MISC. MANGA, *Legends From Darkwood

While being somewhat inspired by the old Tom Cruise movie, Legend, this manga-styled comic takes the old story of a maiden and a unicorn to a whole different level that is sure to irk a few Bronies! This was released through Antarctic Press, who are already pros at American manga, so creators Christopher Reid and John Kantz ran with this dark comedy/fantasy.

Set in an RPG-inspired world, the town of Darkwood has made its main profit by cornering the market in selling of all things...unicorn meat! But unicorns don't just show up for anyone as most of the time they're invisible to mortals. Only a "pure" maiden can gain their favor, so the maiden Raynd acts as the town's official unicorn hunter. The Mayor Moore is most pleased with this business, although his sweet daughter Rose finally learns the truth of her family's business. Rose is an innocent storybook-loving girl who had no idea that her favorite mythical creatures were the source of her father's revenue. Determined to stop this slaughter of the unicorns, she tries hiring assassins to do away with Raynd, but everyone is scared crapless of her. Finally, Rose is told by a raccoon girl that the only reason Raynd is able to hunt unicorns in the first place is because of her virginity, so she hits Raynd with a "love bomb". After waking to the effects of the magical aphrodisiac and a quickie with some guy she met in a bar, Raynd then takes Rose as her new apprentice. All this while a unicorn named Andrew decides he's had enough of having his kind turned into burgers, impales a random adventurer, and eats his flesh. This gives a devil the opportunity to strike a bargain with Andrew to transform him into a large fire-breathing monster, who then goes on a killing spree in Darkwood. After it seems like the unicorn-killing business is kapoot, Raynd gets Rose to tame Andrew, and they all set out into the world to seek their fortune.

This 4-issue mini-series was released into a single "Pocket Manga" collection. There was also a one-shot special(Legends From Darkwood: High Times And Small Crimes)that acted as kind a follow-up and lead-in to the next volume which was never made. There was also another one-shot, Monkeybug Madness, which was showcased some background characters that are small creatures which look like gnomes in crack. I'd recommend getting a hold of the Pocket Manga to look at first, mostly because of a fairy tale that is very self-aware(and not in a crappy Dreamworks kind of way), and some engaging artwork.