“The Chancellor and the Citadel,” published by Iron Circus Comics, is Maria Capelle Frantz’s first graphic novel. A beautiful but tense fantasy story about an isolated community driven by fear of the other into war. With densely detailed artwork, and a compelling story, “The Chancellor and the Citadel” is able to provide a thoughtful meditation on how fear of the other can drive people to do terrible things, while still creating a beautiful, haunting, kind and comfortable story.
Written and Illustrated by Maria Cappelle Frantz
The world is over. All that remains is the Citadel, and the Chancellor who protects it from the hostility beyond its walls. But what can she do when a fearful and angry mob is convinced she brought the world to ruin in the first place, and are determined to make her pay for it by destroying the one bastion of hope the world has left? In her dramatic, richly imagined graphic novel debut, cartoonist Maria Frantz has created a brisk fantasy tale about the fears that lead to war, and the bonds that can keep a stronghold standing against the darkness.
“The Chancellor and the Citadel” is able to be many things, all at once. It’s a beautiful, quiet story about love and gentleness. It’s a story about power, who has it, and what one should do with it when they do. It’s a story about refugees, it’s a story about loving the unknown, there’s action, there’s moments of quiet, and above all else there is a world, that doesn’t ever fully reveal itself to the reader. Some of these things might feel contradictory, but Maria Capelle Frantz is able to bring them together in such a way that not only do these pieces not feel disparate, they instead feel inseparable, coming together to create a uniquely touching experience.
The Chancellor is the mysterious but powerful guardian of the Citadel, a city home to spirits, and a last bastion of civilization after an unseen apocalypse. Outside the walls of the Citadel are a number of dangers the Chancellor protects its citizens from, but none as pressing as the groups of humans trying to come into the Citadel and take it for themselves. When the Chancellor kills a group of humans that try to ambush her outside of the city gates, she finds a single, human boy that is a survivor and takes him in.
The world Frantz creates in “The Chancellor and the Citadel” is beautiful. The art is textured and detailed, beautifully realized, giving every page a lived-in feel. Some of this comes from the way Frantz inks her backgrounds which, when not filled with small details, are textured in such a way that the world feels worn. Not in a decrepit way, but like an arm chair sat in every single day, that you can sink into comfortably into.
The same can be said for the way Frantz creates her characters. The cast of almost entirely female characters all look completely different from one another but feel like they fit together. There is a softness in the ways characters interact, a love and comfort that Frantz does a great job portraying. The body language between certain characters brings this to life. Whether it is the Chancellor and her companion, Olive, talking to each other, or a pair of city guards, sitting on the walls of the Citadel holding each other, talking about how they will fight off the humans. This a world that it is easy to get lost in, and in the moments where it is comfortable, it is easy to let it envelope you, to allow yourself to get lost with these characters.
But “The Chancellor and the Citadel” is not only moments of kindness and comfort. The Chancellor is a character that is shrouded (both literally and figuratively) in mystery. Frantz never reveals the Chancellor’s face to a reader, and we never learn the truth of her background, or how she became so powerful. This is one of the most interesting parts of “The Chancellor and the Citadel.” There are questions posed by the story that are never answered, and that is part of the point. Somethings do not have answers, something are too far gone, too far in the past. “The Chancellor and the Citadel” argues that the past is past, what matters is how you atone for your previous sins internally, and more importantly, how you live in the now.
Continued belowFrantz uses a 6-panel grid to good effect in this graphic novel. In the moments of quiet, the story moves through its six panels, page by page, giving the story a sense of ease. It lulls you into a rhythm, which Frantz is able to break when the moment calls for it. During action sequences, Frantz stretched panels, having them take up an entire row or two of the 6-panel grid, to emphasize certain moments, and give the action a more controlled sense of pacing.
If there is an issue with “The Chancellor and the Citadel,” it comes from in the lettering. Frantz eschews some traditional comic lettering conventions, sometimes in ways that work, and other times in ways that don’t. Throughout the book, sentences are sometimes broken up across word balloons, seemingly at random. Sometimes this works really well, giving the dialogue inflection and pacing akin to words actually being spoken instead of ones being read, which is something that it’s very hard to replicate. But often, it can feel like phrases are split up at random, fragmented across multiple word balloons with none of the usual comics grammar (either an ellipsis or two hyphens) connecting them together. It’s a choice that isn’t effective as often as I would like.
But, aside from some strange lettering choices, “The Chancellor and the Citadel” is a beautiful story. It tackles darkness, with the Chancellors past, and her efforts to control her power. But it also includes moments of love, tenderness, and affection that are rendered more genuinely here that I’ve seen in a very long time. Frantz has created a stunning debut graphic novel. She creates a lush, full world, that isn’t afraid to keep some things a mystery. She tackles difficult subjects in a nuanced way, while still creating something fit for children. “The Chancellor and the Citadel” is a uniquely stunning debut graphic novel, and one that is definitely worth seeking out.
