Queen of the Sea

[psocoptera]

Queen of the Sea, Dylan Meconis, 2019. I've been anticipating this for *years* (although weirdly, it never made it onto my to-read list) and it's *so good*. So so so good. I got it from the library but have been hiding it from my children so I can give it to Junie for Christmas. (And then I'll be predictably sad when she's lukewarm about it, but what can you do.) Graphic novel alternate history coming of age story - alternate history in the sense of "these characters are loosely inspired by real historical people, but have different names and details". The real historical people are Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and Mary I, and the Elizabeth analogue is a major character, although not the POV character. The main character is a girl who has grown up on a very small island with a very small convent of nuns, and the main throughline of the book is her curiosity about her origins and exploration of her place in the world. It reminded me a *lot* of Amy Unbounded, particularly Belondweg Blossoming, where there are complicated adult things going on that we get to see from Amy's child perspective, and also really cool historical details in the art. (Or like Hild, only middlegrade and comics.) The art in Queen of the Sea is gorgeous - the character designs are outstanding (the six identically-dressed nuns are all instantly recognizable), the (mostly) muted colors and limited palette are perfect for the setting, and she does some really cool stuff with motifs and imagery and structure that I will not spoil the fun of. (Also every once in a while the Elizabeth character made a face that reminded me of Claire from Bite Me and my heart just swelled with affection.) Definitely an exciting comic of 2019 - I'm not sure whether I would call it sff or not, being squarely in the muddled territory of historical fantasy/historical fiction. There's even less hint of the supernatural here than there was in Hild, and I never quite decided about Hild either. Anyways, it's outstanding, however you want to classify it.