Tiny Wizards – Comic Review
I stumbled upon Tiny Wizards at Dragon Con in 2019. It was the last day of the con and we had finally made our way over to the 4 floor mecca that is the Dragon Con Artist Alley. It was there I met Eben Burgoon. We got talking and when he realised I was a Brit he mentioned he was working on a project with Dean Beattie. That project was Tiny Wizards. I previewed the first 5 pages before the project hit Kickstarter but I don’t think anything prepared me for the full comic.
What is Tiny Wizards About?
Tiny Wizards is set in the fictional town of Santo Queso Blanco, a place that feels like one of those bizarre liminal space. You know. The kind of place you visit only to stop for gas and a burger at one of a half dozen fast food joints and then promptly forget existed an hour down the road. Into this town arrived the survivors of the dying world of Kepta Duona. Who just happen to be, you’ve guessed it… Tiny Wizards. They have established warring factions in our world, each based around one of the fast food joints in town.
And if that premise doesn’t give you an idea of how utterly bonkers this comic is I don’t know what will. Oooh, maybe the art.
Dean Beattie has done a stellar job at bringing a pretty fantastic (in the truest sense of the word) concept to life. I LOVE The Wizard and Hugo, his derpy Unicorn buddy and the slightly grotesque look of the humans. There are also puns a-go-go throughout, including one close to the end that actually made me groan when it registered and then chuckle like a madwoman!
Going Deeper
In my preview I likened Tiny Wizards to Sir Terry Pratchett’s Bromeliad trilogy, with its tiny magical humanoids existing within our world conceit. What I didn’t realise until I read the whole book is that ALL the humans KNOW about the Tiny Wizards. They are a tourist attraction. They run tours! I thought this was a fantastic twist on the usual “magical creatures hiding in our world” idea. The idea of the arrival of the Kepta Duonans being captured on cellphone video that they went viral… totally plausible. Come on, you know know that if magical french fry sized critters were to appear in our world that’s EXACTLY how it would go down.
There’s also a really intriguing story that begins to be fleshed out in this first issue regarding the Royal Family of Kepta Duona. I must say I was rather cross that the issue ended where it did, just as it was starting to get into the nitty gritty. I hope that a second issue won’t be too far behind this one.
I think Tiny Wizards would pair fantastically well with Weed Magic… if you catch my drift.
If you want to get your hands on a copy of Tiny Wizards, pre-orders for shipping in June are open HERE. The price seems a little steep at $20, but it does come with, and I quote “surprises in the mail and other fun goodies!” which I imagine will take the sting out of it.
