Thieves and Kings is an indipendent American comic (or should i say Canadian?); but more than this, it's a gust of magic, fascinating, a dive into (true) fantasy.

The protagonist is Rubel, a boy who has come back to the city he was born in after traveling as sea boy on a ship. Just as he can't wait to tell his (real) past adventures to the group of playmates he had faced a thousand fantasy adventures; but everyone's gone, even Quinton the wizard, and a mysterious and dark Shadow Lady is stalking him... even the princess, whose sworn thief he is, while the king is ill and the prince has his mind clearly set... Rubel must then escape, assault royal castle, travel into a dragon's dream, by his side just Varkias the imp and Heath, sorceress-in-training from a thousand years ago.

Thieves and Kings is partly illustrated novel and partly comic, in the first volume we have more of the first (framed by really good art tied to the story or going in parallel with it), while later on the comic parts gain more weight.

Art, beginning from cover art, is beautiful, and most adapt to a fairytale-like fantasy story.
Art style (at first reminded me of "French" style though I don't know exactly why... perhaps it reminds me of Tin Tin?) is expressive and effective and text is the same style, simple but excellently descriptive; it's fantastic, i.e. fairytale-like and fascinating fantasy. Magic appears, not that commonplace, trite "special effects" magic you can find in some commercial fantasy, it's rather a subtle magic, half imagination and half real, fascinating and mysterious (especially through the whole paperback #2 Mr. Oakley plays on the mystery thing... can't be more specific, less I spoli you the surprise).

Characters are well diversified; each one has his own wishes, which become entwined in a game of conflict and alliances, in which you can't sometimes tell which one it is. Then Quinton's character is a real force of nature. Mr. Oakley himself says that, when Quintin appears, the story seems to gain a life of its own. Not that this means a drop in quality, on the contrary, we see unpredictable but coherent plot twists, both surprising and appetizing.

Language is rather simple, especially to those who have already read in English (this comment is meant for Italian readers of course :). Sometimes there are fantasy-slang words and some sentences have an archaic feeling. But the overall style is effectively simple, as is art style.

All that said, I definitely recommend this comic. Thieves and kings is a must to every fantasy lover: original plot, excellent plot twists, wonderful characters. Could we want more? ^^^

Up to now, there's only the original version, published directly by Mr. Oakley (and some collaborators I think ^^^;;). You can buy the comic directly from Mr. Oakley through his website; but since T&K is on Previews, you can buy it at every comic shop oredring from Previews (this comment is meant for Italian readers too). Until now there are four trade paperbacks. On Mr. Oakley's page you can also find some "appetizers", but only of the most recent volume (or, that's what I have seen).
Of course, it would be wonderful if an Italian publishing house would pay attention to and bring to Italy (in a worthy version) this work...