Raven the Pirate Princess is Sinking
I despise doing posts where I ask for help, but here we are.
About two years ago I started a new creator owned project. It began as a spin-off of Princeless, but the reality is this - Raven The Pirate Princess is its own thing altogether. I knew this from the first issue and if you’ve been reading, so have you.
Sure, the first few issues of Raven: Pirate Princess had that heroic lady feminist banter for which Princeless has become known both among its fans and detractors. I mean, Raven had this scene:
and issue 1 had this scene:
But perhaps much more importantly, the first issue of Raven had this:
but that wasn’t where that ended. This is a book about a community of diverse queer women actively claiming their place in the world and taking what’s theirs. It’s about Raven, who is desperately in love with her childhood best friend Ximena
It’s about Ximena, a girl who was held captive for years by a pirate king who pretended to be her liberator. Who fell in love with the pirate’s daughter, only to be left behind by that father when she outlived her value.
About Sunshine, the thief that chose the wrong target and ended up falling in love with a woman already hopelessly in love with somebody else.
It’s about Katie, the bisexual second in command who’s motivated by honor…and occasionally beating the snot out of a dude or two
Oh and in case I forgot to mention, Katie is also incredibly muscular:
And Jayla, the asexual science genius who’s tired of being treated like a little sister
and Cid, the deaf engineer who quietly keeps the ship running
and of course, these two:
The socially awkward poet and the angry sword fighter who couldn’t stand her who have somehow become these two:
But here’s the thing: this comic is failing. It has a very dedicated and exuberant but at this point SMALL fanbase. Today I had a hard conversation with Action Lab about the reality of the numbers on this book versus what it costs to produce this book and, suffice it to say, Action Lab isn’t ready to cancel the book, but they aren’t ready to greenlight year 3 either. After Year 2 #13, Raven is set to go on the shelf until numbers can support continuing it.
This is where I need your help
If you care about this book full of queer pirate ladies and you want it to continue, we need to find a way to spread the word about it. We don’t need to sell single issues (it would be nice) but ultimately we need the trades sales that back up the continuation of this big YA Pirate/Revenge/Adventure/Romance thing.
Digital copies can be bought instantly right on Comixology: https://www.comixology.com/Princeless-Raven-The-Pirate-Princess/comics-series/46971
You can buy the physical volumes on amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B01BF7U91Q
In fact, if you’ve already purchased volumes 1-4, volume 5 is available for preorder there right now!
Maybe you’ve bought all the issues already. Thank you! If you still want to support Raven, you can review the books on Amazon or other retailers, you can share, reblog or retweet this post. You can tell a friend about the book!
If you have a comics review site or, say, a blog where you talk about LGBT media, contact me for review links or interviews. Please, help us save our ship.
Hey everybody, remember this post? Well, you have a very real and concrete way to help Raven: Pirate Princess on our Kickstarter right now! Go chip in and help make our hardcovers a reality and share Raven’s story with libraries and schools! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/actionlab/princeless-the-pirate-princess
Hey, Tumblr friends! Remember all those times I’ve reblogged things like “do you want to read about a kick-ass crew of lady pirates?” or “and here we have Raven Xingtao jumping through a window!” or basically anything on my blog ever involving lady pirates?
Remember all those times a couple of years back when I gushed about the Danny Rand/Misty Knight story in Secret Wars: Secret Love? Remember how I’ve waxed enthusiastic about Nadia and the G.I.R.L. crew in The Unstoppable Wasp?
Yeah, this is that comic. This is that writer.
Yeah, you should be reading this. (Why aren’t you yet? Haven’t I talked it up enough times? Because if I haven’t, I can keep doing it!)
Yeah, it still needs your help.
*points to Kickstarter*
