Are you a lover of modern fairy tales that explore friendship, self-love, and redemption with a comedic and colorful flare? Are you looking for an epic new series to binge-read? Well, I am pleased to announce that today marks the finale of the WEBTOON Original sensation, Cursed Princess Club.
Created entirely by author, artist, and composer, LambCat, Cursed Princess Club follows the story of the youngest princess of the vibrant Pastel Kingdom, Gwendolyn, who does not fit the mold of classic Disney-esque princesses. Unlike her siblings, Gwendolyn is not conventionally beautiful, but that doesn’t change how she views herself because her family has always treated her with love and respect. But her self-view changes drastically when her fiancee, Frederick, calls her “ugly.” Despite how much she differed from her siblings in the look department, Gwendolyn never considered herself “ugly.” Now that word haunts her every time she looks in a mirror.
Ashamed, Gwendolyn runs off into the woods, where she accidentally stumbles across the Cursed Princess Club, consisting of various cursed princesses cast out by their respective kingdoms. This unexpected encounter leads Gwendolyn to wonder, “Is she indeed ugly? Or is she cursed?” Follow Gwendolyn and her newfound friends as she discovers the true meaning of beauty, love, and self-acceptance.
As someone who has struggled with self-worth and self-love, I love Cursed Princess Club and its colorful, self-empowered characters. I won’t spoil anything, but if you struggle with your image, you may learn something from Gwendolyn and her friends. I certainly did.
If you adore Gwendolyn like me, you will love the Makeship Gwendolyn Plush. Click here for a link, but don’t waste time! This limited edition plush will only be available until March 7th! And if you want to support LambCat further and gain access to sneak peeks, bonus content, and more, consider signing up for her Patreon for as little as one dollar a month!
Interested in learning more about LambCat? If you want to learn about LambCat’s comic and creative process, the following passage includes an in-depth Q&A that delves into what it takes to be a comic creator and what brought Cursed Princess Club to life!
- As a comic creator, how would you describe your creative process?
I really needed to start with the themes and my overall goals for making Cursed Princess Club – who it’s for, what I want to say, etc. From there, I did a lot of exploration and reading and started to write down lots of questions, variations, and then subvariations on themes, and eventually, they all seemed to form into characters with motivations, conflicts, and trajectories that began to solidify into the shape of the overall story.
From there, it’s just been a giant years-long speedrun of bringing it to life with the help of my very, very amazing team of artists to help me every week with drawing/inking, coloring, and shading, and backgrounds. I would describe this process as a horrifying, sloppy, but super fun fever dream that reset every seven days. I still have so much to improve upon that it’s often overwhelming, but what helped while making this comic was to keep my personal goal simple: to do the very best I could each week with the time and skills that I possessed.
But I’m really looking forward to having the time to refine everything about my process for whatever I get to make next.
- How did you develop your particular art style? More specifically, what or who inspires you?
I think in my initial mood boards, I was drawn to the styles of old classic fairytale books with etched ink, classic Disney movies like Cinderella and Snow White, and really retro shoujo artists like Macoto Takahashi.
But I ultimately decided against those because 1) I could not pull those off with my art abilities, and 2) I needed a style that could accommodate moments of really silly comedy and action-filled battle scenes. So I ended up gravitating towards something more modern but still classic, which was the 90s shoujo anime aesthetic of Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne.
Sometimes I’ll see fanart of Cursed Princess Club in these alternate styles that I had initially imagined, and they always do it so brilliantly, and it’s really cool to see!!
- What would you suggest to any aspiring comic creators?
I hope that my attempt at a first story can help someone out there realize that it’s not the end of the world to start before you feel fully ready because I absolutely was not. I think there are a lot of articles and guides that say this, but to repeat it once more, the most important thing is to start – and start poorly and loosely, without judgment. Only after that comes a lot of rounds of exploration and iterating, and that’s where a lot of the magic and growth can happen.
- How do you spend your free time outside of illustrating and writing for Cursed Princess Club?
Every waking moment was pretty much either devoted to making Cursed Princess Club (whether in webcomic or book form) or else spent trying to keep the rest of my life and my body from atrophying too much or spent keeping a wish list of everything I can’t wait to do when I have free time again, such as go outside, spend time with my friends and family, play tennis, read, relearn how to play music, play video games, and sleep.
- What inevitably led you to use WEBTOON as a platform?
I remember stumbling upon WEBTOON and being really blown away by these beautiful stories that could have music play with them, like Siren’s Lament by instantmiso and Aerial Magic by walkingnorth. Then WEBTOON held a story contest a little while after that, and I said, “Why not?” I got an honorable mention, which was awesome, and I figured that was that, but then my editor Eunice reached out to me, and it changed my life!
- How has collaborating with WEBTOON benefited you as an Original creator?
WEBTOON is the entire reason why I started making comics, and it’s the only reason why I got to do this as a job. I’m not used to making things that other people might see or like. And I’m incredibly bad at using the internet or promoting things or making opportunities for myself. The doors that WEBTOON has opened for me – not just in terms of audience, but also so many opportunities to learn and grow and collaborate, is something I’ll never be able to say thank you enough for.
- What inspired Cursed Princess Club? What drives you to tell this particular story?
I wish I had a more inspiring answer, but it came out of brainstorming what I was capable of making as my first attempt at a story for WEBTOON’s comic contest. At that time, it kind of looked like there was an opening in the market for a fairytale-like story, and it was a genre where I could keep things light and simple to start. But as I began making it, what really drove me was to think about what I would want to put in a fairy tale for younger people if it were made by weird, silly me.
- How did the original idea of Cursed Princess Club evolve into what it is now?
I remember an exercise of trying to brainstorm 100 ideas for stories, no matter how bad they were (I absolutely did not make it to 100). One of the ideas was a fairy tale reality show, which seemed funny to me, but I don’t watch any reality TV other than “Great British Bake Off,” so that idea didn’t really work out (but it would be awesome if someone made that happen!). But I think that idea put the seed in my head of, “What would it be like for fairytale characters who didn’t really have their curses cured as perfectly as fairy tale happy endings make it seem?” And the rest sort of came from exploring that question.
- Who is your favorite character in this series, and why?
I really like Princess Jolie, a princess cursed to have her eyes taken away, leaving only cracked, hollow eye sockets (though they’re actually the opposite of empty inside). I love a character with a harrowing past that somehow has healed and emerged as a person with a sweet, positive outlook and a dark, trolling sense of humor that peeks out every now and then.
- What is your favorite moment from the series, and why?
I really love parts where I get to make the stupidest puns or jokes, such as the chapter where Prince Jamie visits the Denim Kingdom.
But my favorite moments of the series are probably when we weave through several characters’ narratives that are all converging towards a pivotal moment with a lot of momentum from all sides, such as in Episode 164, where Aurelia is reading the diary of Lilyth where she recounts the birth of each of her children, all while chaos reigns from the giant battle downstairs, and Gwen is trying to awake from her poisoned-apple-induced slumber. I remember being extremely nervous while outlining this episode, wondering how the heck to make it actually happen. And I’m really happy that it was able to come out just as I had hoped.
- What would you argue is the main theme behind Cursed Princess Club?
I guess the main theme is “curses” in all its forms, whether they come from fairytale-like magic, intergenerational traumas, to even societal and familial expectations. And it’s about how sometimes these curses are things that can be cured, just like in fairy tales. But often, in reality, they are things that are simply a part of our lives and take consistent work to coexist peacefully with.
- What do you hope fans learn from Cursed Princess Club and its colorful array of characters?
The most I could hope for are the same things I took away from all of my favorite stories, which are to be kind to your true self, be kind to others, and as Princess Panda says, “Prince Charming is not necessary for a happily-ever-after.”
- With Cursed Princess Club coming to a close, do you foresee yourself branching out with other projects?
I have lots of normal to pretty bizarre project ideas that I don’t dare say out loud. But I’m still very much in the Cursed Princess Club world with upcoming books to keep me busy for a while. But I’ll be happily reading and learning a lot until the day comes when I’m ready to make something new again.
- How would you tell the story differently if you could start Cursed Princess Club from scratch?
I’m happy with how the story unfolded generally, but art-wise, oh boy. If I had much more time and experience, I would have done so much more pre-production work to refine and streamline the art process, and I would have worked a lot more on character designs and visual branding. Hopefully, I can make sure I have time for that for the next project!
- With Cursed Princess Club in its last season, is there anything you want to say to your fans before the series ends?
There’s nothing else to say but thank you from the bottom of my heart for bringing life to any of the words or drawings I made. That will never stop being unbelievable to me.
Cursed Princess Club officially celebrates its fourth and final season today, so set your timers for 6 PM PST or use the next few hours to binge-read the series!
