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Rapunzel's Revenge is a graphic novel retelling "Rapunzel" in a fantasy-Wild West setting. Mother Gothel is a witch who uses her magic to control whether landi n the area is fertile or a barren wasteland, and so is the defecto-tyrant for the west. When her sheltered daughter, Rapunzel, learns both what Gothel is up to and that Gothel stole her from her own parents, she rebels, only to find herself imprisoned in a room inside a giant tree out in the middle of nowhere. Bored senseless, she teaches herself to use her quickly-growing hair as both a whip and a lasso, and eventually manages to rescue herself from the tree by lassoing the top of a nearby tree a swinging down. She then promptly sets out to overthrown Mother Gothel andrecue her birth mother from slavery in Gothel's mines, and is joined along the way by Jack, inevitably a scoundrel with a heart of gold. (Hijinks and romance ensue.)
At one point, there's a wanted poster for Rapunzel that reads like this:
"WANTED
Dead or alive
RAPUNZEL
For horse thieving, kidnapping, jail breaking, and using her hair in a manner other than nature intended!
REWARD"
Elements of both other fairy tales and western tall tales and legends about historical figures are incorporated, and it's generally a lot of fun.
Calamity Jack is a sequel that quickly recounts Jack's past and how he came to be in the west (short versoin: giant mobsters and beanstalks) before having Jack and Rapunzel visit Jack's home town. (More hijinks and romance ensue.) It's not quite as fun or innovative as Rapunzel's Revenge, but is a pretty worthy followup.
There are a number of POC but, aside from Jack (who is his world's version of being Native American, though I don't recall if his nation was made analogous with a real world nation of not) they're very much secondary roles, and either working for or following white characters. (That said, the Hale's don't appear to prescribe to the theory that a fictional world based on a real historical time and place have to follow the mass culturally assumed "rules" of the time as far as gender, race and class go, and so many of the related frustrations we often get aren't present here.)
Very fun books, and well worth it if you like fairy tale retellings, westerns with female leads, and wacky hijinks.
At one point, there's a wanted poster for Rapunzel that reads like this:
"WANTED
Dead or alive
RAPUNZEL
For horse thieving, kidnapping, jail breaking, and using her hair in a manner other than nature intended!
REWARD"
Elements of both other fairy tales and western tall tales and legends about historical figures are incorporated, and it's generally a lot of fun.
Calamity Jack is a sequel that quickly recounts Jack's past and how he came to be in the west (short versoin: giant mobsters and beanstalks) before having Jack and Rapunzel visit Jack's home town. (More hijinks and romance ensue.) It's not quite as fun or innovative as Rapunzel's Revenge, but is a pretty worthy followup.
There are a number of POC but, aside from Jack (who is his world's version of being Native American, though I don't recall if his nation was made analogous with a real world nation of not) they're very much secondary roles, and either working for or following white characters. (That said, the Hale's don't appear to prescribe to the theory that a fictional world based on a real historical time and place have to follow the mass culturally assumed "rules" of the time as far as gender, race and class go, and so many of the related frustrations we often get aren't present here.)
Very fun books, and well worth it if you like fairy tale retellings, westerns with female leads, and wacky hijinks.