3 out of 5

Do I think Black Magick will evolve?  Definitely.  This is the perfect kind of cop + something extra formula that’s worked plenty well for Greg in the past, and his world building skills with Lazarus have been in top form.  But with its first arc, Magick feels a bit ‘cart before the horse.’  Lazarus is a good reference point: that series, having a strong opening, was spun out of an image, according to Greg, of a woman getting shot and getting right back up.  Images are powerful; it was a fascinating enough one to encourage Rucka to develop a story off of it, and so it follows that we, as readers, were equally compelled by the same to keep reading.  For Black Magick, the first issue’s back matter talks about how it was perhaps developed wholesale: Greg was thinking about cops and witches, did some reading, and then developed his characters and his world.  We can then assume that it was a matter of laying a series of arc-able stories over that template.  With this bottoms-up approach, it can difficult to find an “in” point; you know once things get going that it will all work, but when you’ve built your world up as a real one, it doesn’t, by design, break down into that same packaged appeal as traditional comic book arcs.  This is my belief as to why ‘Awakenings’ is fairly underwhelming, wherein we meet cop / witch Rowan Black (her being a witch isn’t really held back in any way), some non-witch members of her department, and the very vague opening salvo of some kind of anti-witch attack on her, which is somewhat backed up by the extras in each issue: a text excerpt from a journal of a member of a witch-hunting clan.

Because of the structural issue mentioned above, I just never connect with the stakes of the story.  Nothing is really set up as a reveal: as mentioned, we know Rowan is a witch, so her unleashing of a spell in issue one: meh.  And we really have no understanding of the “cost” of such spells at this point.  Same goes for the investigation that follows, and the small lies Ro must tell to divert attention away from her witchiness: does this matter?, does it have a larger impact?, etc.  It’s a lot of tell vs. show at this point, in other words: telling us that an attack is impending, and telling us that it’s a big deal that the anti-witch clan is using magic for their approach, which they apparently normally don’t do.  You can definitely tell how much background work has gone into Black Magick because the world feels fully formed, the problem at this point is just that it feels like Greg forgot to peel back this approach to structure it around drawing the reading into it.  This doesn’t prevent readability (Greg’s dialogue is smooth, the characters are compelling enough), just doesn’t have me glued to the page yet.

Some other plus / minuses: Nicola Scott’s black and white painted art is fantastic, an excellent match for the real / superreal style of the story.  But while the kids are going gaga over Chiara Arena’s spot-coloring, I don’t think it’s a necessity.  Glowing spots of the magic used, or highlighting eyes; it’s a good trick, but Scott’s paints are already so rich, honestly, it almost distracts more than pops.  This would be more fun if the B&W were truly monochrome, but there’s such depth to it, it works like watching an old school film.  Colors really aren’t needed.

The lettering is also a bit distracting, Jodi Wynne having chosen (assumedly in concert with Greg and team) a slightly “occult” influenced font.  This would’ve been cute if used when people are chanting spells, but I found it off for everyone’s dialogue.  If part of the gist is that it’s a normal town that just happens to have witches, giving everyone occulty-lettering skews that sensation.  That being said, Wynne’s placement and spacing is perfect.  Matching lettering with painted art is tough; it often never feels like it’s sitting on the right layer to work with the art, but something about how much buffer Wynne gives the letters makes it really smooth.

Lastly, editor Jeanine Schaefer.  Her edits on the book itself are fine, or at least I haven’t noticed any disruption in the execution.  But I think they need to stop letting her do an editorial and answer the letters, because she seems drunk whilst doing so, mentioning themes to the letters that aren’t there, or building up to revealing a “secret” that then amounts to some offhand muttering.  It’s… maybe charming, but for someone we know has a history in the industry, she comes across rather aloof, and, again, it doesn’t sync up with the otherwise serious vibe of the book.

We’ll consider that an external snipe, though, since, as mentioned, it doesn’t seem to affect the quality of the text itself, just the extras.

So: yes, I’m totally still in for arc 2 and beyond, but here’s hoping that the hook points of our story catch up with whatever big picture is in Greg’s head soon enough.