By Clarke & Gilson
Publisher: Cinebook
ISBN: 9781849182126
Melusine is a superbly drawn comic tale of an adorable young witch and her group of friends, all of which are in some way monsters, creatures of the night, or of myth, fairytale and legend. Melusine is herself a teen as she’s still studying and the majority of the male characters in the stories are very much in love with her.
In this volume Melusine must help a ghost become tangible enough to interact with the real world, take drastic action over headlice (it really is drastic) and deal with the everyday realities of school, including that of the substitute teacher. It’s all gentle fun, with enough good jokes and comic situations to keep you hooked.
The book collects full page strips so although there is an ongoing narrative it tends to be broken down into segments, page by page, with a punchline in the final panel. The gags are good but never edgy, so it’s not trying to reach for the lowest common denominator. Instead it draws it’s humour from the supernatural situations, problems with boyfriends, and the general troubles of a teenager. Because of this it’s very much, but not exclusively, appealing for a young female audience – my daughter loves it – and at a time when the proportion of girls reading comics is growing considerably then this is certainly a good one to add to their collection. Having said that, there are plenty of slapstick gags, monsters and mayhem to appeal to boys too. I’m rather a fan of this particular style of cartoon illustration too, which seems to me to pitch the whole tone of the strip perfectly.
If your kids read The Phoenix, enjoy newspaper strips or have explored some of Cinebook’s over books for younger readers then this is well worth your time and money.
And if you liked that: Volume 6 coming soon
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