SHE CAN STEAL THE HEART OF EVERY GIRL... EXCEPT THE ONE WHO STOLE HER BIKE!
Leo's the hottest senior at Princess Andromeda Academy, and her adoring fangirls have one goal: to beat her in a road race so she'll go out with them. Unfortunately, the only thing Leo loves more than breaking hearts is her faithful old motorcycle, Bethany. But the arrival of mysterious new girl Vega upends her daily routine forever.
Now it's graduation season, and with her beloved motorcycle gone, Leo finds herself facing a lonely summer at an all-time low... until mysterious beauty Vega comes crashing back into her life. The two strike a deal that puts Leo's bike - and dignity - on the line. Will Leo rise to the occasion, or lose Bethany forever? What's Vega's deal, anyway? And what's this burning feeling in both of their hearts?
Roadqueen started as a one-shot comic by Mira Ong Chua released digitally in 2016, originally titled Roadqueen: Girlfriend of the World. In 2018 Chua announced a sequel to Roadqueen, and after a very successful Kickstarter campaign,
the book was released digitally in December of that year. In the full comic, the original one-shot was retooled into a prologue chapter to the main story, which takes place about a year later.
In March 2019, Seven Seas Entertainment announced their acquisition of Roadqueen's digital and print license. The Seven Seas edition was released on October 8, 2019.
Tropes:
- Badass Biker: Leo, though she's obviously lacking on the "biker" front after the events of Girlfriend Of The World. Vega is no slouch in this department either, especially after stealing Bethany.
- Batman Gambit: Vega reveals that she took Bethany away in the hopes that it would lead to Leo opening up to her admirers. The realization that it didn't work leads to her confronting Leo again and the ensuing Fake Relationship.
- Best Her to Bed Her: Invoked and deconstructed; when Leo turned down Boots' Love Confession in Freshman year, she challenged Boots to beat her in a race if she wanted to win a date with her. Leo didn't really mean it, but tons of other girls in school took her seriously and spent every morning for the next several years challenging her, much to Leo's annoyance.
- Beta Couple: Boots and Cassiopeia, who have been together for ages and serve as a foil to Leo and Vega's more tumultuous relationship.
- Blatant Lies:
- When recounting her graduation speech, Leo claims that everyone stood up to cheer as she left. Boots and Cassiopeia, who were both present, points out that that absolutely did not happen.
- When Vega confronts Leo in her apartment, Leo tries to dismiss her criticisms by (falsely) suggesting that she isn't gay and that Vega is jumping to conclusions. Vega promptly points out Leo's Porn Stash of scantily-clad women.
- Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: As part of her plan to annoy Vega into leaving, Leo adds "Super-painful, extra-potent spice" to their dinner. A narration box clarifies that it's store-brand cayenne pepper.
- Butch Lesbian: Leo dresses in shirts and pants, has short hair, and enjoys punk fashion.
- Costume-Test Montage: Day 3 quickly turns into this, with both Leo and Vega having fun and getting into modeling clothes for each other. Leo screws it up by laughing at an outfit Vega genuinely liked.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Everything Vega has done, from betraying Leo, stealing Bethany away, and returning to pursue their Fake Relationship bet was all due to Leo cruelly rejecting her when they were five years old. Vega outright admits that it's petty of her.
- Dramatic Thunder: Thunder and lightning appears during the young Vega's dramatic declaration that she'll find a girlfriend someday. It is comically overdramatic.
- Driving Question: Leo wonders more than once why Vega is so dedicated to making her into a "decent lesbian", and why she seems so focused on Leo specifically. She finally gets an answer on Day 7.
- Exact Words: When Vega offers to upgrade Bethany and "calculate payment" after Leo's satisfied, Leo assumes that she's after a date. It's only after Vega finishes that she reveals that she's been keeping track of the expenses, gives Leo the bill, and promptly takes Bethany itself as her payment.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: A five-year-old Vega pulls her hair out of its buns to assume her current hairstyle after being rejected by the equally-young Leo and swearing to find a girlfriend to marry.
- Failed a Spot Check: Played for Laughs; during an Imagine Spot, Leo's imaginary version of Vega fails to notice that Vega has hidden Bethany under the couch, despite said motorcycle being obviously visible.
- Fake Relationship: The plot of the book revolves around Vega agreeing to return Bethany to Leo if she can prove she can be a "decent lesbian," in Vega's words, by "fake-dating" her for a week.
- Ferris Wheel Date Moment: Day 5 involves Leo and Vega going to an amusement park and of course involves a scene of them on a ferris wheel together. Notably, it marks the shift from Leo simply trying to be a gold-star girlfriend "for Bethany" to noticing Vega's quiet mood and reaching out to her.
- Firebreathing Diner: Leo tries to serve this to Vega to annoy her into leaving. Unfortunately for her, Vega likes spicy food, while Leo has zero spice tolerance.
- Forgotten First Meeting: It turns out Leo completely forgot her and Boots' fateful meeting that sparked the start of the weekly races with the other Princess Andromeda girls. In a more serious example, it turns out the entire events of the comic happen because of Leo and Vega's first meeting, which Leo, once again, completely forgot.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Leo, in regards to Boots and Cassiopeia. While the two do ultimately care about her, they don't have any hesitation in calling Leo out on her behavior and cheerfully ditch her for the summer so they can go on a road trip.
- Gamer Girl:
- Leo. She frequents the arcade, owns at least one console, and is apparently a fan of "D*rk S**ls."
- The profile for Boots lists "free-to-play games" as her "special skill."
- Hypocrite: Leo dismisses all of her admirers at school, claiming that they're shallow "nice girls" who make no effort to get to know her and only like her for her Badass Biker image. Boots and Cassiopeia maintain that she's still being a jerk who likes to rebuff them to make herself feel like a cool lone wolf. Vega takes it further later when she points out that Leo's admirers still tried to reach out to her and connect with her after she lost Bethany, but Leo continued to ignore all of their attempts.
- I Call It "Vera": Leo calls her beloved motorcycle "Bethany."
- Ineffectual Loner: Leo. Boots flat-out accuses Leo of only trying to act like an untouchable lone wolf because it maker her feel cool.
- Informed Attribute: Cassiopeia's profile lists her special skill as "can fall asleep anywhere.''
- Innocently Insensitive: Leo's central character flaw. She doesn't intend to hurt anyone, but she's oblivious to how her words and actions can hurt the girls around her.
- Ironic Echo:
- "Oh shit! That was you?!" Leo says it first while cracking up upon realizing Boots was the girl who first confessed to her in freshman year. The next time she says it, in response to recognizing yet another girl she forgot, she's a lot more serious.
- "This is how it should be." Leo first thinks it to herself when she's resigning herself to a lonely summer, right before Vega pulls of a Dynamic Entry on Bethany. At the dawn of Day 7, Vega is the one thinking it as she's about to leave Leo for good, only for Leo to perform a similar Dynamic Entry on Bethany.
- Missing Steps Plan: After they make their Fake Relationship bet, Leo initially plans to try to annoy Vega into leaving so she can reclaim Bethany. Not only do Leo's attempts to frustrate Vega all fall under Poke the Poodle, she seems to think that hiding her motorcycle under the couch will be enough to fool Vega and frustrate her into surrendering.
- Mood Whiplash:
- Day 1 is mostly a comedic story of Leo's ridiculously petty attempts to frustrate Vega, filled with extremely comical Imagine Spots. Then Leo shreds Vega's jacket, which genuinely hurts the latter and leads to a My God, What Have I Done? moment for the former.
- Days 3 and 4 both feature Leo and Vega gradually starting to bond and have a good time on their dates, only for Leo to ruin the mood with her insensitivity.
- Only Friend: A caption in Girlfriend of the World outright describes Boots as Leo's only friend. A later caption even goes as far as to put "friend" in quotation marks.
- Phrase Catcher: Both Boots and Vega critically refer to Leo as a "gay fuckboy." Even a random bystander at the mall describes her as such.Leo: Why does everyone keep calling me that?!
- Poke the Poodle: Leo's initial plans to annoy Vega into giving up all boil down to this: she leaves a faucet running, slips a box of tampons into Vega's shopping basket in an attempt to embarrass her, and adds a bunch of spice to the meal she serves. Leo is genuinely caught off-guard when Vega casually brushes them all off.
- Put on a Bus: Boots and Cassiopeia are both prominent in Girlfriend of the World and the first chapter, but disappear from the narrative when they leave on their "indefinitely long roadtrip." They appear again in the final chapter, still on their trip after a number of months, where they find out about Leo and Vega's relationship via text message.
- Reunion Vow: After being informed about Leo and Vega's relationship, Boots wonders if she and Cassiopeia will ever see the two again (since it's implied that the new couple are heading out on their own road trip). Cassiopeia reassures her that they'll all see each other again someday.
- The Reveal: Day 7 reveals Vega's backstory and motives for her actions. She and Leo had met and become friends when they were five, but Leo cruelly rejected and abandoned her when Vega kissed her and asked her to be her girlfriend. After traveling the world and enduring a string of failed relationships, Vega ended up at the same school Leo was attending. She decided that her "revenge" would be to get Leo to fall for her before betraying her by stealing Bethany, all in order to get Leo to start opening up to the other girls, be less of a jerk, and find love. When that didn't work out as planned, she returned to try to get Leo to change personally.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: In the bonus chapter, Leo and Vega get chased by a swarm of bees while visiting an arboretum.
- Stellar Name: All four main characters have stellar themed names: Leo, Cassiopeia, and even Boots are all named after constellations, while Vega is named for the brightest star in Lyra. There's also the fact that they attend Princess Andromeda Academy in Girlfriend Of The World.
- Super Window Jump: Vega announces her return by smashing through Leo's apartment window while riding Bethany.
- Sweetheart Sipping: During the montage of past summers, Boots and Cassie can be seen doing this in one panel (with Leo sipping a drink alone in the background).
- Third Wheel: Leo, in regards to Boots and Cassiopeia. It's largely the reason why they ditch her when they head out on their summer road trip. Emphasized best when Leo flashes back to the three "hanging out" over the last several summers: Boots and Cassiopeia are shown having sweet couple moments in the foreground while Leo is somewhere by herself in the background.
- Title Drop: Parodied near the end of Girlfriend of the World:Boots: So Vega's like everyone's girlfriend, huh?!
Cassiopeia: Uh, sure.
Boots: Perhaps even a Girlfriend of the World?!
Cassiopeia: Why are you saying it in that voice...?
