SuperMutant Magic Academy

This book is stunning – an absolute masterpiece.It’s a collection of a web-comic about a group of teen schoolkids. Kind of like Peanuts, but more grown up, and more nihilistic and sarcastic.There’s no real story here, just a snapshot of characters who pop up now and then. There’s a real laidback genius here.Some of the early strips are quite rough and raw, but by the end, Tamaki’s work is almost Ghibli-esque.Favourite character is Everlasting Boy, a cosmic/immortal-powered kid who seems to have grown too powerful for himself, and he tries to re-connect with the world. He pops up every now and then in ingenious strips. I made it sound really boring, but it’s staggeringly inventive.Highly, highly recommended.

Fun graphic novel

This was a Christmas present that I’ve finally gotten round to reading. It wasn’t what I was expecting at all: I didn’t know anything about it going in and was expecting a traditional kind of story. Instead, this book is made up of one page comic strips which Tamaki has been serialising online. It’s completely different to anything I’ve read before, a bit like reading a whole book of the comic strips I used to read in the Metro. This felt like a lot to do in a few sittings and I did wonder if I’d have preferred to read it online bit by bit.After reading a lot of other reviews of this book, I feel like other people ‘got it’ more than I did. I enjoyed reading it and a lot of them made me chuckle, but I’m just not sure I got all the jokes. A good part of that could be the way I read things – way too fast, so maybe I needed to slow down and look at the words and pictures a bit more to fully appreciate it.Still, what I did get I really enjoyed. It’s an interesting way to get to know characters, from these small snapshots of their lives rather than continuing stories like I’m used to. I loved Frances and her performance art, those were definitely some of my favourite strips and also Marsha’s story of her secret love for her best friend. Although the characters are all mutants and have magical powers, the stories focus on more typical teenage growing up issue, such as feminism, body issues, being gay and falling in love.The art style was really varied: some were a lot more detailed than others and I’m not sure if there was a point to that or not. I did love the sparing use of colour though. The majority of the strips are in black and white, but occasionally there’s a splash of red that really makes the drawings pop. My favourite part was the Prom Night story which ended the book was more like a continuous story than the rest of the book.There’s an odd charm to this book and I really did fall in love with a lot of the characters, even if I’m not sure I got all their jokes.

I bought the book because reading the comic strips online wasn't very convenient, plus it's great that I can support the artist that way.Funny and insightful. Enjoyed very much