Princesses and axes, two great things that go great together!

Ted Naifeh, the creator of the Eisner-Award nominated series Courtney Crumrin, returns to Oni Press with a new ongoing series. Princess Ugg was announced at New York Comic Con last October at the Oni Press Panel. This new floppy comic series follows Princess Ülga, a barbarian princess from the Northern land of Grimmeria. While she is a great warrior, her parents want her to have a more refined education. She is sent to the fairy-tale kingdom of Atraesca, to the prestigious Princess Academy, where young royals from all five kingdoms go to get their education.

While the story sounds like standard “fish-out-of-water” fare, knowing it’s from the mind of Ted Naifeh, whose wonderful worlds of Courtney Crumrin and Polly and the Pirates feature female leads that are anything but stereotypical, this is a story I’m really looking forward to reading. I mean, she carries a sword and an axe, and rides a war mammoth. How can this story not be awesome?

Princess Ugg #1 came out on June 4 and is rated for Teens, but could probably be easily put into the hands of a middle-schooler with no problems. You can read a 10-page preview at Comics Alliance, which includes a variant cover by Battle Pug creator Mike Norton.