The Courageous Princess

"The Courageous Princess" is a comic book written and drawn by Rod Espinosa, published by Antarctic Press. The story consists of fairytale lands, princes, and princesses. There are other statuses of royalty in this story. Some of Rod Espinosa's other stories are "Neotopia", and "The Alamo".

The Story

The story takes place in the land of a hundred kingdoms. Princess Mabelrose lives in the small kingdom of New Tinsley, raised by her kind parents, King Jeryk, and Queen Helena, and having lots of friends. She had a happy life, until she was invited to a ball in the kingdom of Warwick.

Unlike most fairytales, when she was at the ball, all the other princesses made fun of her uncouth, un-princess-like features, and her clothes, and the prince never even noticed her. She decides to make the ball more "entertaining" by letting loose a frog and causing chaos at the ball. Later, she tells her parents about the horrible experience that she has had at Warwick, and asks to be excused. She is then kidnapped by a fearsome dragon named Shalathrumnostrium, using his power of making her feel weak. His hobby is to kidnap princesses for their parents' gold.

Since there is no hope for a noble prince to rescue Mabelrose, she decides to escape on her own, despite Shalathrumnostrium telling her all about the dangers that princes have to go through, and telling her that no one would come to rescue a princess like her, since she is not the fairest in the land. She plans to escape just until a noble prince, or her father, King Jeryk can rescue her.

When she is caught in a bush of magic thorns, she meets a talking porcupine named Spiky. He is one of the "anifolk", animals who can walk and talk like real humans.

Although Shalathrumnostrium keeps chasing her to bring her back to his castle, she escapes every time.

In the story, she meets lots of new friends, and enemies as well. She learns new things every day, and is staying in the kingdom of Leptia, but in her heart, she still dreams of home.

Characters

Mabelrose

The main character of this story is Princess Mabelrose of New Tinsley. In the beginning of the series, she looks about 10-12 years old, and as the series goes on, she looks about 13 or 14. Mabelrose has light brown hair, and sienna-coloured eyes. Her skin is a bit tanned. The tan comes from her father, King Jeryk. Mabelrose's skin is lighter than her father's because her mother's skin is lighter. Unlike any other princess of the kingdom, she has freckles, and in Warwick's ball, the other princesses make fun of her freckles, and other uncouth features. In the beginning of the series, her hair is almost shoulder-length, but later in the series, her hair gets noticeably longer, and her once spunky attitude is muted, and she is more mature. She learned her kindness and generosity from her parents, and that is why, despite her tattered clothing, the peasants know that she is really a princess. Her parents had always taught her to pray every day, especially in terrible situations. Shalathrumnostrium is always trying to track her down. When she is at the Kingdom of Leptia, Shalathrumnostrium attempts to settle things with her once and for all, but she discovers the true power of a magical flute, and destroys him.

piky

Mabelrose's new best friend, a brown porcupine. Spiky looks about 13 years old, because of his attitude. Spiky met Mabelrose in Shalathrumnostrium's thorn bush, and when she first saw his face, she screamed and hurt herself in the thorns. Since then, they had been fast friends. It may be possible that he is a prince disguised as a porcupine, because there had been signs in the series, like in the first book, when Mabelrose and Spiky are running from Shalathrumnostrium in the rain, Spiky quickly looks at himself in a puddle with a certain expression that cannot be explained. It is also unknown why Spiky was in Shalathrumnostrium's thorn bush in the first place. It may be possible that he was trying to rescue a princess, the princess would kiss him, and then he would turn back into a handsome prince.

halathrumnostrium

The very large, fearsome dragon. Shalathrumnostrium looks over 1000 years old. He is green, with glazed, silver eyes, although sometimes his pupils are shown, they are grey. Shalathrumnostrium lives in a large castle in the Unremembered Lands, which is very far away from New Tinsley. This is bad news for Mabelrose. His hobby is to kidnap princesses, and force the King and Queen of the princess to pay ransom in gold. He claims that it is impossible for anybody to escape his fortress, until Mabelrose successfully escaped. Shalathrumnostrium has an army of trolls and a wolf-like tracking creature called "The Mukhorgouroth", but unfortunately, the trolls always fail to capture Mabelrose. This frustrates him, and when Mabelrose is at the Kingdom of Leptia, he attempts to settle things with her once and for all. Mabelrose ends up destroying him with the power of a magical flute.

King Jeryk and Queen Helena

Mabelrose's kind and generous parents. For years, they had lived happily, but the element in their lives that was missing was a child. After a long time of praying, their dream had come true, because Helena was pregnant. When they find out that Mabelrose is missing, King Jeryk risks his life to find her, even though she is far in the Unremembered Lands. Helena always prays for him and Mabelrose to come back alive and well. She is very lonely, so the persistent Baron Mavonlecent demands for her proposal. She refuses and gets very angry that she commands him to leave.

Rope

Mabelrose possesses a special rope from Shalathrumnostrium's castle. She does not know that the rope is actually alive. Constantly, Spiky catches the rope moving, or helping them, but Mabelrose refuses to believe him. She always says that it is "just a rope". Rope is fairly long, and has two green beads that look like a pair of eyes at either end. Rope has been helping Mabelrose and Spiky since Mabelrose first stole it from Shalathrumnostrium's treasure room. An example is when she was badly hurt, and Rope carried her to a safe place.

Boar

Boar is a magical boar that is one of the "anifolk". The Anifolk can walk and talk like human beings. His first appearance is when his leg is caught in a bear trap. He says that he has been stuck there for days. Mabelrose rescues him, despite losing one of her jewels. Boar knows right then that she was a princess, because she risked her wealth to save him. As a token of his appreciation, he gives her a bag of seeds, which came from a box on his jade collar. He also gives them to her because when the jade box glows, a "worthy one" is near. He then asks for Mabelrose to kiss him. She thinks that if she kisses him, he would turn into a prince. When she kissed him, nothing happened. Spiky ends up guffawing about Boar not really being a prince. Mabelrose asks why he asked her to kiss him, and he says that he wanted to know what it would be like to be kissed by a princess. This is an embarrassing moment for Mabelrose.

Books

*"The Courageous Princess"
*"The Courageous Princess- The Quest to Home"
*"The Courageous Princess- The Kingdom of Leptia"

a masterpiece edition is also available, as well as a multitude of covers.

Literary allusions

Several Fairy Tales and familiar stories are obviously alluded too, as Mablerose's parents are descended from literary characters: her Mother is the Great Great Great Great Granddaughter of Snow White and Prince Charming; her Father is supposedly descended from Aladdin.

Other stories alluded too include "The Wizard of Oz", "Princess and the Pea", "The Pied Piper", "The Three Billy Goats Gruff", and "Rapunzel".