Friday, October 3, 2014

Princess Ugg Vol 1 by Ted Naifeh (review)

Princess Ugg #1 
Princess Ugg Volume 1
by Ted Naifeh & Warren Wucinich

Genre(s): Graphic Novel
Pages: 120
Published: Nov 2014
Publisher: Oni Press



    Summary:    "Within the fairy-tale kingdom of Atraesca lies the prestigious Princess Academy, where young royals from all the five kingdoms come to get their education. But they've never before seen the like of Princess Ülga of Grimmeria. Armed with axe and sword, riding her war mammoth through the city gates, Ülga has come in search of schooling. But this barbarian princess might just end up schooling the people of Atraesca before that happens!"
    Review:    A reasonably interesting story with amusing characters.

    I wanted to like this more than I did in the end. Yes this make me smile a few times but not once, while reading this, did I feel connected. I didn't feel anxiety or happy for the characters or situations. I was never awestruck, or intimidated. It was always just me sitting in my chair, looking in on their world. I like ot feel a part of what I an reading. Make me hate or love a character. Or react to a situation. Nothing like that ever happened here.



    The story is sound besides the lacking engagement. Ulga is the daughter of Odin and is sent to Princess school where she just doesn't fit in. The other girls are into "fashionable" dresses, dances, riding unicorns, tea time, etc. Ulga was raise for the fight. So she is mocked and exiled apart from the other girls. Her roommate in particular is spiteful and rude.

    The did a decent job for most of Ulga's dialect of speech so one thing I can give them is I "heard" her through the pages.

    The time period of this seems mixed. the princesses seem to be from different eras making it hard to mix up. The way they talk is often very modern which also clashes with why they tried so hard with Ulga yet went into a near slang speech for them.

    So overall I enjoyed it for what it was but was not impressed. For girls who like comics but are sick of she superhero themes, they might enjoy this.


    *I was loaned a digital copy of this comic from Diamond Book Distributors and Oni Press via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.*
  

4 comments:

  1. I had actually considered requesting this one, but I chose not to. It looks cute, but I was resistant to the "Princess School" idea.

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  2. Hmm, the combination of eras does sound a little jarring...

    Trix, vitajex(at)Aol(Dot)com

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  3. Why is it Princess Ugg when the character is Ulga? I mean, I find the title funny, imagining this fed up princess that just says "ugh" anytime anyone says anything to her :D I don't know if I'd mind the era problem you had, since the author is creating a world for the story and, so long as the place feels totally made up, it doesn't bother me. It's when it feels set in the real world that I go a little nuts.

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  4. I am up in the air about this book. It doesn't sound like you think it is a page turner?

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