I loved reading comic books as a kid. Whenever my family and I went to India, we would always come back with a comic about Indian culture; one of my favorite stories to read from the Jataka series, a series of stories written from the former lives Buddha, is “King Kusha”, which is a story about a prince born with an ugly face, yet he excelled in academics and the arts. One day his parents decided that he should be married; aware of his looks prince Kusha knew that no one would want to marry him. So he carved the image of a beautiful girl out of stone and told his parents that he would marry her thinking that they could not find such a girl. However, the girl was found; she was the daughter of neighboring king. After that, the king’s messengers went to the princess’ palace and told the king of the marriage and the father agreed to have his daughter married to Kusha. Neither Kusha nor the princess got to meet or see each other before the marriage! Prince Kusha’s parents knew that if the beautiful princess who was supposed to marry their son saw him, she would run away because he was so ugly! Talk about ruining your child’s self esteem! But the two do eventually meet and the princess ends up running back to her parents and Kusha is not far behind, trying to win her love. He ended up apprenticing for different artists in the palace, trying to make gifts for the princess to show her that he loved her, but when she found out they were from him she didn’t want them. Eventually, the father of the princess discovers that seven other kings want his daughters’ hand in marriage. Realizing that giving her to only one of them would begin a war with the other 6, he decides that he would have to cut her up, and give a piece of her to each king. I know, gross! Realizing what her father is going to do, the princess runs back to Kusha wanting him to save her, and he does by offering her 7 sisters to the kings. And they live happily ever after!
There are many things that I am noticing about this story. Both the princess and Kusha’s mother are way too focused on his looks. What the hell? Let her see beyond his looks. Show her how good of a person he is Look at how talented this guy is! He can sculpt out of stone, he excels at pottery, and many other artistic creations, and he is so sweet. If I was the princess, I would be delighted that someone loved me that much. And, when she found out that she was in danger, she came to him asking for help. That seems kind of selfish of her. And Kusha still helps her. To this day I still love this story, it gives me something to think about— not to judge a book by its cover.
Unruly Bodies 
Wow, this comic sounds really interesting. I agree with your points–the princess and Kusha’s mother care far too much about his appearance, and it sounds like he has many other great qualities to offer. Off the top of my head, I would attribute the comic’s premium on beauty to cultural ideals, however, the idea of beauty being a powerful and, in some ways, virtuous trait is very common among fairy tales, and this comic sounds like it sort of falls into a fairy tale category. Often times in fantasy stories, there is a beautiful princess or a handsome prince, and their beauty is what makes them so desirable above others. In this respect, the comic you’re talking about does not sound all that different from so many stories we’ve heard before: a beautiful princess only desires a handsome prince. It is rare, however, that we see a story’s protagonist be an man who is unattractive.