Charles Soule and Ryan Browne continue their new oddball fantasy series. Beware of mild spoilers as we dig into this issue!
Written by Charles SouleCover by Ryan Browne
Illustrated by Ryan Browne
Colored by Michael Garland with Ryan Browne and Michael Parkinson
Lettered by Chris Crank“THE DEVIL’S DEVIL,” Part Three. Wizord, the world’s most popular wizard (also its only wizard), has undergone a serious setback. So he does what many of us do in such situations—heads for a local watering hole, accompanied by his magical familiar, Margaret the koala. But while Wizord is drowning his sorrows, his enemies back in the Hole World are preparing to strike!
If the greatest storyteller in the world were to come up to me and start explaining a fantasy story, I would immediately tune out. In most cases, before you’ve even gotten to the concept of multiple realms, my mind is already on a different plane. Yet somehow, “Curse Words” makes fantasy interesting to even someone like me.
Primarily, this has to do with the overall look of the series. Browne’s illustrations have a soft yet chunky quality, most lines fairly thick. This blockiness surprisingly aids in the liveliness of each panel instead of detracting from it. For instance, one major panel shows a high volume of wild, full-forced fire sweeping down and through an army of tiny warriors. The fire itself has blocky edges that wisp up and around, the main gust pushing forward with thick columns. There are a lot of moments in “Curse Words” where Browne uses this sort of representation for these untamed bursts of magical energy, giving the world of the series some thrilling, concrete imagery to immerse the reader.
Browne also uses sound effects to great effect throughout the issue. Because he’s the one creating them and not a letterer after the art is done, Browne composes each image with the onomatopoeia as an essential element. This, combined with the fact that he draws them with the same signature style as the rest of his art, means there’s an extra cohesion that increases the immersiveness of the art.
Colorist Michael Garland provides the other invaluable ingredient to the “Curse Words” aesthetic. Magical energy itself has a special visual, represented by a sort of electrical pattern with a thick colored outline and white in between the lines, gradually turning slightly more like the outline’s color as the energy gets further from the source. Working with that, each of the magic users in this series has a different primary color, including Wizord’s bright blue. Since this issue focuses on the character Ruby, Garland employs a host of reds, oranges, and pinks to flavor each of her scenes.
I was constantly impressed by Garland’s ability to use different shades of this extreme group of colors to give each scene a slightly different feeling, smoothly moving from the calm before the storm to a strategic perspective to complete chaos. Also of note is Sizzajee, the character who provides the magic to the other characters, who is represented as a primarily scratchy black silhouette with other colors lighting up different parts of his body, each corresponding to a different magic user. These simple techniques, along with Browne’s illustrations, add up to a world that looks like nothing else.
Setting up all of these visuals and giving them meaning, Soule complements Browne’s work perfectly. He knows just how to pace a scene, whether it’s action based or dialogue based. He has no shortage of insane ideas, either: within pages, we go from an army of barbarian tiger people waging war against arrow-shooting cherubs to a koala reading a newspaper as his companion’s beard falls off to a magical experience watching The Titanic. Soule knows how much absurdity is too much, so it never gets overwhelming. Everything ultimately has its place. But, as he clearly thinks, why not have the maximum amount of fun while working through the story?
This, I think, is what most separates the series from other fantasy stories: it’s incredibly fun to read. My biggest problem with fantasy is how seriously those stories take themselves. “Curse Words,” on the other hand, finds the joy in everything. There are a few successive panels in here where Wizord gets progressively more drunk and less agreeable, spouting off negative comments about the people around him. Soule manages a great balance between showing Wizord’s unlikable side and still writing him so he’s fun to read, whereas in other hands, this could have turned into a dry, dour monologue, or the character could have come off as completely unlikable.
Continued belowLikewise, the art team also plays with this scene’s balance to draw out the most comedy possible. Wizord’s fake beard shifts around on his face as the panels progress, and the people around him react in entertaining ways. Different framing from panel to panel reveals different people reacting, meaning constant opportunities for comedy. Even the scenes which contain little comedy, like the fire burst scene I mentioned earlier, have such a raw adventurous force behind them that you’re still having a blast reading it.
Combining Soule’s boundless imagination, Browne’s powerful art, and their combined knowledge of when to show restraint and when to let loose, “Curse Words” took me on a wild ride that I’ll happily go on again next month. This isn’t your standard fantasy series. Jump on while you still can!
Final Verdict: 8.0 – Soule and Browne know how to cook up a great time. Whether you love or hate fantasy, this book begs your attention.
