Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Xanadu Thief of hearts by Vicky Wyman / Xanadu. Xanadu is a 1980s Furry Comic by the late Vicky Wyman. The story is set in a World of Funny Animals in the Empire of Xanadu, ruled by Empress Alicia, daughter of the late Emperor Alyrunn who founded the kingdom. In this world, which is roughly of early Renaissance development level, there is a land with a Fantastic Caste System consisting of in declining order of importance: Noble : Fantasy creatures like Unicorns and Dragons who are the ruling elite of the empire. Freeborn : Animals that are considered wild in our world such as wolfs, lions, deer etc. who are roughly middle class who serve the Nobles if they are not engaged in their own businesses. Domestique : The lowest caste, made up on domestic animals like dogs, cats, sheep etc. They often work in menial labor or in outright poverty or engaged in street crime. In this society, there is a Gentleman Thief of a cat called Tabbe Le Fauve, a combination of Puss in Boots and Errol Flynn, who is determined to make his own way in Xanadu in defiance of the caste system with the help of his sardonic mule sidekick, Jonathon. In the opening of the first tale, Tabbe is bold enough to break into the ruling residence of Empress Alicia, The Ever-Changing Palace, which magically rearranges itself to thwart such attempts. Sure enough, Tabbe stumbles into the personal bedchamber of Empress Alicia's handmaiden and closest companion, a beautiful vixen named Fatima. With his trespass noticed, Tabbe gently seduces Fatima to keep her from raising the alarm, which incurs the wrath of her other lover, the Palace's Griffin Captain of the Guard, Reginald Plume who already wants to make the cat pay for his trespass. However, Empress Alicia, a beautiful Unicorn who delights in shocking her peers with being a Shameless Fanservice Girl with a long list of lower caste lovers to the annoyance of her dragon adviser, Octavius, has other plans. Suspecting that Plume has designs of defying her orders and perhaps worse in the longer term, she plans to use Tabbe as a lure to test how far Plume is going to go by ordering him to capture Tabbe unharmed for her. The fact that Tabbe has fallen in love with Fatima since their tryst just makes that goal easier. From that conflict arises a series of court intrigue and fantasy romance that will draw in the Asian Dragons of the allied Golden Realm (Such as the Lady Kajiko and the younger warrior Kinomon), powerful neutral figures and hidden enemies biding their own time. Along the way, Tabbe and Fatima find that Alicia agrees with the cat's disdain for the injustice of the caste system and is ready to gradually reform it with a razor sharp political savvy to achieve that. The tone is of a largely lighthearted romantic Swashbuckler that is much like a combination of The Princess Bride and Disney's Robin Hood with a playful eroticism interspersed with serious drama. The property consists of: Thief of Hearts Phelia's Tale - A one-shot colour special Across Diamond Seas The Ever-Changing Palace a 10 issue fan magazine containing various comic and text stories by various talents including Wyman herself with the third Xanadu tale, Into Golden Skies . Regrettably, Wyman was not able to achieve the success she deserved with this property and the magazine was cut short and Wyman's main stories were never completed, with Wyman dying in 2018. However, there are several short vignettes featuring the characters that are available on her account on Fur Affinity. Regardless, the comics stand as some of the finest furry fantasy comics in the medium. V M Wyman Vicky Wyman. Ausreichend/Acceptable: Exemplar mit vollst�ndigem Text und s�mtlichen Abbildungen oder Karten. Schmutztitel oder Vorsatz k�nnen fehlen. Einband bzw. Schutzumschlag weisen unter Umst�nden starke Gebrauchsspuren auf. / Describes a book or dust jacket that has the complete text pages (including those with maps or plates) but may lack endpapers, half-title, etc. (which must be noted). Binding, dust jacket (if any), etc may also be worn. Tell us what you're looking for and once a match is found, we'll inform you by e-mail. Can't remember the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Xanadu: Thief of hearts by Vicky Wyman. Your cart is empty. for Mature Readers. XANADU: ACROSS DIAMOND SEAS Collected Volume ($19.95) by Vicky Wyman, with inks by Monika Livingstone. Sequal to XANADU: THIEF OF HEARTS. This volume collects the complete 5 issues of the comic book series, plus material published in EVER- CHANGING PALACE #5, 6 and 8. Xanadu is a land of mystery and beauty, filled with colorful inhabitants and strange creatures. This is also a land filled with hidden dangers and great power. The young Empress Alicia has barely survived the first challenge to her brief reign. Her quest to do away with the rigid class structure that has ruled their society for thousands of years survived, but at great cost to her friends and allies. When an invitation to the Golden Realm's two- thousandth birthday celebration of their Golden Dragon Queen arrived, Alicia thinks a quiet vacation in the exotic East is just what they need. Little does she know how much the journey itself will change her forever! Xanadu (comic) Xanadu is a fantasy comic book created by cartoonist Vicky Wyman which first appeared in 1988. Xanadu first appeared in the miniseries "Thief of Hearts" published by Thoughts & Images beginning in 1988, which was collected by MU Press. MU then published the next miniseries "Across Diamond Seas" which was duly collected by LX Ltd., the publisher of the Xanadu fanzine The Ever-Changing Palace (10 issues). The setting is in a fantasy world that is populated by humanoid animals. The general society structure has a caste system made up of, in declining order of status: Nobles - mythological creatures like unicorns and dragons. Freeborn - wild animals such as foxes and hawks. Domestique - animals that are domesticated ones in our world such as dogs and cats. The heroes of the story are: Tabbe Le Fauve, gentleman thief of a cat determined to defy this caste system Jonathan, a cynical mule who is his partner. Alicia - current unicorn Empress of Xanadu whose seemingly frivolous and voracious sexual appetites hide a cunning political skill and a reformer's social conscience. Fatima - A buxom vixen who is Alicia's personal handmaiden and lover to Tabbe Octavius - A stuffy dragon who is Alicia's personal advisor. Kinomon - A young Golden Dragon warrior on loan from the allied Golden Realm. Reginald Plume - a fearsome gryphon, head of the Imperial guard and one-time lover of Fatima. He turned on his Empress when she undermined his authority and aided Fatima in her preference for Tabbe. Despite his haughty ruthlessness, Reginald was probably more popular with readers than Tabbe, the vaunted hero. Wyman made things a little too easy for Tabbe in her story, and her main heroine, Alicia, was a spoiled strumpet and exhibitionist. Given these facts, it was a bit difficult not to sympathize with Reginald rather than the two "good guys". The comics are noted for an atypical focus on romantic adventure orientation for fantasy with a tone closer to The Princess Bride than other works. Early fandom artist Vicky Wyman passes away. I'm sorry to report that Vicky Wyman passed away on August 3, 2018. According to a post by Defenbaugh on Fur Affinity, she'd recently found out that she had a very bad case of intestinal cancer. After an attempted surgery failed to improve her prospects, she made the choice to let go. She was in her 60s. I'm not really qualified to write an obituary about Vicky Wyman, so if there are details and memories you'd like to share, please post a comment! I can update this article as necessary. What follows is some history with personal reflections. Vicky Wyman is best known in for her 1988 comic book series, Xanadu . In the second half of the 1980s, furry fandom was coming together. The first hadn't happened yet, but there were room parties at several science-fiction conventions. was largely art-based at this point, and keen to generate its own content, so there were a lot of self-published photocopied zines, APAs, and small art folios circulating around. The late 1980s was also a period that was very good for comic book publishing. Following the success of the well-marketed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles indie comic, collectors descended on comic book stores hoping to find the next big title, whose issues might become valuable. Supply rose to meet demand, and this was known as the "black-and-white explosion" - lots of people were publishing new comics, hoping to get noticed. In retrospect, it wasn't so much an explosion as a glut. And Sturgeon's Law (90% of everything is crud) was definitely in effect. The bright side of this glut was that it emboldened comic book writers to write about things other than superheroes. Underground comics - usually devoted to counter-cultural satire and shock with sex, drugs and violence - had been fading. Readers were now more inclined towards "", interesting stories aimed at a higher age level. Some of these had emerged before the black-and-white explosion, like ElfQuest . The explosion also allowed writers to experiment with the superhero genre itself, as with Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns . Furry creators took advantage of this publishing opportunity. Probably the most well-known furry comic from this period is Steve Gallacci's Albedo (1983), as well as Omaha the Cat Dancer (1984), Critters (1986), The Dreamery (1986), Fusion (1987), and Usagi Yojimbo (1987). And once these comics were sent out into the wild, more people found out about the fandom, quite often from reading the fan letters at the back of the comics, and following those leads to find more material. There was a sudden increase in furry fans - people who weren't drawing or writing stuff to add to the fandom - but they were eager consumers! So that brings us to Vicky Wyman's 1988 comic Xanadu (five black-and-white issues, plus one color special). I had found out about furry fandom in late 1991, and in 1992 I started looking through comic book stores for older comics. The collapse of the explosion around 1987-1988 had led to lots of stores closing down, so there were back issues galore. Xanadu 's story was very cliché, but what made it stand out for me were three things. First, it was fully and unabashedly in the fantasy genre, much more so than any of the other titles I've mentioned. Secondly, it had a fully realized furry universe, no human-like people or aliens. Thirdly, the artwork was great. I mean, lots of the comics had good artwork, but in comparison to what you'd find in a typical furry zine at the time, it really stood out, without being too cartoony. Xanadu is a romance sword-and-sorcery fantasy comic that takes place in a medieval kingdom. There's a caste system in place. At the top are the Nobility, based on creatures from mythology. The middle class below them are the Freeborn, based on wild animals. At the lowest rank are the Domestique, based on domesticated animals. I don't think the whole world is like this? There's a kingdom of dragons, very Japanese in style with a strong sense of honor, but we don't find out much about them. The main character is Tabbe Le Fauve, a feline thief and good-natured scallywag. He repeatedly breaks into the imperial castle (whose architecture keeps magically changing) to pursue a romantic relationship with Fatima, a vixen who's a close servant of Empress Alicia, a unicorn. The empress is a good sort, fairly new to the job, extremely flirtatious and prone to skinny-dipping in her royal pool - and she's also quite shrewd and not to be trifled with. When Tabbe gets on the bad side of the captain of the guard, a griffin named Reginald Plume, Alicia correctly senses that treachery might soon be coming into play. MU Press later reprinted the five-issue series as a trade paperback in 1993, called Xanadu: Thief of Hearts . The back cover looks like this: Finding Vicky Wyman's artwork is one of the first things I randomly discovered after I joined furry fandom. It's a very personal, happy memory from those days. A few months after finding the comic, I was browsing through the file section of a local computer bulletin board, and I found an image named "PHELIA.GIF". It's one of the oldest images on my hard drive. Within a year, I'd tracked down where it came from. It was a separate story - a cautionary tale told by a grumpy Octavius about the dangers of love. Still, basically the same content. Romance and cliché court intrigue. But now in color! (And a bit later) Years later, I got to meet Vicky Wyman briefly, I think at 2000. I thanked her for her comics and artwork, and also got a small sketch from her. When I delved back into my hard drive today to find images for this article, I had completely forgotten what she'd scribbled for me. Empress Alicia, crying a little. It's sadly appropriate.