THE PRINCE AND THE DRESSMAKER - Serio Comics 15
THE PRINCE AND THE DRESSMAKER written and drawn by Jen Wang, published by First Second
Last Friday I enthused about NIMONA by ND Stevenson, the self-published webcomic then traditionally published graphic novel that was adapted into an Oscar-nominated Animated Film by Annapurna Pictures and Netflix.
This week’s enthusiasm is for Jen Wang’s THE PRINCE AND THE DRESSMAKER another graphic novel that had its film rights bought by a major studio and producer, Universal Pictures and Marc Platt Productions.
It has already had a similar popularity and impact on culture with over 100,000 ratings on Goodreads.
And when I read it for the first and second time two years ago and last year.
As well as a third time this week.
It continued to have a strong impression on me as well.
Both professionally as a way to make a graphic story cinematically.
As well as personally in its themes about identity.
THE PRINCE AND THE DRESSMAKER is a fairy tale romantic comedy graphic novel written and illustrated by Jen Wang and published by 2018 by First Second Books, an imprint of Roaring Books Press, which is part of Macmillan.
It tells the story of a Prince who hires a talented Dressmaker to make him glamorous woman’s clothes but asks her to maintain his secret at the cost of her own ambitions.
It won a Harvey Award and an Eisner Award.
One of the first things I noticed was that it seemed very close formally to cinema.
Almost like a beautiful storyboard for a film, in third person omniscient without any first-person narration, the latter of which is more the case in literary graphic novels.
This greatly influenced how I proceeded with artist Gabriel Wexler, who has been a storyboard artist for film and tv, in our approach to SHOULD WE BUY A GUN?
It doesn’t have first-person narration and is similarly widely omniscient in perspective.
But does have some captions.
What I love about Jen’s book personally (and I told her something similar in a recent letter) is that it shows a very subtle representation of gender expression that I relate to.
Prince Sebastian likes to crossdress.
But only sometimes.
And this also doesn’t make him less attractive to the special people in his life.
While there are questions about the Prince’s masculinity.
It also shows how integrating your masculine and feminine can lead to a strength of its own.
Wang also subtly shows, to this reader at least, how elements of a fluid gender presentation don’t necessarily mean a completely non-straight sexuality.
This kind of queer but straight representation is quite specific but very gratifying.
There are also both reminders of the costs of ambition.
And the benefits.
As well as a tennis reference :)
THE PRINCE AND THE DRESSMAKER is a book I’ve gifted a number of times now.
It’s available at Goodreads, indie retailers at Bookshop.org, from the Publisher, at Skylight here in LA, via Amazon, and the author, Jen Wang.
It was also the only graphic novel that one of the biggest champions of SHOULD WE BUY A GUN? had read before they read mine.
That reader, who is in the film industry, believes SWBAG, has just as much quality :)
Paid Subscribers check out the letter I wrote to Jen Wang when I sent her an author’s copy of SHOULD WE BUY A GUN? below
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