Alice in the the Country of Hearts was a really pleasant surprise to me when I reviewed Yen Press’s omnibus edition last year. Since then, there’s been several spin-offs of the series released and there seems to be no sign of them stopping now. It’s great to see a series doing well, and even more interesting that two publishers are able to work to bring it out to fans.
AnimeNewsNetwork confirmed two new Alice licenses from Seven Seas that originally popped up on Amazon early December:
Alice in the Country of Clover: Ace of Hearts
Amazon US|CAN – July 2013, ($13.99/US, $15.99/CAN)
“Ace, the Knight of Heart Castle, is known throughout Wonderland not only for his master swordsmanship, but for his tendency towards cruelty. Can the charming Alice Lidell mellow Ace and his violent ways? Perhaps Ace will even fall in love with Alice…if he doesn’t kill her first.”
Alice in the Country of Hearts: Clockmaker’s Story
Amazon US|CAN – August 2013, ($13.99/US, $15.99/CAN)
“Julius Monrey is the grim Clockmaker of Wonderland, responsible for controlling the world’s time from his lonely Clock Tower, not to mention fixing the stopped clocks of the dead. When the beautiful Alice Liddell comes to live with and rely upon him, will her warm personality melt through his cool, apathetic heart, and bring about romantic feelings he never knew he had?”
Both these relases are written by the story’s original creator Quinrose, and drawn by Mamenosuke Fujimaru who is the artist for most of the Alice spin-off stories.
Of the two one-shots, I’m looking forward to the Clockmaker’s Story in particular. While reading the original multi-volume series, my favourite character was Julius and he was also one of the characters with some of the most unique responsibilities in the strange world of Wonderland. Granted, Ace was interesting though albeit prone to being pretty scary sometimes. I’m not sure how much I want to read about either of them getting romantically involved with Alice, but that is the purpose of these books so we’ll see who I end up preferring! It’s a really interesting opportunity for fans to get to pick and choose which books they want to read based on what couples they’re most interested in seeing played out.
Seven Seas has previously released two other series under the Alice in the Country of Clover arc of stories – Bloody Twins (starring the story’s Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum equivalents) and Cheshire Cat Waltz (starring the Cheshire Cat, Boris). They also have the first volume of their upcoming series Alice in the Country of Joker: Circus and Liar’s Game due out this February. Yen Press released the first volume of Alice in the Country of Hearts: Fanatic Rabbit (starring the March Hare) this past December.
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