Dark And Dreamy, “The Chancellor and the Citadel” is a Must Read

Writer: Maria Capelle Frantz/ Artist: Maria Capelle Frantz / Iron Circus Comics Maria Frantz’s name rang a bell somewhere in my cluttered head when news of this book spread online, and I remembered that she illustrated one of my favorite comics for the anthology Galahad and the Far-Off Horizon – a 130 page collection of five stories written by Hansel Moreno, set in a fantastical world of witches, golems, and magical creatures. Since then, I’ve been seeing more and more of her artwork, and I just knew that after hearing the news about this book I’d want to see more. Lavishly beautiful and detailed artwork adds to the richness of the story, of a city, the Citadel at the end of the world. With its walls and people, it is protected by its protector– someone they call the Chancellor– who is as powerful as she is mysterious always with a hood, never showing her true face. Night after night she quells what dangers come, and one night a single conflict, a single gathering of a angry and fearful mob at the gates of her city changes everything. Those within the city’s walls become fearful and start to distrust her and a bitterness that had been growing for a while grows hard in the hearts of many of those who know her.

“…The fear, hopelessness, and other intense emotions that latch on to us when situations look bleak and when the night seems long.” Cartoonist Maria Frantz has fashioned a narrative within the fantasy genre that speaks to the fear, hopelessness, and other intense em…