xxxHolic vol. 1 by CLAMP

When he bumps into a garden wall, Watanuki Kimihiro's legs get a life of their own and lead him inside.  There, he finds an enigmatic witch known as Yûko, and she tells him their meeting was fated.  She grants wishes for a cost, and she knows his-- she will take away his burden of seeing spirits after he works off her price.  He grudgingly accepts, but he is not prepared for he methods...

This was a great first volume for another series by the legendary mangaka collective CLAMP.  The set-up is a little cliché and rushed, but it's worth it to start exploring Watanuki's character and Yûko's work.  Contrary to all expectations, Yûko turns out not to be the kind of witch that grants every shallow wish, requiring steep or ironic prices.  Rather, she seeks out people who have wishes they're afraid to voice, and attempts to help them find the solutions they already know.  This allows the creators to explore very down-to-earth problems and probe realistic psychological complexities, which I found very satisfying.  And in seeing her work, I began to suspect she was offering Watanuki something else-- perhaps showing him what his powers can actually do.

A few peeves: CLAMP work in allusions to their other works that, while you don't need to know them to appreciate the story, do make the narrative hiccup.  Also, there are a few Japanese puns that, rather than being explained in a footnote by the translator, are pushed to an appendix, leading to a delayed appreciation.  But these are minor quibbles, and overall I would love to read the rest!

    

Madame Xanadu, vol. I: Disenchanted, by Matt Wagner and Amy Reeder Hadley

Madame Xanadu is a character with a long history in the DC Universe who has been given a fresh start with this new series from the Vertigo imprint (home of Sandman and Fables).  This first volume takes you on a wild journey throughout history, from her origin in Camelot when she was Nimue, sister of Morgan le Fay, to the palace of Kublai Khan from whence she took her name--Xanadu, to the French Revolution, the streets of Whitechapel during the terror of Jack the Ripper, and finally New York City on the eve of World War II as she bears witness to the rise of a new form of powerful beings--the superhero.

On each leg of her journey, Madame Xanadu is faced with dilemma after dilemma, forced to weigh the consequences of her actions. Whether to meddle in the affairs of state at Xanadu or the court of Louis XVI, despite the lessons she learned at the fall of Camelot, whether to save her friend Marie Antoinette or save herself, whether to protect the women of Whitechapel or to heed the cryptic warnings of the Phantom Stranger, who tells her there is a higher purpose at work-- each choice she makes has a dramatic effect on both her own life and the course of human history.

Wagner's writing is captivating and Hadley's art is breathtaking.  Every moment of Madame Xanadu's life, from her final showdown with Merlin to her bargain with Death Herself, comes alive and urges you onwards.

There are not enough good things to say about this series.  If you have never picked up a graphic novel in your life, this is the one to start with.  If you have, you'll love this one (especially if you're familiar with the DC Universe, you'll relish the new, unique encounters with such characters as Giovanni Zatara and the Spectre).  Go read it now.

You can read a PDF of the first issue of this volume on the Vertigo comics website.

    

Super-Witch Profile: Zatanna Zatara, Mistress of Magic

Zatanna Zatara makes her living as a stage magician and uses her real magical powers to fight demons and supervillains, both on her own and in the Justice League of America.  Her nearly limitless powers make her one of the most powerful people in the DC Universe.

Zatanna (nicknamed "Zee") is the daughter of magician Giovanni (John) Zatara and Sindella, a sorceress of the Homo magi race.  She learned magic from lost texts of Leonardo Da Vinci's--a distant relative of the Zataras--that she discovers in her father's study when he goes missing.  From them she learns the family trick of casting spells by saying them backwards.  After enlisting the help of various JLA members to help her find her father, she formed an association with the team, eventually joining it.

She has struggled with the moral weight her powers put on her-- and for good reason.  She has occasionally used her powers to alter the memories and personalities of villains, heroes, and civilians alike, and some of her magical exploration has gotten people killed.  But through it all, she remains fun-loving and optimistic.

Her new ongoing series started on Wednesday with Zatanna #1, and it's off to a great start!  Zatanna's help is sought by a skeptical cop looking for answers in a bizarre mass killing of mob bosses.  She quickly gets to the bottom of it, and after a tense encounter with the evil sorcerer-culprit, the chase is on-- which should give her and the cop some time to get to know each other... (To find a comic shop near you, go to ComicShopLocator.com.)

Some other Zatanna stories you might want to check out are:

Zatanna: Everyday Magic - A short graphic novel where Zee's old flame John Constantine interrupts her hectic life of touring and budding romance after his recent fling leaves him with a demon on his tail.  A good, fun introduction to the character.

Seven Soldiers: Zatanna - Zatanna goes into superhero rehab after a magical experiment goes awry, killing four other magicians and stripping her of her powers.  A young girl with magical powers of her own convinces Zee to take her on as an apprentice to help her fix her mistakes.  Technically part of a vast crossover with six other minor superheroes, her story stands fine on its own.  Unfortunately, the only way to read this story on its own is in the original four issues, readily available on eBay.

If you want to try some old-school comics and read Zatanna's first appearances, then check out JLA: Zatanna's Search.  Her first storyline that ran from 1962-64, this book tells the story of how Zatanna enlisted the help of various superheroes to help her find her missing father, plus a bonus story about how she first discovered her own powers.

Zatanna: Come Together is a 1993 mini-series, her first solo venture.  It's a highly experimental story about her exploring her mystical heritage from her mother's side with gorgeous art by Esteban Maroto.  Again, it hasn't been released in collected form, so your best bet is to get it on eBay.

Spell-Checkers by Jamie S. Rich, Nicolas Hitori De, and Joëlle Jones

Let's be honest, if any of us had magic powers in high school, we'd use them to get the hot guys, ace every test, gain popularity, and rule the school in every possible way. Jesse, Kimmie, and Cynthia have done just that. Since they got their hands on an ancient spell book in elementary school, they've been the queen bees, filling out tests with a flick of the wrist and sending magical clones to gym class. But in high school, it starts to catch up with them-- magically-created graffiti that challenges their status starts popping up around the school, and the charmed dolls that are the conduits of their powers begin to disappear. They turn on each other, pointing fingers, because after all, they're the only witches in school...right?

Let me just start off this review by saying, that if you have an aversion to swearing, smoking, cattiness, shallowness, and every other Mean Girls kind of behavior, this book is not for you. That said, if you don't mind those, you'll have a really good time. These teenage witches aren't tiptoeing around the shadow of some karmic law-- they use magic in the way that we all secretly wish we could at some point or another. The story is very original, and you'll find yourself cheering for some of the most unsympathetic characters ever put to paper.
 

The art (mostly) by Hitori De is energetic, able to portray the girls as simultaneously evil and cute, and the story would not work without it. The flashback scenes by Joëlle Jones reflect the childlike mischievousness of their origin story.
 

This book is labelled "volume 1" so hopefully we don't have to wait too long for the next installment! You can read a 22-page preview here on the Oni Press website. Oni books take a while to get to regular bookstores, so it is currently only available online and at comic book stores. You can find one near you at ComicShopLocator.com, and if you drop by participating stores today (May 1st) you'll be able to take advantage of Free Comic Book Day, where stores give away samples of various publishers' upcoming offerings! I don't know if there's anything particularly Witchy being offered, but for fans of all YA urban fantasy, a preview of the graphic novel adaptation of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments will be available from Th3rd World Studios.

   

Comics News out of C2E2

This weekend was the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Experience (aka C2E2), and some witchy stuff came out  of there.

First up, the return of the Scarlet Witch!  She's been an Avenger and an X-Man, and she's the most famous Super-Witch of all time!  But she's been out of the picture for a few years, and many fans have been wondering when she would be coming back.  At C2E2, Marvel writer Allen Heinberg and artist Jim Cheung announced that she will be returning in July in the pages of their miniseries, Children's Crusade.  The mini will be a follow up to their 2005 series Young Avengers, about a team of teen superheroes, whose own Super-Witch, Billy Kaplan (a.k.a. Wiccan) has a mysterious connection to the Scarlet Witch.  I'm planning Super-Witch Profiles for both of them which will be posted before the mini starts.

Secondly, not really news, but writer/artist Terry Moore, who recently finished a stint on Runaways, posted a sketch of Super-Witch Nico Minoru that he did for a fan at the show.

Comics News

In addition to our first Super-Witch Profile, we've got some news in the world of witchy comics.

Zenescope Entertainment has released the solicits for the first Charmed comics they're releasing in June, including an "issue 0" sourcebook, which will serve as a link between the TV show and the comics.  Still no exact release dates, but they should be coming soon.

And DC has released some preview art for the first issue of Zatanna, about their resident witch/stage-magician.  Her Super-Witch Profile will be up before the series launches, so keep checking back!

Over on DC's The Source blog, editor Rachel Gluckstern talks with writer Rex Ogle and artist Ted Naifeh about their upcoming co-feature, The Coven, starring Super-Witches Black Alice and Traci 13 (profiles forthcoming for them as wel!)  Their story begins in Teen Titans #83, out May 26th!

Super-Witch Profile: Nico Minoru

My affinity for powerful chicks extends outside the YA section of the bookstore and beyond witches-- I'm also an avowed comic book geek who loves women in spandex who can pack a punch.  Fortunately comics also have no dearth of magical types either!  However, it is frequently the nature of superhero comics to have a lot of characters scattered throughout various books and teams, so that you wouldn't always know from looking at them that there's a magic-maker among them!  So I plan on doing profiles on the witchy types that populate the superhero world to introduce them and help you find them!

First up: Nico Minoru.  Nico is one of the Runaways-- a group of kids from Los Angeles who find out that their parents are a cabal of supervillains called the Pride.  And so, as the title suggests, they run away, returning only to vanquish their evil begetters.

Nico is a Japanese-American gothic lolita who inherits her magical powers from her parents.  During one battle between the Runaways and the Pride, she accidentally steals the main conduit for her family's power--the Staff of One--when it gets absorbed into her body after her mother strikes her with it.  She can retrieve it only by shedding blood (a trick that comes in handy about once a month!)  The Staff of One has one other limitation-- every spell she casts with it can only be used once, often leaving her reaching for a thesaurus, frequently with unexpected results.

She's been the leader of the group for most of its existence, but she still finds time to have the most complicated love life of all of the Runaways.  She first gets entangled with Alex Wilder, the group's first leader, followed by a short fling with idiot tech savant Chase Stein, before getting together with a later addition to the team, cyborg Victor Mancha.  (And let's not even get into her "it's complicated" relationship with psychedelic alien Karolina Dean!)

Her best stories are found in the pages of Runaways, which come in easy-to-consume digests, full-sized trade paperbacks, (starting with "Pride & Joy") and thick oversized hardcovers. Created by and written mostly by Brian K. Vaughan (who was also a writer forLost), the series has also been written by Buffy creator Joss Whedon, and acclaimed writer-artist Terry Moore.

"Charmed" comics on the way...

I'm working on getting a good chunk of reviews done before I start posting them pretty regularly instead of waiting to be done reading each book, but until then, there's no reason not to keep up with the news!

Comic book publisher Zenescope has announced that they have obtained the rights to publish comics based on the witchy TV series that ran 1998-2006.  Zenescope is better known for their "cheesecakey" Grimm's Fairy Tales, but they still have a sizeable female audience, making them a good fit for one of the most successful female-led TV series.

The comics will be co-written by Charmed novelist Paul Ruditis and Zenescope writer Raven Gregory.  Artist Dave Hoover will be drawing the interiors.  Zenescope expects to have a preview #0 issue out in June and to debut the first issue at Comic-Con International in San Diego in late July.

More details can be found at Comic Book Resources.