“Reanimating the dead isn’t hard but they make TERRIBLE minons.”
Genre-bending graphic novel about a little girl, Nimona, with special powers, or maybe that’s special powers with a little girl inside them, who forces her services upon a wanna-be villain. There is some fun stuff here, like the big bad Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics, and names like Ballister Blackheart and Sir Goldenloin, and the fact that everyone swans around in medieval clothing while critiquing television shows (“I don’t understand what’s so scary about zombies. Reanimating the dead isn’t hard but they make TERRIBLE minons.”). Yes, in this world magic and science co-exist, and Blackheart decides to infect the populace (but not fatally, his heart isn’t that black, much to Nimona’s irritation) with poisoned apples. Nimona says
Whoa, that’s old-school villain right there. Are you pissed you’re not the fairest of them all?
There is a huge expository lump later on involving a Doctor Blitzmeyer and her invention that intersects the powers of magic and science and a pretty schmaltzy backstory involving a jealous lover and the loss of one of Blackheart’s arms, and the true villain is pretty obvious from the getgo, but well worth reading for the fun dialogue and the sharp-angled art (vaguely reminiscent of Mary GrandPre’s Harry Potter illustrations).
