Review by Ian Keogh
Started in 2015, by the time of this collection being published six years later, Míriam Bonastre Tur was attracting ten million daily viewers to Hooky’s webcomic version. It’s easy to see why with excellent art from the first page and intriguing characters.
We’re first introduced to brother and sister Dorian and Dani Wytte as they miss the school bus. They’re the children of long-established witches in a society not keen on their breed, and rather than fessing up to their parents they decide they’d be better off pretending they’re at school. At first Tur’s ambition extends no further than pages of magical hijinks and misunderstandings, but as she introduces more characters a plot begins to coalesce around them. Dorian and Dani’s parents are part of a group intending to ensure the safety of witches, even if that means wiping out humanity.
The siblings blunder their way to Master Pendragon, a soothsayer in a remote town who can genuinely see the future and is willing to train them. Local nuisance Nico is already being trained, and it’s not long before Princess Monica turns up searching for her lost prince. To begin with everyone’s rather one-note, but while in this volume at least Master Pendragon never develops much beyond that, the remaining cast gradually accumulate characteristics, and to avoid confusion among many small panels, their dialogue is colour coded.
A sweetness about the character undertones is presumably taken from manga, but Tur’s cast charm throughout. Princess Monica likes Dorian, but he’s a young teenage boy, so doesn’t entirely realise, while Dani takes a shine to Mark, the hunk from the local cafe. There’s a natural lightness to the awkwardness of the relationships, with moments of truth only occurring when there’s no thought involved. For a long while Nico seems a spare wheel, but just at the right place Tur reveals his background, recalibrating when he first ran into Dani and Dorian.
Presumably the incredible density of panels comes from reformatting digital illustrations to fit a printed page, but it makes for a hell of a long reading experience.
It’s about a third of the way through almost four hundred pages that Tur takes hold of Hooky, stops the frenetic jumping about and begins to progress a fuller story. The significance of the Wytte family and their intentions is revealed, what Dani and Dorian can do is of greater significance, and the entire cast seen to date is gathered in one place. The seeds of this were planted at the very start, so Tur always had it in mind, and just took her time getting there. By the time she does, she has an adaptable cast in place and they’re able to head into a mission to save their kingdom.
Circumstances change completely and surprisingly before the end building toward a thrilling finale to the opening volume. There’s charm, there’s humour and there’s excellent character-driven art, so anyone who likes a magical fantasy is advised to dive in.
