After a long journey, the young witch Victoria finally arrived in Port Arbores, the city on the edge of the abyss. Can the city’s secret protector, the Strayer, help her find her missing mother?
A fantasy queer romance based on traditional Scandinavian folklore with two adorable huldre wives and delicious Scandi food!
On Huldra:
Huldra are a type of Scandinavian troll, which have variations depending on which country they come from. They’re generally accepted to be temptresses, similar to Greek Sirens, who draw men into the woods to drain them of life. When viewed from the front, they are said to be beautiful beyond compare until they turn around. Their backs are usually depicted hollowed out like a tree trunk rotted out. Some Huldra have been described with a tail like a fox, or a tail like a cow. This is usually their give-away as one of the fair folk.Ildri, our Huldra, is a mixture of these folklores. She has an open back, and the tail and ears of a cow. Huldra are not necessarily completely malevolent. Several stories exist where a human has shown kindness to a Huldra, and she has rewarded them with generosity in return through crops or material goods. Typically they appeared to shepherds and coal-burners, seeking food or warmth. Huldra were powerful, but could be tricked into marriage by capturing them or drawing their blood. When they marry a man in a Christian church, their tail comes off and they lose their beauty, but their children are strong and retain their magic.
On Hollow’s Content:
Though nothing explicit will ever be posted in the story’s canon content, certain panels might be NSFW or not intended for an audience under 18. Due to the nature of Ildri’s body, some might find images of her hollow back disturbing. Also, while careful research has been conducted to root Hollow’s story in a believable culture, the story takes place in a completely fantasy environment, any resemblances of actual people or places are coincidental, and no harm is intended.
This story is mature - mostly for language and some sexual themes.
BOOK ONE: Make It Rain
“Alex Sleeper thought that when he went to a concert for Fallen Empire, a smallish emo band, that he was just going to keep his friend company. He didn’t realize he’d wake up the next day having been marked as an Aztec rain god’s next sacrifice. The deity has an unexpected change of heart and seeks to keep Alex safe, while Alex develops confusing feelings of his own for the immortal. With any luck, and lots of devotion from the god himself, Alex may survive the next few days.”
Young, stubborn and fearful, Kasora comes to the Nordi throne with one goal in mind; to not be like her war-like grandfather, Alari Seabreaker.
Varia Hirore, also young and stubborn but hardly fearful, is assigned to guard the young queen. She just wants to do her job and eventually, maybe, finally go home again.
But they must work together, and fast, because across the narrow southern sea, the Ansellan Empire is rapidly consuming neighboring countries and the Nord may be next.
What is everyday life like for a professional summoner, their zealous assistant, and the demons who crash on their couch and help out with taxes?
A cross-cultural romance with comedy, drama, magic, worldbuilding, and bilingual shenanigans.
Leif is a gardener in thrall to a mysterious debt, serving his native Sønheim at a foreign embassy. Thorn is a Knight of Ceannis who got severely burned while dragonslaying, and was rewarded with a cushy job guarding the embassy gates. (“Cushy” if you discount the smugglers, monsters, vampire aristocrats, industrial accidents, and slow-brewing ethical disasters….)
Thorn doesn’t speak Leif’s language too well at first — but as they get to know each other, he finds a lot of reasons to learn.
Razzmatazz is a fairy godparent, a magical entity tasked with overlooking Fairytales and their human protagonists for the duration of the tale. Humans are regarded as pretty difficult to work with by the fairies, as they keep having opinions and oppositions that derail their stories.
Razzmatazz decides that the perfect solution to get around how unaccommodating humans can be is to raise a Fairytale protagonist from infancy to her 18th birthday.
Despite his superiors telling him the idea is completely crazy, he commits to it. In doing so, he also commits to becoming co-parent with a beast named Bon, who found the child at the same time as him in the woods.
Bon and Razzmatazz settle into a human lifestyle and grow as parents, getting more and more attached to Melody. Razzmatazz begins to hesitate -confused by his feelings about his job, his new family, and Melody's future, leading both him and Bon to an important decision.
Life of Melody is a sweet, magical slice of life story for teen readers and up, originally posted as an exclusive Patreon comic.
Gabe and Booker are just two normal college guys, sharing an apartment and failing spectacularly at love. But one day, a talking golf ball named Hal lands in their lives and offers them magical powers...and despite it being a terrible idea, Gabe signs up immediately! Now he must don the admittedly flattering dress of a Magical and fight for love and justice, while Booker, blinded by the sparkles, wants nothing to do with any of this. For fans of Cute High Earth Defense Club Love and Magical Girls-Slash-Dudes, this snarky comedy by Eurika Yusin Gho (eyugho) will blow a little magic up your skirt. Please note: Magical How? is recommended for readers aged 16+ due to crude language and adult topics.
Elizabeth Watson is a young woman trapped between ideals that she can never reach.
Too traditional to take part of her adventurer family lineage and too poor and obscure to be a true society lady, Elizabeth’s fortunes may change for the better with the introduction of famed industrialist Mr. Lovelace in her life. She is soon pulled into his world of industry and conspiracy- where violence is the norm, sky pirates roam the skies and a woman with wings made of brass and steel hunts in the night.
Maiden of the Machine is a Gothic Adventure comic and updates weekly on Mondays and Thursdays. Maiden of the Machine is recommended for PG13/YA level readers for violence, depictions of emotional abuse, and sexual situations.
Maiden of the Machine is a story about a pair of down-on-their-luck sisters seeking adventure. The elder sister (Abhaya, known as Abigail to her cousins) seeks it to make ends meet. The younger sister, Elizabeth (known alternately as Eliza, Lizzy or Bette), finds her curiosity and sense of wonder stoked by a chance meeting with Mr. Lovelace during one of their jobs. (I am also now suspecting that the titulary Maiden of the Machine is neither of the Watson women, but in fact a character who is revealed only about ¾ of the way through.)
The series has been going on for about two years now, and readers should know that the romance doesn’t start until about two years in, but once it starts, it is definitely there! The characterization of the two female leads (both women of color!) is strong, and I have a good sense of how they’ll react to various situations. Despite setbacks, each finds ways to push ahead. The quasi-Victorian setting will also be quite familiar to many, as there is talk of estates, marriages, allowances, and plenty of social awkwardness around “proper” modes of interaction.
It's also a very slow burn mystery - there have been plenty of breadcrumbs dropped so far, but I’ve yet to have an “aha!” moment or feel like I know where the leads go. The fourth main character, Jules, has some kind of ulterior motive, and it may be sinister, but I honestly don’t have enough information to know whether or not I’m guessing correctly. I love the artwork and the Watson women, but I need more connections between the dots for the plot to really hook me. There are recurring motifs (of a dragonfly and of the Lovelace logo) that appear to be in conflict with each other, but the nature of the conflict is unclear, which robs one of the big reveals of a lot of it’s power.
Overall, I’m interested to see where this goes. If you enjoy strong characters and the near-Steampunk setting, I’d encourage you to give it a shot.
(Available in English or Spanish)
After running away from home, Syrma has spent her entire life hiding in the forest, under a hard workout. So when she discovers that she is the victim of a curse that will end her life in a short time, she intends to change her fate. She has two options: surrender and die, or rebel and take over. For her there is only one possible solution: defeat the goddess who sentenced her along with all her family. And time is running out.
But she won’t be alone. Along with the dragon Menkar, her bodyguard, an also cursed sidhe witch and a banished treacherous god, she will seek the way to survive and change her fate.