: by splitting them into teams, most with Mabelrose’s father but a few with Mabelrose. Thinking about it, this was the major issue with this volume too, and everything introduced here, from the Beauty-and-the-Beast talking furniture to the villainess’s backstory, worked great. There was a Puss-in-Boots sort of character (I gave him Antonio Banderas’s voice when I read it!) who stuck out the most of the masses, but the rest were pretty much non-entities.

The artwork continues to be æsthetically pleasing, but the extra characters hurt here too, by making it hard to know what was happening or who was talking or doïng things, especially in the admittedly action-packed climax.

What was Espinosa supposed to do, tho? Even if he realized that the huge injexion of characters in the previöus volume was unsuccessful, should he have killed them off at the beginning of this volume, or else have them say “well, gotta go”? Given the length of the book and all the important developments that had to occur with actuäl characters like Mabelrose, her father, and especially her aunt, it was too late to develop these characters. This means that if you liked, or at least tolerated, the first two, then the third volume is your reward, and I’m not sure how better it could have all come together. So while this wasn’t a ⭐⭐⭐⭐ trilogy, but I think given what came before, this was a ⭐⭐⭐⭐ execution of wrapping it all up.

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

People in the reviews keep saying this book is based on fairytales. I call it Disney derivative. There are some references to fairytales, but mostly the story takes bits and bites from Disney movies- which in my opinion, is an important distinction.

This is a kids’ story, although I couldn’t say what age it’s aimed at. I read it to my five year old; I can’t see it appealing to an older audience than that, but it seems to, so I’ll chalk that up to taste. I did a lot of eye rolling as I read.

The characters are all very flat, except for maybe the evil queen Ursula (that name, give me a break). The queen’s enchanted servants are named Lumina, broomina, and Chester. Guess what they are. Other characters have special abilities. Their names include Hearfar, Eater, and Tallguy. Ok I may have made one name up, but all the names are so comically lazy you probably can’t tell which. Naming characters in this way (based on their enchantment, ability, or identifiable feature) is pretty common in fantasy genre especially, so I would be inclined to forgive it, but the combination of Disney derivation and lazy naming got my goat more than once. Most (all?) fantasy greats employ this lazy naming for a smattering of characters, but the majority of the characters in this story are named either straight out of a Disney movie or for the single distinguishable feature their flat character was given.
It’s just not good writing. And yes, there are some objective truths in the determination of good or bad art.

In regards to pace, the story does a lot of jarring shifts from one scene to the next. This was confusing not just for my audience (the five year old). At times she would ask me what just happened and I’d say “uh. I think this is a different moment”. I actually started to wonder if the book we got from the library was missing pages.

Strengths:
1: feminist narrative. The princess relies on her own steam and abilities a lot, as well as friendship and the conveniently varied skills of these friends. Neither she nor her father wait around for anyone to rescue her.
2: the art. We did not read the whole series, just this book. I note that some people say the Art in the first is superior, but I found the art in this one to be enjoyable, personally.

[Lissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so good!!

I loved the ending so much!! The characters! The messaging! The world! The art!

I loved how good this was, especially considering that it was made in the 1990s. An absolute delight.

I also loved that there was no romance in this! A fairytale with no wedding or kiss at the end! But instead, family reunions & recognition for her feats!!

This was really fantastic, I highly recommend this series.

This is a fairy tale I would have loved to read growing up.

[Kassyreadsalot · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great conclusion despite having the predictable happy ending. I'm sad there will not be more books for Mabel's story!

[Gail Fazio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the princess. She is brave and smart. Her adventures are fun.

[Child960801 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A final book in this trilogy, we see how everything resolves and the ending is very satisfying.

[Shelby Lehman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent addition and conclusion to this series. The definition of a self rescuing princess.

[Paula Greenfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mabelrose's journey takes an odd twist and only adds to the story.

[Nyah Prince · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book i wish there was more books in the series

[Shae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good wrap up without things being overly convenient. Definitely worth a read.

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Luna's Little Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

final book