Nimona

I don't know how I found Noelle Stevenson, but I started reading Nimona when it was a web comic - and I loved it. It's funny, heartfelt, and has Great Values (yey). Meaning, lots of little things to chip away at the -isms of the world. For example, Nimona herself is drawn as a young punk girl with a normal-looking body. I'm a 30something lady now, you'd think I'm settled in my body image, but I remember feeling more confident after spending some time absorbing those images. Other little things: the gender balance (we meet women who are scientists, heads of institutions); the sexuality (it's revealed fairly early on that the ‘hero', Ambrosius Goldenloin, and villain/anti-hero, Ballister Blackheart, are former flames); the way it all feels like a maker faire and Ren faire had a baby; the general positivity and sensitivity and “it's not all black and white”-ness.

The setting is kind of Medieval/Ren faire-punk; there are knights, dragons, castles - but there are also cell phones, TVs, pizza delivery and evil mad scientists with labs. Blackheart is the designated villain - and it is emphasized, pretty often, that this is a part, a role, and he's been designated for it ever since losing his arm in hideous accident/revenge thing - and, one day, he gets a new sidekick: Nimona. Nimona is a teen girl with a punk haircut, many piercings, and bad attitude: she basically wants to KILL KILL KILL EVERYONE. She's a rambunctious shape-shifter with a shifty (ho ho) past.

Now that I think about it, I realize the many similarities between this and Osamu Tezuka's Dororo: that is, a sidekick-centralizing comix that features a young, rambunctious sidekick coupled with a straight man anti-hero; featuring many Feelings and much meditation on the way childhoods can scar and traumatize. Of course, Dororo's dialogue feels dated - whereas Nimona feels very much of the times.

Overall, a lot of fun.