amethyst

It's Fantasy Week, which seems like the perfect time to look at one of DC's classic fantasy properties: Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld. Created by Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn, and Ernie Colon, Amethyst stars Amy Winston, a young girl from Earth who learns that she's actually a princess from a fantasy kingdom, where she's already grown up because time moves differently.

Karen Berger came to DC comics at the cusp of the 1980s as editor for titles including Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld and House of Mystery. As executive editor of Vertigo, Berger made stars of writers and artists who have gone on to dominate the industry, and the imprint became synonymous with an experimental, stylistic approach which gave it an added edge over every other publisher. In 2012, Berger resigned from Vertigo. She has been largely absent from comics since, but at Image Expo earlier this year she announced a new series from writer Sara Kenney and artist John Watkiss called Surgeon X, with herself as editor. ComicsAlliance spoke to Berger to look back at her extraordinary career, and her continued dedication to bringing new and experimental ideas to the medium.

Brianne Drouhard's Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld animation shorts are easily one of our favorite DC Comics media projects of the past few years. The serial is exciting, it's got great action, and it's an incredibly interesting spin on Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn and Ernie Colon's original idea, sending Amy Winston into a video game fantasy world where she has to level up and fight the bad guys to get home. And it's also an incredibly beautiful series. The character and monster designs are fantastic, but the backgrounds are breathtaking, which is why I was excited to see that background painter Mari Hosaka had posted a bunch of them at her Tumblr. Check 'em out below to take a trip through Gemworld's forests, volcanoes and caves -- and, if you're me, get frustrated that you can't actually take a vacation there.

Warner Bros. Animation's DC Nation shorts produced some pretty fantastic material and shined a mass media spotlight on a lot of obscure DC Comics characters. But my favorite, hands down -- and that of many viewers -- was the animated reimagining of Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn and Ernie Colon's Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld. Over the course of seven 75-second shorts produced, directed and designed by artist and animator Brianne Drouhard, Amy Winston was upgraded from an '80s straight-faced sword-and-sworcery concept to a a synthesis of gamer culture and magical girl anime, starring a contemporary young woman pulled into a funny and dangerous video game world where she's a princess of destiny set on a quest to battle skeletons, slay dragons and save the world. With the series of shorts concluded and available to watch online, we spoke to Drouhard about how she pitched the fan-favorite story, the trials of adapting her illustrating style for animation, and why it was important for Amethyst to have video games in her life. We also got plenty of gorgeous Amethyst art from Drouhard in the process.

Amethyst's DC Comics outlet in Sword of Sorcery may have been canceled, but fans of the sword-swinging, winged horse-riding princess still have one more animated adventure to catch as part of the Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld series of DC Nation shorts on Cartoon Network...

One of the best things about Cartoon Network's DC Nation block is that it's been able to throw a spotlight on some of DC's lesser-known characters -- and in some cases, it's reinvented them for a new audience. The best example? Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, in which Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn and Ernie Colon's sword-and-sorcery heroine has been transformed into the story of a young girl who gets su

If you dug last week's debut of Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld during the DC Nation program block, it looks like you can expect a second equally fantastical installment this Saturday on Cartoon Network. Entitled "Level 2: Village of the Frogs," the new short continues Amethyst's videogame-y adventures with a solid mix of combat, common sense and lots of stylized charm...

DC Nation fans have been anticipating new episodes of Young Justice ("Before the Dawn") and Green Lantern: The Animated Series ("Steam Lantern") since Cartoon Network announced the superhero-centric program block's return from hiatus last month, but the two new shorts debuting this Saturday, January 5 at 10 a...

In case you missed it, DC relaunched Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld last week in the pages of Sword of Sorcery. Like a lot of comics, though, this one comes with a story of what might've been, a pitch from artist Renae De Liz outlining exactly what she'd like to do with an Amethyst relaunch...

If you'd asked me two days ago if I was excited about Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld's return in the pages of Sword of Sorcery #0, the answer would've been a resounding yes. It seemed like a huge step in the right direction: A comic that dabbled in something outside the standard superhero genre, attempting to appeal to a wider audience of fantasy fans and women and girls with a cover that boasted