Isabelle Melançon

I love the art, and this reads like a twisty and sprawling blend of retellings and new adventures. I'm definitely going to get my hands on later volumes.

Valor has such an admirable concept—an anthology of female-focused reimagined fairy tales brought to life by top digital comics authors and artists—and by and large, the art throughout was excellent. But the stories? Only a handful struck me as fresh, original, and moving, and many were just too short to accomplish anything beyond a vaguely fairy tale-ish snapshot.

But the real problem was the editing. Almost every single piece had some typo or other, and some of the typos—missing show more periods, missing letters, mixed-up verb tenses—left me feeling as if I were reading an amateur fan-made production instead of a serious, professional bid at feminist literature. show less

The Valor anthology collects retellings of folk and fairytales from across the world alongside a few new contributions to the genre from some of the top webcartoonists and storytellers of the day, including the editors, Nicole Chartrand, Cory & Ran Brown, Justin Lanjil, Laura Neubert, Little Foolery, Sara Goetter, Kadi Fedoruk, Ash Barnes, and others. Each tale is written to celebrate and encourage heroism in women. Whether about young Finette and Vasilisa heading off to seek their own show more fortunes, a knight adopting the dragon she was sent to defeat, a crane wife claiming her final boon, or the little mermaid finding she's not the only one with a secret, the stories are populated with strong, witty, and endearing characters. Most of the stories are presented in graphic novel format, with several illustrated prose tales interspersed. As with any compendium, the style and quality varies from story to story, but Valor presents a respectable number of gems and is definitely worth reading cover to cover. show less

While the book itself has yet to be released, I have been keeping up with the series online due to it being a webcomic.

It is a definite must for those of you who like fantasy and fairy tales with a bit of a twist... and I'm not simply saying this because the authors are friends of mine!

So far, it is only available through the website (www.namesakecomic.com). You should go anyway and give it a read!