Once again we're taking a look at some YA coolness in comic form and I'm flying solo leaving little miss behind for this distinctly 'grown up' graphic novel, "Porcelain: Bone China" by Benjamin Read and Chris Wildgoose...
I'll attempt to review this with minimum spoilers for Volume 1 ("Porcelain: A Gothic Fairy Tale") but consider yourself duly warned if you've yet to experience the gorgeous first story (and now's your chance to nip over to the Improper Books website and score yourself a copy!)
Ten years have passed since the events in book 1, and now Child is a Lady - inheritor by proxy of Uncle's estate and fortune, and the dark secretive projects he once worked on. Now Lady controls the porcelain, and takes great effort to resist the orders of the army, and an ambitious general who want a porcelain army of her own.
Lady's seclusion doesn't last, as a handsome army captain inveigles his way into her life, finding a chink in her armour and working his way in. The two fall in love but does the captain have an ulterior motive and will the general finally get her own way by hook or by crook, or by sheer force?
"Porcelain: Bone China" is breathtaking and (dare I say it) actually a far more satisfyingly 'fleshed out' story than "A Gothic Fairy Tale".
It's easy to see why Lady's character has won the series an army of loyal fans. She's feisty and takes no rubbish for anyone, and yet she has a darker more vulnerable side that comes to the surface as this story evolves. There are moments of true spellbinding excitement as Lady's secrets are revealed to her lover and as the captain must finally choose sides and make a stand.
I got so drawn into this one, not just because once again it's got that utterly intoxicating mix of steampunk victoriana and dark magic that its predecessor had, but because it's the sort of hugely original graphic novel series that's so good you almost want to keep it all to yourself, hoping others don't discover it and steal it away from you.
But that's ridiculous really. It's stunning and beautiful, and deserves to be shouted about so here I am shouting about it and urging you to discover "Porcelain" for yourself, and Lady - who is an utterly essential heroine full of sass and intelligence, but with a wonderful fragility. By rights this series should become hugely successful as should its creators Benjamin and Chris.
Get in on this before it goes stellar because mark my words, it will!
"Porcelain: Bone China" is now available from Improper Books.