Escape From Bitch Mountain Advanced Review

Escape From Bitch Mountain

Collaborators: Comic Book Slumber Party (Hannah K. Chapman (editor; CBSP founder), Korinna Mei Veropoulou, Amy Lora, Liana Buszka, Lauren Burke, Léa Vera Toro, Barbawk, April Szafranski, Jenny Mure, Atla Hrafney, Ahmara Smith, Jenn Woodall and Nicole Miles.)
Publisher: Avery Hill Publishing

Review by Jay Borenstein

Combine Dungeons & Dragons with a wicked bender and you get Escape From Bitch Mountain. This comic collaboration by the all-female identifying, trans, and non-binary creator collective Comic Book Slumber Party stars the roguish heroine Greasy who, despite being way over this dungeon, still helps its needy denizens because, well, treasure and nookie.

When Greasy wakes up after passing out in the bedroom of an MMO-playing lady warlock, she’s simultaneously incredibly confused and smitten. After Greasy scores the warlock’s phone number, she slowly recounts all the adventures with various demons, ghosts, and sprites she encountered prior, all of which is framed by the post-bender narrative. Each story is drawn in vastly different styles, and featuring different challenges both physical and intellectual that Greasy manages to triumph over, usually through brute force and with biting shade.

While I’ve not read any of Greasy’s prior adventures, I was immediately smitten by her tough, no-nonsense attitude and butt-kicking skills. Greasy is a wild child who scoffs in the face of the “fantasy wench” prototype. She kicks ass and revels in a good fight.

Each of the creators clearly has a ball working with this character and each of their stories showcases unique talents in both writing and illustration that showcase the collective chops of the group. As a fantasy and dungeon crawler fan, all of the stories feature creatures and scenarios that are both familiar and also suitably weird and flippant to exist in Greasy’s world. Hippie wizard? Check. Sack-racing selkies? Check. Also, did I mention the dungeon has a staff room?

This world is a fun one to exist in over 108 pages, and I discovered some great artists to follow through reading it. If you want an energetic read that features a slew of vibrant art styles and quirky humour, you’d do well to become a devotee of Greasy.

The Verdict: Buy it.

If you’re into fantasy, indie comics, and badass heroines who generally don’t give a toss, give Escape From Bitch Mountain a try! This is a stand-alone story, but with Comic Book Slumber Party having previously sent Greasy into space with Deep Space Canine, I can only imagine Greasy will be back in all her badassery, though perhaps in a different genre.

Available Wednesday, November 7, 2018.