Princeless: Raven the Pirate Princess Book 1: Captain Raven and the All-Girl Pirate Crew

'Comic readers have been calling for more titles that are smart, fun, interesting, and inclusive. The Pirate Princess fits that bill.' (Comicosity)


'The wondrous thing is the book truly is an 'all-ages' story that can be enjoyed from 8 to 80 years old.' (Spartantown)


'...accessible and entertaining even for readers who haven't read Princeless.' (Rainbow Hub)


Jeremy Whitley, creator and writer of the Princeless comics series, introduced Raven Xingtao, the Pirate Princess, in the third volume Since then, he has published three volumes of Princeless: Raven the Pirate Princess, and in 2017 started publishing issues of Princeless: Raven Year 2. Raven, the daughter and rightful heir of the Pirate King, ended up imprisoned in a tower because her scheming brothers wanted to take over the lucrative piracy trade. She broke out of the tower, and in the begin- ning of the first volume, has stolen her father's old ship with a plan to exact revenge against her brothers. As she seeks a crew, she reunites with Cookie, one of her father's men who left piracy to run a tavern; encounters the half-elf and pickpocket Sunshine; and winds up with an all-female crew, which includes Cookie's teenage daughter-chemistry whiz Jayla. In the second volume, the crew divides into several teams to buy supplies, but things do not go well. Raven's brothers have heard about what she is doing, and they hire men of the town to capture Raven and her crew. Raven's navigator Ximena-her one childhood friend and secret crush-suffers life-threatening inju- ries during a rescue operation. In the third volume, as the crew sails their ship to find an island where a fabled healer lives, Raven tells the unconscious Ximena the story of how the Xingtao family came to be. When the island- ers tell Raven their healer will not deal with pirates, she decides to sneak onto the island to confront the healer, and Sunshine-who wants Raven for herself and sees Ximena as a rival-tells the still-unconscious woman the story of how her human father and desert-elf mother met. Whitley fills his stories with action that doesn't shy away from showing the violence of hand-to-hand combat; his artists (mostly Rosy Higgins) fill the panels with fantastic chase scenes, cinematic fight scenes, lush scenery, and a diverse all-female pirate crew. Raven's world is a mix of mid-eighteenth-century ships and towns with ancient Polynesian islands and steampunk high technology. The women's guild, where Raven finds her crew, includes Dungeons & Dragons-style gamers and a panel of leaders who resemble some prominent women comics creators (I spotted Kelly Sue DeConnick and G. Willow Wilson lookalikes). Raven's crew includes women of various ethnicities, body shapes, and one young deaf woman whose dialog is shown in sign language; and so far, all the present-time romantic entanglements are among the women. Whitley may be a white male, but he takes inspiration from his wife and daughters. Raven's adventures are for anyone who wants action-packed stories with strong, well-drawn characters. Whitley fills his stories with action that doesn't shy away from showing the violence of hand-to-hand combat; his artists (mostly Rosy Higgins) fill the panels with fantastic chase scenes, cinematic fight scenes, lush scenery, and a diverse all-female pirate crew. Raven's world is a mix of mid-eighteenth-century ships and towns with ancient Polynesian islands and steampunk high technology. The women's guild, where Raven finds her crew, includes Dungeons & Dragons-style gamers and a panel of leaders who resemble some prominent women comics creators (I spotted Kelly Sue DeConnick and G. Willow Wilson lookalikes). Raven's crew includes women of various ethnicities, body shapes, and one young deaf woman whose dialog is shown in sign language; and so far, all the present-time romantic entanglements are among the women. Whitley may be a white male, but he takes inspiration from his wife and daughters. Raven's adventures are for anyone who wants action-packed stories with strong, well-drawn characters.

- VOYA