Rat Queens is an American fantasycomic book series created by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch, published by Image Comics. The series was written by Wiebe until Ryan Ferrier took over in mid 2019. Rat Queens The original 2013–2016 run was drawn by Roc Upchurch, Stjepan Šejić, and Tess Fowler. The series was put on hiatus in April 2016 and returned in March 2017 with the new artist Owen Gieni. Currently, Priscilla Petraites is the ongoing artist. Recounting the exploits of a party of four rowdy, foul-mouthed adventurers, the series has received critical praise, was nominated for the 2014 Eisner Award for Best New Series and won the 2015 GLAAD Media Award.
Publication history
Writer Kurtis Wiebe described the series as a "love letter to my years of D&D and fantasy" with a modern twist, and the concept as "Lord of the Rings meets Bridesmaids". Originally intended to be funded through Kickstarter, it was picked up by Jim Valentino at Image Comics a week before the funding campaign was to start. Rat Queens was intended to be published at a pace of ten issues per year, with two-month breaks between collections. After artist Roc Upchurch was arrested on charges of domestic violence in November 2014, Wiebe announced that Upchurch would no longer be illustrating the series. In December 2014, Image Comics announced that Stjepan Šejić would continue the series as artist beginning with issue #9 in February 2015, preceded by a special issue about the orc warrior Braga by guest artist Tess Fowler in January 2015. After Šejić left the series in July 2015 for health reasons, Fowler continued the series as main artist, joined by colorist Tamra Bonvillain. In April 2016, Fowler left the title, and Wiebe paused work on it. In May 2016, Fowler wrote that Wiebe pushed her out to make room for Upchurch's return after the fourth arc. Wiebe denied this and said that the collaboration not working out creatively was the reason for Fowler's departure and the comic's hiatus. In July 2016, Wiebe announced that Rat Queens would continue as a webcomic. Early strips in this format would be drawn by Battlepug creators Mike Norton and Cecilia Dupuy. In November 2016, Wiebe announced that Rat Queens would return to print with a new series artist, Owen Gieni. On Reddit, Wiebe clarified that issue #16 would not be considered canon following the reboot. Apparently he found it too difficult to wrap that arc up and put the series back on track. He later found a way to reference #16 while writing #9 of the reboot series, but reiterated that #16 will not be collected. The reference is an Easter egg for those that read #16. Wiebe and Gieni ended their work as the series' writer and artist in March 2019, with issue #15. A new creative team of Ryan Ferrier, Priscilla Petraites, and Marco Lesko resumed work on the series in June 2019.
Plot
The eponymous "Rat Queens" are a rambunctious party of adventurers in a medieval fantasy setting. They comprise the rockabillyelvenmage Hannah, the hipsterdwarven warrior Violet who shaved her beard before it became cool, the atheist human cleric Dee, who hails from a family of Lovecraftian monster cultists, and the hippiehalflingthief Betty, whose idea of a hearty meal is a bag of drugs and candy. They were later joined by Braga, a transgender Orc warrior. The first five issues follow the group's exploits as they try to defend themselves against assassins intent on killing them and other adventuring groups that have been roughing up their home town of Palisade. The second story arc sees the Rat Queens trying to prevent a vengeful businessman from summoning Dee's people's many-tentacled gods to lay waste to Palisade. The third arc has Hannah return to her sinister alma mater after her father is arrested for attempting a coup.
Rat Queens received critical praise. It was nominated for the 2014 Eisner Award for best new series, and won the 2015 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book for its portrayals of LGBT characters. The first compiled volume, Rat Queens: Sass and Sorcery, was nominated for the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story. In Paste, Robert Tutton noted that the "rowdy, sarcastic and intensely loyal" personalities of the main characters drive the series, and praised its seamless transitions from "gore to humor, sprawling action to small personal moments", as well as artist Roc Upchurch's skill at portraying facial expressions. Augie De Blieck from Comic Book Resources appreciated the "dark, twisted, and hilarious" series for its fast pacing, Wiebe's witty writing, and the humanity and personality with which Upchurch infused his drawings. Writing for IGN, Benjamin Bailey described the "mix of D20 adventures and modern angst" as perfecting the formula of injecting humor and wit into sword and sorcery tropes, and praised Upchurch's "expressive and unique" character designs.
Issues
Webcomics
To promote the return of Rat Queens, Kurtis Wiebe ran a series of webcomics on his blog. The first 10 comics were later released as a digital comic issue.
Collected editions
The series is collected into trade paperbacks and deluxe hardcovers. However, Rat Queens #16 will never be collected. Weibe commented on Reddit: "I hated that issue. It was a reminder of how bad things had gotten creatively."
Trade paperbacks
Deluxe hardcover edition
While Wiebe considers Rat Queens, Volume 3: Demons canon, he said he would not collect the arc in the deluxe hardcovers because of his falling out with the artist, Tess Fowler.
Issue #14 of the digital D&D magazine Dragon+ features The Hangover, a role-playing adventure written by Kurtis Wiebe.
Roleplaying stream
Since 2019, the Twitch channel "Hyper Rabbit Power Go" is streaming a tabletop RPG series based on Rat Queens. Participants include Emily Jacobson as the game master, Jessica Lynn Verdi as Hannah, Laurie Jones as Violet, Aliza Pearl as Dee, Michelle Nguyen Bradley as Betty, and Riley Silverman as Braga.
