From left to right: Soracia, Katara, Quinton, Varkias, Rubel and Heath
Thieves & Kings is an all-ages comic book series by Mark Oakley, with six volumes published and more to come. Not much is available online, though there are samplechapters, a few webstrips and a spin-off.T&K is a Fantasy story, with a Fairy Tale feel, but surprising depth. The story format shifts back and forth from text with drawn background to pure comics, depending on which format suits the moment.
This comic provides examples of:
Aerith and Bob: So much. For examples, here are the names of a few secondary characters; Sara, Jenny, Smith Robins, Calypso, Catastrophe, Cespinarve Rogue.
Artificial Limbs: Locumire gets one after Heath cuts off one of her arms.
Quinton. Soracia laments that even after spending a century practicing painting, she still couldn't do as good as what Quinton did on his first try. Using a stick he picked up from the ground, a nearby tent for canvas, and some berries mixed with mud for paint. His second try was even better, only he got bored in the middle of it, and walked away. That's Quinton for you.
Crazy-Prepared: Quinton takes this over the top. As in "I planted this tree 100 years ago because I knew I'd need it right about now."
Create Your Own Villain: Quinton accidentally became responsible for Locumire's Start of Darkness when he mistook her for one of the Red Sorceress's incarnations.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Heath defeats Jurid by trapping him in a bottle, which is apparently impressive enough to make Klachilies the Gorgon afraid of her.
Evil Old Folks: Jenny's mother, Vale. Her numerous Kick the Dog moments include using blackmail to force her daughter to get married, threatening to turn Heath over to Locumire, and killing Rubel's dog.
Good Costume Switch: Soracia's epicHeel Face Turn culminates with the cutting off of her beribboned evil black cloak. It then forms up into a dummy shape of her and cries that it loves her. After that she wanders around in a fairly average cloak and skirt combo that still manages a certain amount of flair and swirl when she swings her longswords, but doesn't reek of black magic.
Fairy Companion: Varkias is pretty much this to Rubel, apart from being a small winged demon rather than a fairy.
I Have Many Names: Soracia is also known as "The Shadow Lady", "The Queen of Halves", and "Lady Salina". Her friends call her "Sally". Being much older than her, Quinton Zempfester presumably has a lot more (he was definitely called "Kaluvinar" in the long distant past).
Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The first five volumes are named after their covers' colour schemes; The Red Book, The Green Book, The Blue Book, The Shadow Book, and The Winter Book.
Impossible Thief: Rubel is on his way to becoming one of these when he grows up. His uncle McGi has performed impossible feats such as retrieving a girls lost memories and intimidating the hell out of a dragon who ate entire cities.
Lost Woods: The Sleeping Wood definitely qualifies. Also a Genius Loci that doesn't like humans very much. Or roads. Oh, and if you follow the path through it, you get to the Fairy kingdom.
Mayfly December Romance: What Soracia's relationship with Rubel would be. Which is why she wanted to steal his soul, so they could be together forever.
Medieval Stasis: Without explanation — there have been (many, many) wars, mind, but Heath moves from centuries in the past to join the other main characters and no one even comments on her accent.
Talking Animal: Played with. Kimithin, Heath and Varkias can hear Basil (a cat) when he talks, but it just sounds like meowing to Rubel (who can only talk to dogs, horses and mice). When Kim asks Basil if Leahanna's cat can also talk, he says: "Not to humans."
Take That: Several of the side stories start with Quinton getting a really bad idea (usually inspired by George W. Bush) and sucking gullible people into his (inevitably disastrous) plan.
Talking Your Way Out: When Quinton is imprisoned by trolls, he talks his way out by excitedly greeting one of the trolls as the spy sent to free him, thus creating suspicion among the other trolls that he actually is a spy, and setting in motion a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the hapless troll finds that he is doomed to torture for his imaginary spy secrets if he does not go rogue and flee immediately. Rather than face this fugitive fate alone, Quinton offers the troll his assistance, if released, and the two make a break for it together.
Temporal Paradox: Heath and Katara are technically the same person (both being Reincarnations of the Red Sorceress), but exist at the same time due to Time Travel. It's implied that this is seriously messing with Katara's sanity.
Textplosion: Thieves & Kings is about 50% comic pages and 50% illustrated text.
Time Abyss: Quinton. To give you an idea of just how old he is, Soracia is young compared to him and she's ten thousand years old.
is an all-ages comic book series by Mark Oakley, with six volumes published and more to come. Not much is available online, though there are sample
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