This well-meaning and, on the whole, fairly innocent kids’ entertainment inspired by the City Palace in Udaipur nevertheless bungles its treatment of social themes (from the caste system to drug legalization) and fails to avoid, in its lightly fantasized setting, some icky issues of cultural appropriation. Prolific and bestselling scripter Eric Corbeyran collaborates with Melvil, who draws a cute cow, to bring us a colorful and briskly paced two-parter with mythological overtones, based loosely on the short life of Princess Krishna Kumari, who at the tender age of 16 martyred herself to secure her people peace.
Spirited, independent-minded Princess Natty of Orchidhali is a member of the floral caste and lives in a luxurious, sunshine-filled palace. But once she refuses her arranged marriage, she is forced to flee thelife she knows, ending up in the dark realm of the Untouchables, the very lowest caste of society, where a strange form of leprosy reigns as a result of the lack of sunlight. Natty meets an Untouchable named Sami, who is just as rebellious as she is, and together they make a plan to leave the shadows of the underworld and return to the light. But just as they are about to make their escape, a battalion of soldiers arrives, and Sami ends up in prison.
Eighty pages of story are now yours for the taking as a digital exclusive from EuropeComics on a number of platforms (Izneo, Kindle, Kobo, Google Play, and Comixology).
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