Ladycastle by Delilah S. Dawson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When I was growing up, as a young teen, I discovered Star Trek. Now Star Trek, the original series was very American, fighting, and punching people to “win” the day. Lasted, in college, I discovered Doctor Who. Very different. Brains, not brawn was what worked there.
I bring this up because LadyCastle is the Doctor Who to most graphic novels out there. The basic story is that all but one of the men have been eaten by a dragon, and so all the women have to take over the running of the castle, which they actually have been doing while the men were out on quests, so it isn’t all that much different for them.
The one man that remains is an old knight, and he thinks he is going to take over, and tell the women what to do, but they will have none of it. They are more interested in thinking of solutions than fighting. When they are attacked by flaming salamanders, they learn they don’t have to fight them, they can be friends with them. When they are attacked by werewolves, they just have to trap them long enough to make them change back to men, they don’t have to kill them. It is that sort of thing that makes me love this collection of the first five issues of this comic book, collected together.
In a nodd to Barbara Gordon, the librarian is a red-head in a wheel chair.
There are little gems like that through the book. There is a revision of the song of “I wonder what the king is doing tonight” from Camelot. There is a quote from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, revised to say “Listen, strang women lyin’ in ponds, distributing swords i a great basis for a system of government.”
Go seek this one out. The pictures are fun. The story is fun. The dialogue is fun. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it.