My Young Man has lent me the two Widdershins graphic novels that he bought at London Super Comic Con - and now I'm truly hooked on Kate Ashwin's world and looking forward to more stories.
This is a world just on the edge of becoming Victorian - Princess Victoria is mentioned in one of the stories - but where magic is real, and the town of Widdershins is the home of both a university of magic and a new railway station.
The second book, No Rest for the Wicked, introduces two new characters - an Irishman who can see spirits, and his friend a jolly German violinist. Jack O'Malley's unique talent is useful to wizards in Widdershins who are trying to get rid of unwanted manifestations caused by conjurations that went wrong (or "buggerups"). They also uncover a fiendish plot pitting science against magic.
In the third story we're back to Harriet and Sid with Vanishing Act, a story that was inspired by the classic Doctor Who story The Talons of Weng Chiang. Tim Chiang is the stage magician, and his assistant is missing - an assistant who has a talent for making mechanical marvels.
Once again there are good female characters - Harriet the bounty hunter, obviously, and Lei the Chinese mechanical genius in Vanishing Act, and in No Rest for the Wicked, police Captain Barber and Councilwoman Fairbairn.
Kate Ashwin updates her website www.widdershinscomic.com every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
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