Outstanding New Fable With Pretty Much The Full Crumrin Cast

books:


	• Courtney Crumrin, Vol. 3: Courtney Crumrin In The Twilight Kingdom (Courtney Crumrin (Graphic Novels)) Ted Naifeh Oni Press, 2004 - 128 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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Courtney Beware!

Courtney Crumrin is back in this third story. This time Courtney really needs to watch her back as someone is out to get her and put an end to her ways. At the end of the last story, Courtney doled out some justice to the summoner of Rawhead Rex. Now she has a lot of new challenges.

Chapter 1: Courtney visits her old neighborhood while her parents try vainly to sell their old condo. Courtney's old associations are strained but her new talents come in handy to help an old friend.

Chapters 2-4: Courtney is enrolled in Saturday school where she learns more about the community in which she lives. But one of the other kids is a show off and turns his brother into a night thing despite Courtney's warnings. When the spell cannot be reversed, Courtney is enlisted to help. She discovers that there is a way to lift the curse but it involves a dangerous visit to the Twilight King. To make matters worse, the deputy seems to have uncovered COURTNEY's involvement of the last story and is trying to stop her.

A wonderful story. We see some hints of how the community has come to be and the Crumrin involvement. Uncle Aloysius is seen a little less but he is there where needed. The teaser at the end leaves plenty of possibilities for the next story.

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Outstanding New Fable With Pretty Much The Full Crumrin Cast

Reprinting the third four-issue miniseries starring adorable young curmudgeon Courtney Crumrin and her excellent cast of co-stars, "In The Twilight Kingdom" manages to come very, very close to its predecessor "Courtney Crumrin And The Coven Of Mystics", which I consider to be one of the greatest comic arcs ever published.

The first issue reprinted here is a bit atypical for the Crumrin series; it's a brief visit back to the hometown Courtney lived in before moving to Hillsborough. Different isn't bad though; this story is riveting as Courtney reconnects with her old friend and is disgruntled, and later more deeply concerned, about the turns her friend's life has taken in the past year.

It's with #s 2-4 that the story of young witches and warlocks eager to prove their prowess at the start of a new school year, the calamitous results of one spell, and the journey into the Twilight World begins. Courtney finds herself compelled to help a group of her peers she's not especially fond of (our dear little grumpy champion does make human friends so easily!). The journey to the Twilight Kingdom takes the group deep, deep into the heart of the world of the Night Things, farther than Courtney's ever been. And when the Twilight King himself appears....

Now, this collection introduces a number of characters who could well go on to be longstanding parts of the Courtney Crumrin/Hillsborough/Night Things mythos, but it's the King who stands out. Within the first couple of pages of his entrance he establishes himself as, believe it or not, not only one of the most fascinating and unforgettable characters in the aforementioned mythos but in comicdom as a whole. When was the last time Any comic book character did that so quickly? Maybe Imperiex's first true appearance in DC's "Our Worlds At War" crossover, but he'd been built up, both directly and indirectly, for a long time beforehand. The Twilght King, like Uncle Aloysius, like the numerous unforgettable and distinctive goblins (some of whom I don't think have even had their names revealed yet), like the Dreadful Duchess and like Courtney herself, is one of the reasons I think this ongoing cycle has what it takes to last, to be part of comic history like Superman or the X-Men. Cripes, if not for the small fact that 99.9% of the world has no idea a series of books called "Courtney Crumrin" exist, this could be as big as Harry Potter or Lord Of The Rings.

There's a lot of similarities here to Potter actually, which brings me to another point. The Crumrin series seems to get classed as a children's series, and while there's a lot in the books that appeals to me in the same way as movies like "Fairy Tale: A True Story", "Kiki's Delivery Service" or "Dumbo", there are other aspects that appeal in the same way as horror movies. There is some dark stuff in here, harkening back to the fairy tales of old (you know, wolves wolfing down Grandma, wicked crones trying to trick little children into the oven...) and after reading quite a lot that's classedas horror and seeing - I don't know how many horror movies, hundreds At Least - I can confidently say that a character like Rawhead'N'Bloody Bones is Pretty Freaking Scary! The stories are also full of compassion and wonder and fantasy, and I'm certainly not one to recommend blocking books, but the bottom line is if your five year-old wants to get into the world of Courtney Crumrin, perhaps you should read the first couple of isues to him or her as a bedtime story or someting? Just in case the little ones get frightened...

All that aside (after all, Potter and other kid-geared stuff can be frightening for the Really young fan) this is a fantastic entry in the Crumrin series. There's plenty here to appeal to fans of everything from anime to Harry Potter to epic fantasy (a la Tolkein and Robert Jordan) to Disney to the whole gamut of comic books out there and even to horror movies, with all aspects of the story blended perfectly. An outstanding volume of material, and Enter The Twilight King!

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Courtney rides again...

In this volume we get to know a little more about the girl herself. Other volumes were great in showing us exactly why Courtney is such an outcast (attitude, clothes, family, ect), but this volume gives us a little more about her past. More importantly, though, it gives us the chance to see how she'll react to being in a class amongst her peers, REAL magic using peers.

The artwork, as always, is fun, beautiful, and a bit frightening at the same time. Naifeh does a great job of showing us Crumrin's world, and I am eagerly awaiting the next volume. Maybe this volume doesn't capture us as immediately as the first 2 did, but when it grips you, this volume won't let you go until you've finished it!

Would I recommend this? Heck yeah! It's got something for everyone. It has great plot, drama, action... just about everything!

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Courtney has changed schools yet again, but this time she's in the Coven's special class for magical studies. But when a student spell goes wrong and leaves one of her classmates cursed, can Courtney lead the kids into Goblin Town and find a cure or will misfortune follow the group straight to the Twilight Kingdom? Ted Naifeh's grim girl is back in this new collection of troll tales and suspenseful stories! Take a whirlwind tour of Courtney's old 'hood, the ghastly Goblin Town, and the mystical Twilight Kingdom!