All too often fantasy comics tend toward dramatic epic tales. I blame Tolkien. While he may not have started the entire fantasy genre (indeed, much of his work borrowed extensively from various mythologies), he made it popular with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. And these two works actually show the polarity between fantasy, with The Hobbit being in many ways light fun fantasy (even if heroes died and armies fought over the Dragon gold), and The Lord of the Rings being a darker epic tale, ending with an end of the age of fantasy and the start of the Age of Man (and of Reason and of the many varied beliefs that humanity has come up with as it turns away from superstition and magic).

Roza is a fortunate glimpse at the lighter side of fantasy, with a delightful silliness to it that is often lacking from fantasy comics these days. Ironically, Rosa starts with the potential of being a dark and dire tale, as its primary protagonist, a young lass named Roza Firel, suffers from an odd curse which causes her blood to catch fire and to take odd forms as the blood took on a life of its own when she’s cut and bleeds. Naturally enough she seeks a cure, or information on someone who can help her remove the curse. Accompanying Roza is a sentient (if not exactly intelligent critter named Nic, who seems to be an odd mixture of possum and rat (and a cat’s tail I think), fitting into the traditional role of thief and cute trickster animal.

Combined with a refreshingly upbeat story, Roza’s artwork is crisp and clean, with an incredible level of detail to the shading. Attention is paid to lighting sources and direction (and one of the fascinating aspects of this lies with the fact that Roza’s own blood can be a light source, whether it is igniting hay in a barn or illuminating the darkness as she uses it to fight off an enchanted foe) both for highlighting and for illumination purposes. One aspect of the art I especially enjoy is the realism in the drawn people; for example, Roza has a mole below her left eye, and this is consistently included in drawings of her, even at angles where it would be quite easy to skip the mole and pretend it doesn’t exist. This attention to detail shows in the rest of the comic and helps Roza stand out among a vast sea of fantasy fare.