By Rocco Sansone
England has a ton of folklore and ancient history that fascinates people into how this country with that kind of lore and history is the way it is now. Of course, modern England also has its fair share of angsty teenagers and those elements are combined in the graphic novel “Nicnevin and the Bloody Queen†by Helen Mullane with artists Dom Reardon and Matthew Dow Smith with colorist Lee Loughridge.
Nicnevin “Nissy†Oswald is forced to spend the summer at her dead grandmother’s home in the English countryside with her mother and brother. As with any typical teen, she hates it and wishes she was still in London. A chance encounter with her neighbor Reggie and murder sparks a story that traces Nissy’s family and England’s history in ancient magic.
Do you like reading stories about angsty teenagers being angsty teenagers? This comic is for you. In a way, this comic pulls that off too well since Nissy comes off too angsty. She hates being in the countryside, she’s constantly locking herself in her room and gets easily annoyed by her mother. While she does redeem herself by the end, it’s long plod just to get there.
Oh, and there’s a lot of talk about a British myth concerning the fairy realm and the goddesses that represent Th Crone, The Mother and The Maiden. While British myth is fascinating and this comic does a great job of exploring some aspect of it, we don’t see anything magical until the end.
The artwork is fascinating enough. The characters have a nice design to them as well as all the various animals that appear almost everywhere in the story. Loughridge has a talent for using color to not only bring a world to life but to make any scene look magical.
“Nicnevin and the Bloody Queen†may have great art and British myth going for it, but the plot is more teenage melodrama than fantasy. Teens may find themselves in Nissy, but anyone older will be mildly annoyed by her antics.
Leave a Reply