4. Rat Queens
I heard the Comixology podcast where they interviewed writer Kurtis J. Wiebe about Rat Queens, and they were calling it Dungeons and Dragons with cursing. But oh this title is so much more than that. It's a story set in a high fantasy world, but it also incorporates a lot of conventions that we have become familiar with when it comes to role-playing games.The Rat Queens are one of a number of gangs. The gangs, like those in the real world, are restless youths who like to go out and drink and get into fights. One of the many smart things this comic does is it understands adolescents and young adults. And it acknowledges how interested they are in sex and violence and getting wasted. It takes those values that seem to be part of that youthful experience, and puts those into the fantasy setting. It shows us how characters who might have powers or superior fighting skills might still have to deal with issues that everyone goes through. The book begins with a quest, as things like this are wont to do. But then the twists and turns come in, and the Rat Queens begin to uncover a plot that is larger and much more dangerous than they expected.