There was one that really caught my attention mainly because
the shop employee told me that it was definitely not for children. That title
was Wizard School. The art style
looked kind of rough and edgy yet playful so I picked it up. Once I got home I
did a little research and learned that Wizard
School is an online series by Minion Comics, with individual pages released
on a regular basis. They are up to issue 11 online, and had a limited amount of
physical issues of #1 printed for Free Comic Book Day to help promote the
series. They have multiple titles available on their website (The Lydian Option, The Night the Power Went Out, Minion
and Cargo Cult) that I intend to
check out in the future. As for Wizard
School, I was laughing so hard at some of it that I had tears in my eyes.
Seriously.
The storyline is basically a parody of Harry Potter, where a prophecy speaks of child with a sacred
birthmark (three glowing stars on his forehead replacing the lightning bolt
scar) who will kill a powerful evil wizard that threatens mankind. Funnily
enough that child, now a teenager, is killed in the opening scene and is replaced
with bumbling douchebag Russell Graham in order to allow the forces of darkness
to more easily take over. Graham is taken to Bumblebane’s Magical Academy of
the Wizarding Arts where he meets Headmaster Farnsdorf and is told about his “destiny”.
He also meets his two roommates, Celeste (a more snarky version of Hermione)
and Merrill (a virtually mute, Pugsley Addams version of Ron), and his talking animal
familiar Goatsie (“And what’s the goat doing?” “Eatin’ shit.”). Lots of goofy
stuff ensues.
The writing by Kevin Kneupper is clever at times and
downright vulgar in others. The clever being when the big bad kills off the
Harry Potter wannabe at the top of the book not with magic, but a gun (“Next
time put up a ward against bullets”), and the vulgar being when and extremely
drunk Graham is being set-up by a dark wizard to take the place of said Harry
Potter wannabe and he says “its blowjob o’clock”. The use of adult language is
funny at first, but Graham’s character constantly cusses so it wears thin by
the end of the book. It also doesn’t help that his character is a complete ass,
but the fact that no one seems to really notice or care in the wizarding world
evens it out. It’s an entertaining fish-out-of-water story and I really enjoyed
it regardless of how crass it can be at times. I’m just happy that it isn’t
resorting to toilet humor… at least not yet.
The art by Robert Rath is indeed a little rough around the
edges, but that’s what drew me to it in the first place. Sure I like
traditionally illustrated comics as much as the next person, but everything
here has a Heavy Metal meets old
school children’s book feel to it. It’s in your face, colorful and the computer
enhancements work quite well. There is some confusion at the start due to there
only being a limited amount of space to set up the story, but I got the gist of
what was going on. Everything else is laid out quite well and the visual
storytelling is for the most part spot on.
So far Wizard School
is a winner. This first issue kept me laughing, interested and wanting more. Now that I
know that I can go online and continue with the series makes me a happy man. I
hope that Minion Comics eventually goes with physical comic books in the
future. There’s no better way to show your support than to purchase an issue
with your hard earned dollars. I’d plop down a few bucks every month to
continue with this series and the others too if they are just as good. I highly
recommend checking this title out. Here’s the link to the Minion Comics website.
4.5 out of 5
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