Mister Magic: The Graphic Novel by Kiersten White; adapted by Scott Peterson; artwork by Veronica Fish and Andy Fish
Many thanks to Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press and NetGalley
for sharing an advanced copy of Kiersten White’s Mister Magic: The Graphic Novel, adapted by Scott Peterson with artwork by Veronica Fish and Andy
Fish. I’ve had Mister Magic on my TBR list since it arrived. The novel
takes a kind of creepypasta story about a beloved but forgotten and
inaccessible children’s television that everyone seems to have fond memories of,
but no one can find or recall any episodes. Like other forms of these creepypasta,
Mister Magic examines some of the darker sides of childhood and our
nostalgia for the good old days that may create some kinds of biases and blind
spots in our collective consciousness. This kind of ambiguity and blindness
creates a sense of unease as those involved with the show reconnect after 30
years apart and begin to make sense of the purpose of the show, its impact on
others, and their own roles and experiences in the show. The concept for the
book is fascinating, and I love the way it deals with the ideas of a kind of
nostalgia that upon further review, reveals the dark underbelly that we may be
repressing or misremembering to enable a sense of calm and ease for the
present. It’s a timely theme that we see playing out in schools, universities,
and popular media today. However, I found this graphic novel sometimes hard to
follow with multiple characters who meet after 30 years apart as well as sudden
scene transitions. I’m wondering whether the novel provides more context with
chapters and allows us to better understand the internal thoughts and
backgrounds of these characters in more depth than the graphic novel allows.
Nevertheless, the artwork for this edition is excellent, creating a blend of realism,
fantasy, and memory, as well as incorporating popular and online media that
details some of the history and fan memories with the show. I loved how there
are pages from blogs, reddit, and Wikipedia that detail some of the history and
memories people share about the show Mister Magic. It adds a sense of realism,
but also creates more of the mysterious and ambiguous nature of the show since
no one can really recall what it is about, but everyone seems to have fond and
almost codependent feelings about the show. This was definitely one of my
favorite aspects of the graphic novel.
The story of Mister Magic picks up in the present
when Val is preparing to bury her father, with whom she shared an isolated and suspicious
existence in rural America. During the wake for her father, she is visited by some
men from her past that she seemingly has no recollection of, yet she feels a
sense of familiarity and comfort with them. We learn that they were all on the
children’s show Mister Magic thirty years ago. Val has mysteriously
disappeared, and as the men share more details, we learn that Val’s father removed
her from the show and lied about her mother, who Val is surprised to learn is
still alive and living in Utah, where the group plans to head for a show
reunion and podcast episode. Although she doesn’t remember much from this
period in her life and seems to be suspicious about the outside world, Val
decides to join the guys on their trip to the reunion hoping to reconnect with
her mother and learn more about her past. She begins to doubt the history that
her father has carefully cultivated and questions her own existence. Thus, the
journey to Utah is also a quest for Val to learn more about her past, her
identity, and her role on the show Mister Magic.
I don’t want to give much more away, but the story is
unsettling as we learn more about Mister Magic, the show and the
character, and how the show has been a part of American popular culture for
nearly 100 years, starting as a radio program and eventually moving to television
before some kind of unremembered tragedy forced Val to leave and the show’s
removal from the airwaves and any kind of archives. Thus, the show survives
solely through memory and word-of-mouth, creating both mystery and
misunderstanding about its purpose and place in American childhood. I really
liked this aspect of the graphic novel, since I think it takes the concept of
nostalgia and memory and offers a kind of critique; the graphic novel also
seems to critique the role of children’s shows and how they sometimes are
capable of both exploitation of the actors and indoctrination of the audience.
There’s an interesting subplot about the community that helped to create Mister
Magic, and how they want to return to the idyls of the past when children
were more obedient and values were more traditional and conservative. However, with
the sudden shifts in narrative and plot lines, I found this aspect of the story
a little harder to follow. It seemed that there were other subplots and
characters that suddenly appeared and then disappeared for a time, not linking
as well as they might in a narrative novel with some chapter headings to
indicate whose perspective or story readers are following. Regardless, the
story takes the creepypasta concept along with our interest in nostalgia for
childhood and creates an uncanny and sense of unease as the characters learn
more about the true nature of the show and their roles on it. I appreciated how
each of the characters were distinct and had specific roles on the show but
also struggled with their adult selves. Their journey, along with Val’s, to Utah
for the reunion, podcast, or possibly something else seemed to enable them to
not only better understand their past and the traumas their experienced, but
also to better come to terms with their adult selves. I thought that this
aspect of the story was also interesting and relevant, as this is something
that most people experience to varying degrees.
While the artwork is excellent and the story has good
moments, Mister Magic: The Graphic Novel can be a little challenging to
follow since the story relies on various characters piecing together their
pasts to understand the present. Although parts of the story are slowly
revealed, I found it sometimes difficult to follow. I loved the online pages,
emails, Wikipedia and reddit pages, but I wondered if having more traditional
chapter breaks that might also include some omniscient narrating to provide
more setting and context might have helped to clarify my own understanding.
Regardless, this was a fun and interesting read, and if anything, it made me
want to read the novel even more. Recommended!
