Raging Clouds

In this period drama set in the 16th-century Netherlands, the unlikely pair of a proper Dutchwoman and her husband’s slave mistress collaborate on a scientific discovery that could free them from the bounds of patriarchal society. The print debut of Korean manga artist Yudori is a richly imagined, erotic, feminist graphic novel.

Amélie is a brilliant woman trapped in the restricting social mores of high Dutch society in the mid-16th century. Her marriage to Hans, a swashbuckling merchant, is a terrible match. While he charms the townsfolk, at home he is her intellectual inferior and treats her with cruelty and sexual violence. Expected to be a devoted housewife, Amélie can only be her true, free-spirited self when Hans travels away on business — when she can explore the town alone, lose herself in literature, and study winged animals to learn about the mechanics of flight. She looks to the skies and dreams of flying far away. Her life changes when Hans returns from his journey with Sahara, a slave mistress from a distant land. The two women are drawn to each other — each recognizing their confinement in a world dominated by men — and work together to seek their freedom.

Told as a fiercely feminist story and spectacularly illustrated, Raging Clouds is the dazzling graphic novel debut of Korean comic book artist Yudori. In her lush manga style, Yudori imagines the period in rich detail with careful attention to settings and costumes, while evoking the cultural and societal standards of the time. She creates complex women characters who grapple with indignity over their social position, engage in lustful fantasies, and ultimately relish in seizing agency in their lives. Raging Clouds is a powerful story about the role of women in society, the reality of existing within a non-consensual relationship, and the struggle to push back against the boundaries these women have been boxed into.