King Arthur and Rumplestiltskin

in which our hero mashes up fairy tales like a boss

Dear Readers,

It’s hard to believe that it’s already time to start sharing art from issue #3 of The Blood of Seven Queens, but here we are. I’m still in the process of writing a sales blurb and my version of the “opening crawl” from Star Wars (that text that scrolls up the screen at the beginning of the movie, which I’ve paid homage to with a similar recap thingie on my inside front covers)—but if you twisted my arm for a summary of what’s happening in this issue, I’d probably say something like…

Oh, wait, I kinda did one of these last week. Silly me forgetting what I wrote. In case you missed it:

This issue finds our heroine, Frieda Jacobs, visiting the first of seven monarchs she must convince to join her fight against the Wizard of Oz and his cronies.

The monarch in question is Claudia Pendragon, Queen of Promiseland, whom you’ll meet in future weeks. And her family history, as you can imagine by her surname, involves the tales of King Arthur. Where I’ve put a spin on things is by adding a second fairy tale into the mix: the tale of Rumplestiltskin.

But anyway, where we find ourselves in the opening pages of issue #3 is in a flashback to the day when a dastardly King Uther met the woman he wanted to marry—and that woman’s husband.

That woman’s children, too.

There’s meant to be an uncomfortable tension throughout the scene, but including the kids gave me the perfect way to lighten things up a bit.

And that’s all for this week, except for me to ask a question: if you’ve read issues #1 and #2, what was your favorite part? And if you haven’t, let me know what your most excellent plans for the holidays might be. Let me know!

Yours,
Chris

P.S. Paid subscribers, keep scrolling for your exclusive look at the first four pages of issue #3!