New Courtney Crumrin series

[skjam]

Courtney Crumrin is a young witch learning her craft under the eye of her Uncle Aloysius, while also attending an ordinary elementary school.



She's the one on the left.



Holly Hart is the daughter of a newly successful thriller writer who moves in next door to the Crumrins. She's fashionably gothy, but this doesn't fly in Hillsborough.



Despite this unpromising beginning, Holly turns out to be one of the few civilians Courtney's met who is okay with magic and they hit it off. Soon, Holly's more than okay with the idea of magic, and wants to learn some herself. Courtney is happy about this, but Holly's choice of first spell is the "make myself popular" one that gave Courtney trouble before.

Meanwhile, Uncle Aloysius is facing his own impending mortality, and deciding against using extreme magical methods to prevent death.





The homework thing is a callback to a story where Courtney learned that lesson the hard way.

And then on a visit to Goblin Town, everything goes south....



Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!

Comments

[mrstatham]

I really loved Naifeh's work on Death Jr, where both minis were a heck of a lot of fun for what could be a pretty dull and cliched concept.

Is it worth picking up the digests of this, because I've seen them in my local store, but I have no idea what order they're meant to be in?

[majingojira]

Oh yeah, I've been a fan of this little series for a while. The Digests are numbered, but in case you missed the numbers, the order is:

"Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things" - The introduction to things. Really, it's a collection of one-off adventures.
"Courtney Crumrin and the Covin of Mistsics" - The first arc story, and a fun one at that--introducing a really good monster into a magical mystery.
"Courtney Crumrin and the Twilight Kingdom" - Another good arc, payoffs from the previous arc help.
"Courtney Crumrin's Monstrous Holiday" - Courtney travels to Europe and meets monsters. A bunch of short stories like the first one, but has some arc potential.

[kamino_neko]

The first four Courtney Crumrin series are some of my favourite comics. So, hell, yeah, pick them up.

[majingojira]

I'm so glad this exists, but my desire to wait for trades keeps me from reading much of it yet. I didn't even know it was coming out!

Man, now I want to post more of Courtney's adventures. Because that's some good stuff.

[bjornwilde]

I loved this but I'll be honest, the story felt a little rushed to me for an on going series. This could be because Naifeh is used to limited runs or it could be a set up for future issues. Either way I have worlds of faith in Naifeh and will be grabbing every issue of this I can.

The next Polly and the Pirates is out now also isn't it? Must track down.

[northstarfan]

I was actually a little disappointed in the new Polly (not enough that I regret buying it, though). The art really felt insubstantial.

[the_engineer]

I actually do kind of regret buying it. The art is *terrible*. There's more than enough times that I couldn't figure out what was supposed to be happening.

[northstarfan]

The story flow was spotty in places, but for me, the sticking point was how light all the linework was. It looked faded out in spots, it was so fine, and there seemed to be very little variation in weight. It looked about as far from Naifeh's style as one could get. I think it would have worked better in a larger book, but in digest format, it was sometimes hard to simply make out details.

[bjornwilde]

I was afraid of this as I love Naifeh and his art. Having someone else draw for him made me nervous.

[northstarfan]

It doesn't help that the new fellow's style is nothing like Naifeh's at all. It's quite jarring.

I thought it was a pleasant little story, and I don't regret picking it up, but it really doesn't hold a candle to the previous volume or to the Courtney books.

[kamino_neko]

Waaaaaaaaaait, wait, new Polly? New Polly? When did this come out? new Courtney and new Polly?

[lissa_quon]

Oooh yay I wondered if he was ever going to get back to this series.

Is this going to be an ongoing or another limited series?.

[skjam]

Nothing on the cover or in the indicia indicates it's limited, so I am guessing ongoing. It might turn into a miniseries if sales go badly, though.

[kaysper]

I...Unfortunately have mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, I really liked what I did get to read of the first trades, and the artwork for this series is clever and fun to look at.

And I got really excited when I saw the cover and the first scans: There's going to be a new story in this series! And a new character! Maybe Courtney and Holly get to go have adventures together while Holly gets used to all the strangeness she liked before actually being real! The artwork already looked great in black and white, and it looks wonderful in full color! Exclamation points of joy and surprise and excitement!

But after reading, I'm worried that I can call where this is going. Holly Hart goes in too deep, or turns out to truly be some shallow person who is just using Courtney for magic, OR she gets scared away from the strangeness of it all, but ultimately at the end the status quo is restored while Courtney learns some bitter life lesson about superficial friendships and how growing up sucks blah blah blah.

I don't know, maybe the comic completely subverts that prediction in the ending. I would love it if it does so and proves me completely wrong. But if there's one thing more annoying then cynicism, it's predictable cynicism.

[skjam]

Hmm...have you read the full issue, or just this post? My answer changes based on that information.

[kaysper]

Just this post. The comic has sadly dropped under my radar for a bit, so this was the first I heard about a new story for it. (And again, really excited about it! But also a touch cautious.)

[skjam]

From my reading of the issue--Holly starts out as someone who genuinely is interested in being friends with Courtney based on similar social status, intersts, and Courtney saving her from a Night Thing attack. But then Holly learns that she too can learn magic, quickly becomes way too interested in the ways it can shortcut relationships, and starts using it to get new friends/minions.

Courtney is neither naive nor stupid, having learned hard lessons from her previous mistakes (as mentioned in her conversation with her uncle.) So when Holly gets upset by Courtney stopping magic lessons, Courtney spots Holly's retaliation coming. Given how quickly Holly is confronted with the consequences of her actions, I'm thinking that the next part of the story is about repairing a relationship once they're broken/

[northstarfan]

Or a few pages from the Goblin version of "How to Serve Humans". I'm really good with it either way. ;)

[pallas_athena]

Must pick this up! So much love for poor old Uncle Aloysius.

I also noticed, last time I was in my LCS, that the old trades are being reissued in pretty new hardback editions.