Damsel #1 is a comic written by Murphey with pencils and inks by Emiliano Urdinola and colors by Gaston Zubeldia. A young damsel in a tall tower awaits her prince. This is a supernatural fantasy comic that plays on classic fairy tale tropes and features demons, wizards, and witches. The leading lady for this tale is an unnamed blonde young woman who is trying to pass the time as she watches and waits for a prince to rescue her. The prince is also nameless with short brown hair and he loves to read books. The story begins with a look at past events with the main one being a large battle between humans and demons. After this history lesson we are brought to the present where someone is giving birth. The violence here is very gory and gruesome with a large amount of blood. The pacing is steady with a fairy tale, fantasy tone that has hints of darkness. The intense moments here are due to danger and violence. The talking style is Medieval English with a lot of narration early on but it gets more conversational towards the end. There are no word-heavy pages. This is a debut issue that sets the scene and gives us enough of a look at the world and the characters within so that we’ll want to read more.

            The art here is smoothly detailed and drawn in a modern style with strong lighting and shading. The colors are somewhat realistic with a lot of red and blue in light and dark tones. From wall-like mountains to thick, tall forests; there is plenty of natural scenery here. The main location is the tower where the unnamed damsel resides with different floors and rooms but there are other apt places visited like a castle and a battlefield. The backgrounds usually show the surroundings like stone walls or grass but on occasion it’ll just be a gradient color. The expression level here is a couple ticks above average as these give looks that can change on a nearly panel-by-panel basis. The common emotions here are sadness, longing, happiness, anger, and fear. The faces here have a high amount of detail and show each expression well and clearly. The mystical effects are bright and sparkly. The violence is gory with dismemberment and gruesome attacks. The action scene is of decent length and shows different parts of the battle.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural fantasy comics starring a damsel and a prince with violence, light drama, and fairy tale influence then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Just wait eighteen years, and true love will be yours…”

 

Physical Link: https://dreamhousecomics.com/products/d01-a-damsel

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dreamhousepublishing/damsel-1/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

*
*
*
*
*

Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24

Violent Pages: 4, for 16% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 5

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 4

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”