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Jillian Tamaki: SuperMutant Magic Academy (2015) 4 stars

"SuperMutant Magic Academy is a prep-school for mutants and witches but their paranormal abilities take …

Review of 'SuperMutant Magic Academy' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A collection of mostly one-off comics from the webcomic Supermutant Magic Academy. I really enjoyed every minute of this book! I really appreciated the greydark humor, and the way it never took itself all that serious. A nice change from all the grimdark stuff that I usually read.

While a lot of people are comparing this to Harry Potter and other fantasy school settings, I think John Green's novels might be a more apt comparison. Just funnier, more creative and much more fantastical - so completely different. I can't quite put a finger on why I think this, but maybe someday I will have a more logical explination.

The choice to tackle the annoyances of every-day life from the perspective of mutant teens worked really well for Jillian Tamaki. Often poetic and surreal, Tamaki looks at life sideways. Finding the humor in the details. This book is mostly geared towards people who take life more than a little seriously but are willing to laugh at themselves. If that makes any sense.

The art for this webcomic was also pretty excellent. The characters all had unique looks that expressed something about who they were and made them all easy to recognize. Which was important considering the lack of plot.

I really enjoyed Tamaki's use of color, and the way she deviated from her style every once in a while. These changes, though few, were used very strategically to enhance and reflect the nature of the content.

While I picked up this volume rather randomly at my library, I am looking forward to picking up more by this author in the future.