God Save the Queen

Written by Mike Carey
Art by John Bolton

Reading this, I was surprised by the parallels between it and Jamie McKelvie's superb 'Suburban Glamour'. Both books are about a conflict between Faerie's Queen Titania and her sister Mab. Both involve a changeling girl on Earth. Both changeling girls have a nerdy best friend. I guess the only real difference is that this book replaces cool vintage clothing with heroin.

Perhaps I'm being too glib. This is a nice comic, although between McKelvie's work and a lot of the faerie stuff in Sandman, I feel like I've read it all before. The notion of heroin-addicted faeries is a new one, and about the only thing in the book that is adding to the concept.

Bolton's art is the same as always. Some pages are beautiful and technically stunning, while others are a little ugly, although I assume intentionally so. The cover, on the other hand, is hideous and poorly designed, and is probably the main reason why it took me so long to get a copy of this book.