Westerners can sure be po-faced sticklers when it comes to injecting humor in the fantasy genre. Oh, sure, National Lampoon has given us the parody Bored of the Rings, and Mary Gentle thrilled us with an orc-run fantasy world in Grunts. Fine anomalies, both … but they aren’t necessarily household names. For the most part, we like our fantasy heroes to be stoic warriors, our heroines to be cold humorless ice princesses, our fantasy villains to be ominous evil spirits from the very depths of hell, and our Kender folk kept at the bare minimum. Fun gets in the way of epic business. You know how many Lord of the Rings fans out there think that hobbits were completely unnecessary comedy foils? A whole damn lot, that’s what.
There seems to be less of a problem in Japan. My guess is because Japan’s version of fantasy is more or less based on the Final Fantasy series, which, at its core, is pretty goofy. I mean, moogles? Chocobos? Fat chocobos who blow spit bubbles when they sleep? Cait friggin’ Sith? That sort of silliness shows up in several of what I’ll call the humorous fantasy genre.
My favorite manga, which occupies a small yet embarrassing amount of real estate on my bookshelf, was Sorcerer Hunters. At face value, it’s about a team of agents deployed to take out rogue magicians. Underneath, though, was an undercurrent of silly sex jokes: the girls were secret dominatrices, a super-handsome guy looked like a woman, and the resident beefcake was often flexing for his own benefit but would end up pursuing anyone — male or female — who was prettier than him. Introduce these concepts to mainstream American fantasy, and I’m sure we’d be hearing the sounds of a thousand monocles dropping into a thousand teacups… and more agog at the spirit of fun than the implied S&M.
Fey Winds, a webcomic written and illustrated by Montreal native Nicole Chartrand, follows in the same tradition. (Disclaimer: despite title, comic is not really about Tina Fey. Nor do any of the characters look anything like Tina Fey. Sigh.) Manga readers may encounter several elements that feel familiar. Maybe even too familiar. More on that later.
