Review: Curse Words Vol. 1 TP
MINOR SPOILERS BELOW
Curse Words Vol. 1 collects the first arc of the hilarious, action-packed adventures of a wizard named Wizord. He’s a man on a mission, or so he thinks, until he learns how awesome our planet is. Soon he becomes a hipster, and begins working magic for self-centered people like pop stars (in a very funny opening scene I have attached to this review), and is enjoying life with his talking koala sidekick, Margaret. That is until all hell breaks loose. The evil Sizzajee from his former home, The Hole World has sent assassins after Wizord and we soon get our first awesome wizard fight.
This book shows us that even the almighty and powerful, like wizards don’t have it all figured out. For instance, to keep an entire stadium full of witnesses from knowing what really happened and keep them safe, Wizord shrinks the entire place to the size of a matchbox car and places it in his pocket. He soon learns that everything has consequences, and even the seemingly chill and laid back Earth will have people that have a problem with his methods. This book is fun and it contains multiple laugh out loud moments in my opinion. I won’t go spoiling everything in the story, but just know it is off the rails, great to look at, and delivers everything I want in a comic.
Charles Soule really shines on this kind of story, and he feels very comfortable here. I have read many of his other comics, including many over at Marvel in the last few years, and those seem to be much slower and dragged out tales. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but you can see what Soule is capable of when he is allowed to just flat out write. He balanced the action and comedy so well in this book, and it instantly hooked me from the first issue. This is exactly the kind of comic that is perfect to read in a collected volume, because you don’t want to put it down.
A comic book wouldn’t be one with just the writer, and Ryan Browne shows he’s no slouch on art either. The book is filled with fun wizard fight scenes, hilarious conversations and facial expressions between our characters (Wizord and Margaret steal the show together), and Browne gives everyone a great personality. Even the villains are fun, and you truly never know what craziness awaits you on the next page. The colors by Browne, Jordan Boyd, and Michael Parkinson are bright and vibrant and are beautiful even when things are being smashed, destroyed, or exploding. I cannot wait to see more work from Browne, because this book has made me even more of a fan.
I highly recommend Curse Words to anyone who likes to have fun, likes action, likes to party, likes awesome things, likes wizards, likes koalas, oh you know what I mean. I think almost everyone can find something to like about this book, and I can’t wait for more of the crazy and chaotic magic in the future.
Story: Charles Soule Art: Ryan Browne Color: Ryan Browne, Jordan Boyd, Michael Parkinson Letters: Chris Crank, Ryan Browne, Shawn Depasquale
Story: 9.5 Art: 9.5 Overall: 9.5 Recommendation: Buy
Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
I have read Charles Soule comics, and knew he is a capable writer. I loved his run on 
Ryan Browne draws the hell out of this comic. There are panels and pages that I want as posters or prints on my wall. The colors with the help of Jordan Boyd, and Michael Parkinson are bright and give everything a really cool digital painted effect. I have seen this art style before, don’t get me wrong, and it can be jarring, but I am happy to say that isn’t the case here. It is beautiful, and even amidst the chaos, you still stop and admire how pretty it really is. There is a really fantasy element to it, and while it doesn’t look anything like Dauterman’s work on The Mighty Thor, I feel it works in a similar way to compliment the story.