But despite adding some backstory for Kit as well as guest appearances from Kit, Moon, and Belle’s families, Welcome to Showside #5 never really wavers as McGinty and Knapp keep on the straight and narrow arc of rejecting your family’s plans for yourself and finding your own destiny through friendship and inclusiveness. It’s a quite progressive comic without being preachy with the difficult process for demons to get a work visa mirroring the US’ current immigration policy, and Belle’s dad, the crotchety Mr. Stone, a not so veiled Donald Trump analogue as he goes on and on about building a wall to keep them out of Showside. These political allegories are woven together in the background of a joke and action filled narrative and add a nice bit of real world heft to the story without being realism for realism’s sake.
Politics aside, Welcome to Showside #5 is all about Kit choosing good and friendship over evil and power, and McGinty and Knapp show this in a powerful way. It’s like Lord of the Rings, but with funnier jokes and a cooler looking magic system. (Moon’s Great Aunt Esther’s spells are a feast for the eyes and the funny bone in one case.) The page where Kit confronts the Shadow King is the true emotional climax of the issue and series as a whole as McGinty and Knapp physically isolate Kit in the story. This is represented in the art by making the backgrounds completely black, a true negative space that demonstrates his power over Kit. But Kit finds a way to fight back through the power of friendship and something cleverly set up by the first page, which made me want a whole “tween years” Welcome to Showside comic (Prequels be damned.) featuring the leet speaking Tweenomicon, and a lost and lonely Kit, who just wanted a peaceful place to color.
Welcome to Showside #5 ties a nice bow on this dark, yet adorable world crafted by Ian McGinty, Samantha Knapp, and Fred Stresing with plenty of action, humor, and heart. McGinty and Knapp give supporting monsters like Climp plenty to do in this final issue as they make the great point that no one is fully evil or fully good. Kit has also become quite the three dimensional character to go with his nifty design and hopefully there will be more adventures with him, Moon, Belle, and Boo in the future as the Shadow King is still a threat.
Story: Ian McGinty and Samantha “Glow” Knapp Art: Ian McGinty Colors: Fred Stresing
Story: 8 Art: 9 Overall: 8.5 Recommendation: Buy
Z2 Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review.