2023 EDIT: Part of my 2023 clear-up, of books I no longer like, or am no longer interested in, or remember well as standing out, or find as special anymore, or I otherwise will not miss.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Original Review:
Young Aster lives with his magical family in a secret community circle, hidden in a wood. But the magic is segregated: girls learn to be witches and boys learn to be animal shapeshifters. Each has a role to play to protect their community.
Aster doesn't want to be a shapeshifter. He is drawn to learning about spells instead. He is good at witchcraft, which is forbidden in a boy, and he feels pressured by his parents to change into an animal form already.
Then his shapeshifter cousins go missing, one by one, and he might be the next target of a looming, monstrous threat to his family. Or he could use his gifts, his heart's desire, to stop the beast, whom he shares more in common than he could imagine, and put an end to an oppressive, harmful system, once and forever...
While I thought it was short, or could have been longer, the graphic novel 'The Witch Boy' contains great worldbuilding. I believed in its magical society, its little touches, its elements, its lessons, and how the family gathering worked and interacted with one another. The use of magic is original, well-thought-out, whimsical yet down-to-earth, containing Wiccan, Pagan and other nature-based aesthetics. There's fruit and veg growth, cooking, healing, talking to plants, daggers, magic circles, runes used for trapping etc. I wanted it all to be real.
The whole comic is so sweet, endearing and comforting, despite the darkness lurking (it is appropriate for children to read). The characters are massively diverse - sensitive and frustrated Aster and his older sister Juniper are mixed-race, their mother Holly is an awesome matronly figure and one of the most powerful witches ever, if still conventional, and one of Aster's aunts, Iris, has a female partner and three kids. Though sadly we hardly see the partner, and she doesn't receive any lines of dialogue. Aster makes a new friend in the non-magical world, Charlie, a sporty and confident black girl with a cast on her leg, and who also has two dads, but they don't appear on page.
For a story that can be easily read as a metaphor for the oppression and marginalization of the LBGTQ community in our society, it's a little disconcerting to see the actual, explicit LBGTQ characters in it get sidelined. Queer elements are abound, if in soft, subtle ways, in ebbs and flows in 'The Witch Boy', however.
It's just such a nice little story, with an essential message for everyone. It's stupid and dangerous to deny anyone anything because of the gender they were born into. "Because you're a girl" and "Because you're a boy" are not reasons for anything. They are not justifications for anything. Ever.
The theme of tolerance is multilayered, while appearing so simple, throughout this contemporary fable. Family and friendship in different and unexpected places are equally-important themes. Every aspect of the comic is effective and unforgettable.
'The Witch Boy' - a supernatural, witchy, beastly, cosy cuddle-bug of a comic. Change and progress are not so scary once you give them a chance to shine.
Final Score: 4/5
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