Straight Forward Reviews: Princeless Girls Who Rock shorts

On this edition of Straight Forward Reviews I'll be taking a look at the collection of Princeless short stories focusing on other awesome women in the Princeless world, hence the title "Girls Who Rock". Well, let's get on with it shall we?

Review by Jeremias de Leon

Stories

Each story is illustrated by someone different. Each one of course, is a different story, but I feel the need to point out that they're different because they're not only with different people in different situations but they each have very different themes. One is about racism, one is about sacrifice, and so on. 

Each story is brilliantly paced. Each story makes use of every panel in the page to full effect to either explain or show actions without feeling rushed. 

Also, even though these characters are one shot characters in a larger world that you may or may not see again they feel pretty fleshed out for how short their time in the spotlight is. The second and last shorts main characters don't get a background explanation but through their actions and the reactions of the people around them you get the feeling you already know at least some of who they are and what they're about. 

Art

With the different artists on each short story you of course get different moods, tones, and different atmospheres even. With the stories being about different themes and characters this of course seems to be a smart thing to do. But it isn't just about them having different styles, the styles need to mesh well with what's being told. Fortunately that's handled beautifully. The first story having a story that's a serious and real one but with comedy cartoon antics has solid line art and vibrant colors. There's a story dealing with the forest and is very fantastic in nature so it has an art style that has a "wispy" look to it with the brush strokes and colors. Like it's something ethereal. Another story has simple line-art but the story being heavily about backstory it works and it still has everybody's design just as they're supposed to be. It could even be said the designs of the characters in that story are at their most essential components. 

In a much shorter amount of words, each of the different art styles are excellent because they work with the story they're telling beautifully.

Verdict

This collection of short stories is fantastic. Sometimes with short stories set in a larger world you feel as if they add nothing to the mythos or background of the world or characters. But this collection does add a lot and it does it beautifully. I didn't want to spoil these stories so I intentionally left a lot out of what the stories entail, especially since they're not very long. But I can say that each one is completely unique from each other and all add something. One adds to the world and ties in a little with the main characters, one shows how the world treats some like outcasts, and the other goes into the ritual of a group of people that showed up before in the main story. That's all I'll say describing them. They're all done so well that the rest should be found out by reading them. I'll give the Girls Who Rock collection of shorts a 9.5 out of 10.