Bento Review: Anne Bonnie: The Journey Begins

Hey, a fifth book this month from Comic Bento, featuring a publisher that is new to them and to me, namely Blue Juice Comics.

And once again, pirates.  This time we have a book called Anne Bonnie: The Journey Begins.

I really don’t know much of anything about either the actual Anne Bonnie or Blue Juice Comics, but what I saw here was pretty good.  Apparently, all the good books in this month’s box featured pirates and not undersea assholes.  Who knew?

At any rate, this book is not about Anne Bonnie.  Anne Bonnie, Queen of the Pirates, is nowhere to be seen.  Instead, we have Ariana.  She’s a plucky orphan who wants to be a pirate, and in this case, pirate means someone who sails around having adventures and finding treasures, not the sea thieves they actually were.  Ariana idolizes Anne Bonnie, who disappeared over a decade earlier.  Instead, she’s been stuck in a cranky wizard’s castle watching the world go by with her incredible farsight, or her ability to see things from a great distance.  That makes her a somewhat impressive marksman to boot.  As it is, that’s about all she has for talents.  She can see far, but she doesn’t plan far and acts impulsively in ways that don’t help anyone.  But then one day, she sneaks out of the wizard’s house by stealing the mystic ship held underneath.  Oh, it’s Anne Bonnie’s ship, and the thing sails itself with an incredibly expressive figurehead.  Now all Ariana needs is a crew, and she seems to pick up people along the way including a buy who’s half-mer, a clumsy phoenix, and her old mentor who finds her exasperating and (though Ariana doesn’t know it at first) knew the real Anne Bonnie.

Truth be told, the book hints Ariana might be Anne’s daughter, but for now, she doesn’t know anything about that.

Besides, her knack for getting into trouble means by volume’s end she has made enemies from a naval officer, another pirate, elves, and the mer people.  If she gets away, it’s because she’s more lucky than good at anything, but she’s having too much fun to notice.  And when she does get serious…well, people should look out.  Writer/artist Tim Yates has a good thing going here, and if this is what Blue Juice produces, then I hope I see more of their stuff soon.

NEXT MONTH:  That’s it for the August box.  In September, apparently, the theme is “CREATOR-OWNED,” so that should be interesting.