Review by Frank Plowright

Fiona Marchbank’s Ladies of the Knight looks at a form of Amazonian society roughly equivalent with the English middle ages. Serafina is a grumpy knight, and it’s felt to combat boredom she needs a new squire. George is her opposite in almost every respect, especially in terms of personality, being resolutely cheerful and curious.

Attractive and well composed pages take Ladies of the Knight a long way. Marchbank depends heavily on head and shoulders illustrations, yet there’s considerable variety, and occasional pages featuring primarily small moving figures are equally eye-catching. In fact, the art looks so good that it takes some while to drop into place how little substance there is to the writing. Bite-size pieces of plot of indicate Ladies of the Knight’s origins as a webcomic. and while Marchbank’s art consistently and imaginatively transcends the repetition so often seen in online comics, the writing doesn’t transfer well to book form.

Once the few characters have been introduced the plot follows a predictable course of mishaps and prejudice for so long, and because none of the cast other than George manifest a more than a single characteristic it’s only the art that sustains interest.

By midway we’ve arrived at a knights’ tournament, but because so little effort has been put into personalities, it’s a succession of well-illustrated formalities. It’s difficult to care whether Serafina defeats Aethelburg or vice versa, yet we’re supposed to. Part of the problem is that George overcomes anything thrown at her within a few pages, another glitch of the transfer from webcomics where the pattern wouldn’t be as obvious. Also problematical is that every cast member’s focus is training for tournaments. There’s no break for casual conversation, a look at wider society or an explanation of how a society without men is sustained. There’s no Amazonian magic here.

The art is so good it’s worth buying Ladies of the Knight just to look at it, but keep other expectations low.