Enter the Magical Girl Fight Club of Crystal Fighters

Jen Bartel is one of the internet’s favorite artists, thanks to her signature badass-cosmic-Lisa-Frank style, and her work has graced everything from Jem & the Holograms covers to her upcoming Image series Blackbird to the Overwatch tribute art that’s probably on your wall right now. On September 5th, Dark Horse Comics offers eager fans a chance to pick up a Bartel project they may have missed the first time around: Crystal Fighters, co-written by Tyler Bartel, which first ran on the vertical-scroll digital platform Stela (not to be confused with the book’s protagonist, Stella). Crystal Fighters is, on its surface, a Fight Club-esque twist on the Magical Girl genre, but the Bartels weave in sly commentary on what it’s like to be a woman in the often-sexist gaming community. Check out an extended preview of Crystal Fighters below, and be sure to nab the complete collection when it hits comic stores on September 5th.

Crystal Fighters Cover Art by Jen Bartel

Crystal Fighters
Writers: Jen Bartel & Tyler Bartel
Artist: Jen Bartel
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: September 5, 2018
Stella’s a bored teen who’s part of the first generation to grow up immersed in a world of virtual reality games, in which she discovers a secret magical girl fight club. Now that she’s gotten her wish of finding something exciting in her life, she also discovers a dark side to magical girls, and finds herself having to prove her worth in a series of tournaments where, if she loses, she can never come back.

Crystal Fighters Interior Art by Jen Bartel