THE PIRATE PRINCESS

A young woman sets sail to reunite with her father—the king of pirates—in this 17th-century graphic novel adventure.

On an island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean lives Julie, whose gunpowder experiments occasionally leave her homes in ruins. She’s no longer safe there, or so longtime friends (and pirate crew members) Maxime and Stephane tell her: An enemy of her king-of-pirates father has evidently tracked Julie down. Maxime and Stephane bring her aboard the Golden Dolphin so they can take her to her father, whom she hasn’t seen in years. But the Lady of the Sun, a formidable warrior who claims that Julie’s dad murdered her child, is right at their heels. She and her minions chase the Golden Dolphin through a storm and onto the island of Santa Lucia. Julie’s much-anticipated reunion with the pirate king may not be a happy one, with secrets she doesn’t want to learn gradually coming to light. Frigerio’s story features a delightful, valiant hero—Julie shows off her homemade explosives with panache (“I’m okay! I just got the amount of gunpowder wrong”) and earnestly trains to fight with her father’s old sword. She has an unmistakable closeness with the paternal Maxime and Stephane, who are more like fathers to her than her own, and she faces off against wonderfully mysterious villains. As the narrative progresses, glimpses of the larger world peek through, including the watery streets of an almost dreamlike Santa Lucia, a run-in with a charming Spanish governor, and the Lady of the Sun’s illuminating backstory. Fiery action scenes unfold on sea and land, complete with clashing blades and things that go boom. It all leads to an ending that promises sequels to follow. Pigliamosche’s anime-style artwork uses muted pastels to sublimely depict Julie’s world, limning such remarkable moments as resplendent fish popping out of the ocean surface and an unexpectedly serene nighttime sequence.

An entertaining piratical yarn with loads of action and series potential.