Nimona


Nimona is a fantasy webcomic by the American comics writer and artist Noelle Stevenson. Stevenson started Nimona while a student at Maryland Institute College of Art. The webcomic was first published in June 2012 and doubled as Stevenson's senior thesis. Nimona was published in the form of a graphic novel by HarperCollins in 2015. An animated feature film adaptation, produced by Blue Sky Studios, is scheduled to be released on January 14, 2022.

Conception and development

Stevenson initially published Nimona on Tumblr. She was inspired to create Nimona's character based on her experiences with cosplay: Stevenson always preferred cosplaying as male characters rather than female characters and therefore wanted to create a female comics character that was more "butch". Nimona started off as a collection of one- and two-page comics. Because of this, the webcomic was somewhat experimental for Stevenson. Though she knew how the webcomic would end from the very start, she never expected the project to gain any wider recognition.
In an interview with Comics Alliance, Stevenson described her feelings upon completing Nimona as both satisfying and "a little sad."

Adaptations

Nimona was released online as a webcomic beginning in June 2012. HarperCollins published the webcomic as a young adult graphic novel in May 2015. In August 2016, Stevenson published an audiobook version of Nimona through Audible.com. Featuring voicework by Rebecca Soler, Jonathan Davis, Marc Thompson, January LaVoy, Natalie Gold, Peter Bradbury, and David Pittu, the audiobook has a runtime of two hours and seventeen minutes and is entirely unabridged.
In June 2015, 20th Century Fox Animation acquired the rights for an animated feature film adaptation, with Patrick Osborne set to direct it and Marc Haimes and Max Werner set to write the script. The film will be produced by Blue Sky Studios. In June 2017, Fox scheduled Nimona to be released on February 14, 2020. In May 2019, after Disney's acquisition of Fox, the film was delayed to March 5, 2021. In November 2019, the film was delayed again to January 14, 2022.

Synopsis

Nimona is set in a mash-up universe that combines fantasy and science fiction tropes. The titular character Nimona is a rambunctious young shapeshifter and the sidekick of the supervillain Lord Ballister Blackheart. Blackheart is a knight turned mad scientist who's pursued by his nemesis, Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin of the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics. The first five chapters focus on the differences in outlook between Nimona and her by-the-book boss, as well as their plots against the secretly villainous Institution. On June 5, 2020, Noelle Stevenson described the comic, as a published novel, as simply about a "man's new assistant doesn't care for his ex-boyfriend."

Reception

Nimona has been well received, with Slate awarding it the Cartoonist Studio Prize for being considered the "Best Web Comic of 2012". A blogger writing for Comic Book Resources compared Stevenson's artwork to that of Kate Beaton, Eleanor Davis and Faith Erin Hicks. Io9 commented that Nimona's "light, sketchy style" helped to set up the comic's tone and favorably compared it to the Venture Bros., as well as calling it one of the "Best New and Short Webcomics of 2012". Nimona was rated as the best webcomic of 2014 by Paste Magazine. Others described it as a comic which promotes an alternate perspective on gender.
The Nimona graphic novel was nominated for a 2015 Eisner Award and was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Awards. It won the 2015 Cybils Award in the "Young Adult Graphic Novels" category.
Reviewing the German-language print version of Nimona in 2016, Timur Vermes of Spiegel Online described the webcomic as "entertaining". Through "wonderfully" staged and colored action scenes.