An Embarrassment of Witches

November 25, 2019
In this affable coming-of-age fantasy by the creators of the webcomic Darwin Carmichael Is Going to Hell, best friends Rory and Angela struggle to build adult lives after college. Their efforts are complicated by the fact that they live in an enchanted version of Pittsburgh where magic is real and most jobs involve some degree of wizardry and witchcraft. In a broad sense, they have the same problems as middle-class 20-somethings in the real world: fun-loving, directionless Rory changes her ambitions with each new boyfriend and tries to hide her chaotic life from her judgmental mom, while responsible but spineless Angela has second thoughts about taking a stressful internship at a pharmaceutical company. It just happens that Rory’s professional forays include making fortune-telling origami and enrolling in grad school for advanced Intramagics, while Angela’s internship requires her to fight killer plants. The blobby, busy artwork, drenched in candy colors, is packed with visual jokes: a traffic jam with dragons and pumpkin carriages, mall stores named Fae Jewelers and Taco Spell, a corporate office that turns into an M.C. Escher maze. This bildungsroman for kids who grew up obsessed with Harry Potter employs the trappings of comic fantasy to add a touch of magic to familiar human comedy.