"Go to School for Five Minutes and the Whole Magic Kingdom Goes to Hell" in Amethyst (vol. 1) #4, by Gary Cohn and Dan Mishkin (writers), Ernie Colon (artist), Tom Ziuko (colorist), John Costanza (letterer)
The various '80s Amethyst series were a major part of my back issue hunts this spring. They just sounded interesting, and it wasn't too many issues to track down. So I don't know anything about why the series came to be or anything like that. DC trying to appeal to a broader audience with a fantasy-based series starring a young female protagonist? That seems. . . remarkably unlike DC or Marvel to do something like that, but the '80s were a crazy time. We were just starting to realize we might not all die in nuclear fire! Anything was possible!
Amy Winston gets to play the child who finds out she has a special destiny, and is transported to a magical land - and also ages up a bit so she can have potential romances with handsome princes without said prince ending up on any federal databases - which she must save a from a dark and malevolent wizard. All the royal houses are based on birthstones, each tends to have certain areas of magic they're proficient in. There's a lot political maneuvering and backstabbing, Amy having to get some confidence, first in her powers, then in her ability to lead others in an uprising.
Ernie Colon with Tom Ziuko's color work, builds a world with a variety of realms, each with their own architecture and ambience. Topaz Keep is wildly different from Castle Amethyst, is different from Lord Garnet's realm, is different from Dark Opal's fortress, etc. Colon's art reminds me a lot of Joe Kubert's, which is never a bad thing. It works extremely well with the colors, where the colors really seem to make each line stand out. The art has a lush or almost lurid feel at times, depending on what mood it needs to evoke, joy or terror.
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