{"id":28665,"date":"2023-09-26T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T08:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=28665"},"modified":"2023-09-25T16:25:36","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T16:25:36","slug":"bad-magic-a-skullduggery-pleasant-graphic-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2023\/09\/26\/bad-magic-a-skullduggery-pleasant-graphic-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Magic \u2013 A Skullduggery Pleasant Graphic Novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Derek Landy<\/strong>, PJ Holden<\/strong>, Matt Soffe<\/strong>, Rob Jones<\/strong> & Pye Parr<\/strong> (HarperCollins Children\u2019s Books)
\nISBN: 978-000-858-5785 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

Have you heard of Skulduggery Pleasant<\/strong>? What about his biographer Derek Landy?<\/p>\n

The latter is an occasional comics writer (All-Out Avengers<\/strong>, Iron Man<\/strong>, Captain America<\/strong>) who moonlights as a best-selling Irish author, thanks mostly to the addictive exploits of the former. Since 2007, Landy has detailed the training of mystic troubleshooter Valkyrie Cain<\/em> by a veteran spook chooser\/animated skeleton calling himself\u2026 Skulduggery Pleasant<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

Other than my heartfelt recommendation, what more do you need to go get some of that? By my count there\u2019s 15 novels thus far, with another due early next year. Technically, it was all supposed to end after three trilogies, but the only thing that can\u2019t die or be killed is soaring success\u2026<\/p>\n

With snippets, novellas, sidebar stories and the like popping up when least expected (surely the best time?) it was inevitable that the haunt-hunters would migrate to comics too, and it\u2019s fair to say that the result is a real cracker\u2026<\/p>\n

Scripted by Landy, limned by P.J. Holden (Rogue Trooper<\/strong>, Judge Dredd<\/strong>, Warhammer Monthly<\/strong>, The Moon Looked Down and Laughed<\/a><\/strong>, coloured by Matt Soffe and lettered by Rob Jones, the story opens in rural Termoncara, a rustic outpost that just happens to be the unsung murder capital of Ireland. Somehow, though, nobody outside seems to notice\u2026<\/p>\n

Inside the idyllic enclave of ordinary folk, all is not happy – especially for young Jamie<\/em>, who truly regrets saying to Ethan<\/em> what he did. Now Jamie\u2019s despised: kept out of school and accused of killing his best friend. Moreover, he\u2019s become the focus of enough hate, spite, hostility and intolerance to move mountains\u2026<\/p>\n

One month later, two flashy strangers arrogantly breeze into town, ruffling feathers, poking under stones and asking questions that better\u2026 beings\u2026 have died for. Soon, Valkyrie and Skulduggery are baiting and beating up a succession of racist, homophobic louts of all ages. Refusing to learn, these decent folk regularly confront them, but it\u2019s just useful for misdirection as the strangers continue the actual task of finding out what kind of monster has turned a sleepy hamlet into the mystic equivalent of the Somme\u2026<\/p>\n

The root cause of all the grief is a deep mystery going back twenty years, and as the eerie investigators probe deeper and dodge multiple mundane and magical murder attempts, it becomes clear that it might be more than even Pleasant can handle\u2026<\/p>\n

Sadly, when they do unearth toxic, mystic agent provocateur Mr Friendly<\/em> and his thuggish thaumaturgic pals, that proves all too true, but this kind of buried trauma can generate unlikely friends as well as appalling foes and in the end it\u2019s all up to Jaimie to make a life- and reality-changing choice\u2026<\/p>\n

Fun, thrilling, smartly scripted and powerfully making a stand for diversity and inclusion in the face of intimidation and ignorance, even if this is your first encounter with the worlds of Skulduggery Pleasant, it one you will adore and never forget\u2026
\nText \u00a9 Derek Landy 2023. Art \u00a9 P.J. Holden 2023. Skulduggery Pleasant\u2122 Derek Landy. Skulduggery Pleasant logo\u2122 HarperCollinsPublishers<\/em>. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Bad Magic<\/strong> will be published 28th<\/sup> September 2023 and is available for pre-order now. If you\u2019re of a sociable bent, there is a series of nine meet-&-greet events – such as a signing at Forbidden Planet Megastore London on 28th<\/sup> September and Henley Literary Festival on October 1st<\/sup> – so why not check out www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk<\/a> for precise details, hmm?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Derek Landy, PJ Holden, Matt Soffe, Rob Jones & Pye Parr (HarperCollins Children\u2019s Books) ISBN: 978-000-858-5785 (TPB\/Digital edition) Have you heard of Skulduggery Pleasant? What about his biographer Derek Landy? The latter is an occasional comics writer (All-Out Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America) who moonlights as a best-selling Irish author, thanks mostly to the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Bad Magic \u2013 A Skullduggery Pleasant Graphic Novel”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[80,66,125,215,254],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adaptations","category-horror-stories","category-humour","category-lgbtqia","category-young-adult"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7sl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28667,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28665\/revisions\/28667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}