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At a college party nearly a decade ago, Ben Smith and Felicia Mars met. While they didn’t think they initially had a lot in common, the next day, when they were hungover and walking to Noah’s Bagels together, they began joking around with the idea for a comic. For years after, the two friends attempted to collaborate on various comics. They often played around with the idea of a high fantasy comic that was unapologetically LGBTQIA+. Vanquished: Weird Princ{ess} is the product of all these years of brainstorming, personal growth, and friendship.
Vanquished: Weird Princess follows Valorie Valiant’s journey as she tries to save her kingdom Valengaurd while dealing with the complexities of coming out as transgender and transitioning. Her journey is filled with self-discovery and self-acceptance, as well as ice-breathing dragons, curses that leave people shirtless, steam-powered robots, and much more! Additionally, as members of the LGBTQIA+ community, creators Ben Smith and Felicia Mars have brought many of their experiences into the comic in hopes of creating a fantasy that is not only entertaining and but that allows LGBTQ+ readers to see themselves as the rebellious princess, magician in-training, and mighty warrior.
The Daily Fandom recently had the opportunity to speak with Ben Smith and Felicia Mars to provide readers with a more in-depth view of the comic and the process behind this fun, fantastical, and unforgettable adventure. Welcome to Ben Smith and Felicia Mars’s Vanquished: Weird Princ{ess}.
A Magical Cast Created With Love
The protagonist of Vanquished: Weird Princ{ess} is Valerie Valiant, the rebellious princess of Valenguard. Though when the readers meet her, people are still calling her Prince Felipe the Weird. Valerie is a transwoman whose journey of coming out and transitioning are intertwined with her mission to save Valenguard.
When readers are introduced to Valerie, she’s in her glamorous blue wig, blue lipstick, and mini-skirt. She’s jumping off of buildings to avoid going to a war meeting and she feels uncomfortable whenever calls her “Prince Felipe.” To an extent, she understands who she is and what she wants, but she’s still growing and learning. Her mother, the queen, dismisses Valerie’s search of her self with her coercive attempts to s shape Valerie into “King Felipe.” She has no idea that it will be Valerie Valiant, not her ideal of King Felipe, who will forever change Valenguard.
Valerie and her adventures are magical but rooted in reality as they are influenced by Felicia’s own experiences as transwoman. The character and her journey were explored during Felicia’s hormone replacement therapy. Felicia wanted Valerie’s journey to start before her transition or coming because she noticed there were many transgender creators who avoided depicting and exploring the transition in their stories. While she understands why many want to start with their trans-characters already in their right bodies, she wanted to write a character that shared her experiences. She explained:
She has this body of a boy that she doesn’t want, that she doesn’t feel right in. And the reason for that was because at the time when we started working on this comic, I had just started going through hormone replacement therapy and I was going through the struggles. And I want, you know, the struggles that every transgender person who does do hormone replacement therapy goes through. And I wanted that character. I wanted someone to identify with. Working on this story, working on this comic really helped me get through some of the bumpier hurdles of that.
Felicia Mars
Ben also stated that it was imperative for Valerie to have many of the same experiences as transgender individuals. Unfortunately, hormonal replacement therapy, gender confirmation surgery, and other transition procedures aren’t always on the table for transgender individuals. While many fantasy stories featuring transgender characters will rely on some kind of magic to give the character the body they want to be, Valerie isn’t given that same opportunity. Ben explained:
I think it’s so important that Valerie doesn’t get, doesn’t get a handout, doesn’t [get] a free ride and she gets put through [what] a real transgender person would have to go through. And it’s difficult to write at times. It really kind of makes for like a kind of dark sort of dark writing at times. It definitely gets really kind of challenging. But it’s like I want to reflect a real experience. I want to reflect, even though our comic is silly and there’s like dinosaurs and robots, whatever, I want this to be real and I want all of these sort of LGBT things that relate to identity and relate to people’s relationships with their identities and their bodies and that kind of thing to be as real as we can make it. So that’s just to sort of add and I think that’s one of the things that I think I really love about the story, my love for Valerie.
Ben Smith
While Valerie must undergo many trials, she’s a character made with love and meant to spread love. Regardless of a person’s appearance or where their body may be in transition, their identity is all the matters, and it is something that can’t be taken away from them. So while Valerie’s adventures may be filled with magical creatures and fantastical places, her experiences as a transwoman are very real. Moreover, like all the main characters of Vanquished: Weird Prince{ess}, she is made up of the emotions and experiences of her creators.
After being introduced to Valerie, the readers are quickly introduced to the rest of the cast. First, there is Samil, Valerie’s childhood friend and her family friend. He is the son of Count Ishkrim, the childhood friend of the King Artos. He is given the headache-inducing task of making sure Valerie fulfills her royal responsibilities.
Then there is his rebellious brother Neimann who wants nothing to do with his father’s work and simply wants to enjoy life. One way he enjoys life is spending time with his beloved Joshi, a member of a discriminated animal-human hybrid species known as the Ma’pah. There’s also Leah, a Ma’pah who is excited to learn and experience new things. Shawn, the inventor, and pacifist is happy to show her his robot since she’s never seen one before. They are a diverse group with their own abilities, weaknesses, and objectives, but they all carry parts of Ben and Felicia in them. As Ben stated:
I would say, like every character in the cast is like a little piece of me…the way I kind of write [is} I put a little piece of me in every character. Like, for example, Joshi definitely I’d say, if I have one word for that character [it’s] loyalty. And I think my sort of like, ideal ideologies of loyalty come through in Joshi with me. He has my sense of humor. You know, even Valerie has my kind of…fuck the man kind of oh, I don’t want to be the guy. I don’t want to be the prince of Aligarh. I want to, you know, jump off air balloons and do whatever whatever the fuck. I’m like every character is a piece of me.
Ben Smith
Felicia loves the characters just as much, often arguing with Ben over character deaths and other tragedies that might strike their characters. Though she does give her characters’ struggles, she’s had to experience in her own life. When discussing the character Shelia, she stated:
But she’s an alcoholic. And I suggested that she was…it creates a lot of drama for the cast. And I basically told Ben about what alcoholism looks like and how she might go on a path of recovery. And so there’s just a lot of we just put a lot of ourselves in it.
Felicia Mars
This love for their characters and the act of giving themselves pieces of the characters is what makes them so related to the readers. It has also given them the ability to learn and be inspired by their own creators.
Creating The Cast Of Vanquished
When discussing their characters, Felicia and Ben emphasized the importance of allowing your characters to grow organically. While they are the creators, they are often surprised by their characters. For instance, Ben and Felicia shared with The Daily Fandom that Joshi wasn’t meant to be a main character. He was written to help with Leah’s introduction and then die. Felicia explained
…Joshi originally when Ben wrote the character, was meant to die. It’s like almost immediately produced, like he was kind of a no one character. And for some reason he ended up surviving and he ended up becoming a main character in our manuscripts. And Ben has tried to kill him a couple of times…And then every volume, somehow that bunny boy manages to avoid death and keep on track.
Felicia Mars
Ben elaborated, explaining that while working on a big scene, he knew that Joshi was more important than he and Felicia initially thought:
It’s funny because this scene ended up getting cut, but it was like this really great scene between him and Nem where they kind of…lay themselves on the line. And I was like, oh, this character is a keeper. I can’t just like relegate [him] to the background. And so he ended up being essential to the story.
Ben Smith
This thinking allows them to create characters that grow organically. While they have many plans for the story and characters, they both try to not be strict about it and give their characters room to grow in new and unexpected ways. Ben stated:
God knows what happens between me and my keyboard, but like something, you know, things will be different. Sometimes they’ll be the same. Sometimes they won’t, but like scenes that we expected to see aren’t in there. Characters we expected to see, sometimes they’re in there, sometimes they’re not. Characters will survive or not… And it’s like, yeah, it’s very organic… Especially when Felicia comes into the mix, she’ll read the story to be like, oh, what about this? What about this idea? And, you know, we’re forever shaping the story.
Ben Smith
As a team they explore their story together, enjoying the adventure as much as the readers. They also allow the same sort of growth and flexibility when designing their characters.
Dressing Up The Cast of Vanquished
The cast of Vanquished: Weird Princ[ess] is diverse, each member having their own style that suits their personality. And while it is a very collaborate comic, Felicia is the main artist and in charge of character design. The task of creating the characters is one she has mixed feelings about:
I learned that I was super excited for character design class and then I learned that, oh, character design is not actually my thing…I am really more about drawing the characters in action and I would prefer someone else design them. So it’s always a chore to actually get to the character design stage and have to do the character designs, because I don’t like sitting there and drawing a million thumbnails of one character. So like, I’m going to tell you, and this is not what they teach you in art school, but when I design the characters, I pretty much do one design and I kind of let my ideas flow on to it. And then when I bring them into the story, the characters end up looking a little different. Like when I’m drawing the one, I’m drawing the first page that they appear on. I add or take away things and then that’s their design from there. So like, I made an Instagram post where I showed the original character designs and then I showed them in the comic. And they do look a little different. And that’s how I do it. That’s just how it’s just what’s comfortable for me.
Felicia Mars
While this isn’t the method she was taught, Felicia’s beautiful and bold character designs show that her method gets results. So while she’s taking her daily run, she’s designing in her head and letting her ideas flow so that when she sits down later, she can avoid drawing out hundreds of thumbnails. While Ben assists her with the art, his main role in character design is changing designs as they relate to story beats or stop them from being too “risque.” As Felicia stated:
I will say that often times I try to get away with making the characters more risque. Ben puts the kibosh on that, is like ‘Absolutely no.’ You know, ‘Valerie s not going to be in her underwear for an entire issue.’
Felicia Mars
Felicia was able to get away with making Nem shirtless all the time though. How did she manage to pull that off? With her great storytelling abilities! She explained:
He made a deal with the spirit and the spirit asked for him to give him the shirt off his back, you know, in return for the perfect abs… And Nem being the kind of guy that he is just kind of just, of course, went for that. And he gave him this shirt. But it turns out that he’ll never be able to wear a shirt again whenever he tries to put on a shirt. Something’s going to happen to interrupt that.
Felicia Mars
The Nem’s shirtless curse is canon and a great example of Felicia joining in on the storytelling. As Ben stated:
..quite often characters will change clothes or their clothing will adapt to change based on things that happen in the story when Felicia drew it. And it’s something that I think very organically happens throughout the stories that are told to design because it’s like Samil at the beginning…he’s wearing his uniform on, his coat because he’s on duty. But like later on in the storym, he’s off duty. And so what he’s wearing off duty? And it’s like something I didn’t think about or like Valerie, she’s all dressed up like in the single most garish outfit that Felicia could design. It is like, sure. But like what happens, you know, what happens when she’s forced to, like, spend time with her mother?
Ben Smith
Felicia continued:
Right. And she you know, she starts off wearing that that blue wig, you know, and, you know, her mom, her mom, who very much, you know, like a lot of the parents of transgender people don’t understand, you know, like she doesn’t understand. She is, you know, very antagonistic to Valerie. There’s contention in that relationship. And so she tells Valerie, she demands that she takes the wig off. And Valerie, upset by this, takes the wig off and she throws it into a drainage ditch. And so then there goes the wig.
Felicia Mars
While she stated character design isn’t her favorite, Felicia uses character design as an opportunity to not only have fun with her beloved characters but also to tell their stories and give them greater depth. Nem is shirtless because it’s fun and because Nem as a character would do something as foolish as getting cursed in exchange for perfect abs. Valerie’s blue wig is a great way to introduce her to the reader, and the loss of that blue wig is also representative of her struggles against people who don’t accept her.
What Samil wears when he’s not working is also very telling about the kind of person he is. Through their designs and writing, Ben and Felicia give us fun and complex characters that readers are able to relate to despite all the magical and supernatural elements of these characters and the fantastical world they live in.
The Fantastical World Of Vanquished
The world, like the characters, are a mix of magic and reality. While the world of Vanquished: Weird Princ{ess} is filled with magic and wonder, it’s also filled with war, politics, and discrimination. The readers begin in kingdom of Valenguard which is currently at war with the Alfainians. The dangerous place known as the Grubscape is also mentioned during this meeting and in a conversation between Shawn and Nem. This is a brief introduction to the complicated politics and history of this world. Ben states that as a fantasy writer he didn’t want to follow the same Tolkien path that is popular with many other fantasy writers. Instead, he drew more inspiration from the real world. He states:
A lot of it is the real world. Valenguard is designed to be what if America was a fantasy setting. Like it’s something that we haven’t really touched on yet, but it’s a post-colonial society about 300 years down the road. We kind of learn later on there’s an indigenous people…they have a relationship with the Valen and the history of Alfainians…And so I think when it kind of came down to the influences for the story, I definitely kind of looked at real history and was like, OK, well, what is this kind of place influenced by and how do we do it it?
Ben Smith
With real-world history as their inspiration, Ben and Felicia explore colonialism and the oppression of indigenous people, the homophobia and transphobia rooted in the conservatism of dominant groups, and the misrepresentation of people’s culture. While the readers are introduced to Valenguard as the kingdom of the heroine Valerie, they learn that their homophobia, transphobia, and racism make it less than an ideal kingdom. Felicia explained:
[Valenguard] is based off of kind of stuffy Western European cultures, you know, where like, you know, women were looked down upon and other races were mistreated. And so, like, I think an important thing to note here is that Valorie is the princess of Valenguard, but her mother, the queen, does not accept who she is. And there’s there’s contention in that relationship. And when their kingdom is attacked, you know, when their kingdom is attacked, Valorie has to go on the run and she will eventually learn, and I know this a bit of a spoiler, she will eventually it’s not her mission, her destiny, to save Valenguard. She actually decides she wants to change Valenguard. And that’s really important to us. Felicia Mars
One of the main themes of Vanquished: Weird Princ{ess} is growth and empathy. Ben explained that while creating this world, he wanted it be gray, with no clear kingdom or ruler being the obvious villain or hero. From one point of view you might be the hero, but from another perspective you might not be. It’s important for people and societies’ honestly reflect on themselves and their actions. Ben stated:
We need to work on ourselves. We need to adapt our kind of our culture and the way we kind of think about our culture
Ben Smith
Vanquished: Weird Princ{ess} tries to teach readers this with their story, but the comic itself is also an act of working to change culture by being unapologetically LGBTQ+.
A Battle For LGBTQ+ Representation
Vanquished: Weird Princ{ess} is a fantasy story that Ben and Felicia have wanted to tell for years. An important aspect of that story for them was creating a fantasy comic with LGBTQ+ heroes. They wanted many characters who fall on different parts of the LGBTQ+ spectrum. When asked if Vanquished: Weird Princ{ess} was partly inspired by the lack of LGBTQ+ content, Ben answered:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And I will also say not just content, but also from creators who are LGBT. Felicia is transgender. I’m gay. And we bring that to the story. And it’s like it feels like so much, especially like the really mainstream stuff is made by straight cis people. And it’s like, for the record that’s fine. Obviously, there are more straight cis people than there are of us. You know, that’s just the reality of the world. And so if you want representation, we’re going to need to make sure it feels OK for everyone to tell these kinds of stories. But the fact is that a lot of content doesn’t feel true.
And to touch on fantasy specifically, a lot of LGBT content…tends to focus very heavily on that aspect of it, rather than…we’re a high fantasy which just happens to have these as the characters, the stories that we’re telling. And it’s like, you know, obviously it’s very intentional. We market ourselves as a LGBT comic. First cover is Vallerie with the trans flag behind her. Know we’re not ashamed or we’re not pretending. But at the same time, our focus is to tell a great fantasy story with an LGBT cast and you know, their stories of those identities and forming the story rather than, I guess, the other way around where you start with LGBT and then you move to fantasy. I think we very much start with fantasy and then make it an LGBT story through fantasy.
And I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s a novel approach. I wouldn’t pretend that we’re the only people doing this, but I would say we’re a couple of the people doing this. And I think that eventually enough couples of people doing this will, you know, get traction. It will kind of build on that. And that’s sort of where you got movement. That’s when we get something really wonderful.
Ben Smith
Felicia also expressed dissatisfaction and frustration with mainstream media’s LGBTQ+ representation. She stated:
So I think in terms of content that’s already out there focusing on LGBT stuff, especially in the mainstream, they’re just we’re a group that often gets overlooked, to put it lightly. And I think that no one’s going to be offended if I call out Star Wars because like in the last Star Wars movie that was made of, you know, the the actor playing Poe Dameron and Finnactually said that they they felt like they had, that their characters had chemistry and they wanted to be gay. But the director didn’t let them, didn’t want that to happen. I believe it was J.J. Abrams who directed it anymore. But like Abrams even said, he even said that, don’t worry, the LGBT community will not be disappointed by this film…What did we get? Somewhere in the background at the end were two lesbians kissing, that’s all we got…I didn’t even notice it.
So, like, that is that is where kind of that’s where the media stands on LGBT representation right now. And that’s not, that’s not great. And the thing is, Ben is right. The reason we’re doing this is it isn’t so much that we I mean, it is totally that we want there to be more LGBT representation, but how this got started and what our, what I call our prime directive is that we just want to make a comment that we can relate to with stuff that we like, you know, and that’s why you know, that’s why the characters have a lot of us in them.
Felicia Mars
The characters hold pieces of Felicia and Ben, but they are also the kind of characters having the kind of adventures they want to see in abundance in the future. Along with other LGBTQ+ creators right now, they are fighting for their place in the world of comics so that future members of the LGBTQ+ have stories for them and an easier time getting their LGBTQ+ content published. Ben explained:
We got a lot of no’s from publishers who, and I’m not going to name names because I don’t think that’s necessarily professional. But we got a lot of no’s that came with subtext, which is either the virtue signal, the virtue signal “we support LGBT people or you know, but.” And it’s like I get like there are a couple of publishers that I will not work with now because I’m pretty confident that they’re homophobic.
Ben Smith
They learned about the world of publishing because many claim to be supporters of LGBTQ+ content, but when it’s time for them to take action beyond social media, they hesitate to actually invest in LGBTQ+ narratives and creators. Their gay sex scene was a big issue that got many pious responses. But considering comics like Saga and Watchmen exist, they are confident that it would be treated as less scandalous if it had been a straight sex scene. When they did find a publisher, it was a publisher who saw them as creators with a fantasy comic, not as LGBTQ+ creators with an LGBTQ+ comic. Ben explained:
He read our comic. He loved it and he didn’t like, I’ll say the way he handled is the way that I think publishers should handle working with LGBT people. He just said, I love it, this is great, let’s do this. And then I said, OK, and I was the one who was like, let’s talk about your representation history. And then he, only then, did he bring it up. And like, you can try to virtue signal. He didn’t try and like show ‘look how great of a publisher we are. We support you pathetic minorities.’ He just was very candid. He treated me like any other like any other creator. And I have so much respect for the way that he did that.
Ben Smith
As members of the LGBTQ+ community, they hope that their trials and achievements will make it easier for future creators from the LGBTQ+ community. Ben and Felicia have received hateful comments about Vanquished: Weird Princ{ess} and they act as painful reminders of why they must tell this story. Felicia stated:
This is exactly why we worked so hard to put it out. And we continue to work so hard to put it out there is because, and we’re going to have opposition, but we’re going to be seen and, you know, maybe one day, maybe one day in the not too distant future. Fingers crossed. There will be. There will be. A gay superhero is widely known, a transgender superhero that’s widely known.
Felicia Mars
They hope Vanquished: Weird Princ{ess} will be a stepping stone for other creators and lead to a future with even more LGBTQ+ content. and that LGBTQ+ readers will read their comic and see that they can be whatever they want to be. Felicia stated:
That’s what we hope to accomplish, we want to give voice to our group. A group of people who are very often drowned out, overlooked people. People turn their nose at us, you know, and we want to show that we’re here, we exist and we want to be seen.
Felicia Mars
Vanquished: Weird Princ{ess} is the story of a Valerie Valiant finding herself and not allowing anyone to tell her who she is and who she isn’t. Ben, Felicia, and their beloved characters will not be denied. They will be seen and their stories will inspire others. Ben stated:
People can sort of find themselves through this. And even if it’s a small number of people, even if it’s inspires a small number of people, to me that’s hugely significant because as we’ve said, mainstream representation of LGBT stuff is almost nonexistent. And so even if you had three people or six people, that matters, you know. And so I think that’s I would say that’s about it.
Ben Smith
The creators themselves feel inspired by their characters and the trials they overcome. Felcia stated:
Valerie inspires me and the rest of the characters inspire me. And we hope that they inspire others, too.
Felicia Mars
The Daily Fandom has been inspired by Valerie, but also her creators who are full of passion and excitement. Their enthusiasm and love is conveyed in their comic and is an essential read for all fantasy lovers and adventurer seekers.
Where To Read
If you’re interested in joining Valerie and the others on this epic journey, you can read Vanquished: Weird Princ{ess} on Comixology. For even more Vanquished: Weird Princ{ess} content and updates, check out their Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also check out their site!