Comic Review: Beetle & The Hollowbones

Beetle & The Hollowbones
Aliza Layne

So uhh…. it’s been a while since I’ve written. Almost 6 months and things have… changed not just offline but here too it seems. New WP editor/post creator, still the same great content (I hope)! Without further adieu…

This sweet all ages fantastical riff on magical girls, shape shifting ghosts, and what it means to be a true friend is a must-read!

“In the eerie town of ‘Allows, some people get to be magical sorceresses, while other people have their spirits trapped in the mall for all ghastly eternity.

Then there’s twelve-year-old goblin-witch Beetle, who’s caught in between. She’d rather skip being homeschooled completely and spend time with her best friend, Blob Glost. But the mall is getting boring, and B.G. is cursed to haunt it, tethered there by some unseen force. And now Beetle’s old best friend, Kat, is back in town for a sorcery apprenticeship with her Aunt Hollowbone. Kat is everything Beetle wants to be: beautiful, cool, great at magic, and kind of famous online. Beetle’s quickly being left in the dust.

But Kat’s mentor has set her own vile scheme in motion. If Blob Ghost doesn’t escape the mall soon, their afterlife might be coming to a very sticky end. Now, Beetle has less than a week to rescue her best ghost, encourage Kat to stand up for herself, and confront the magic she’s been avoiding for far too long. And hopefully ride a broom without crashing.” -Goodreads

This story is told incredibly well, with all the comic stylized vibes of Disney’s Halloweentown but actually for teenagers this time. Where Halloweentown is mostly light, Beetle & The Hollowbones has elements of darkness– like an amoral worm manager that… might eat people? There are no guarantees of a happy ending, but the hints along the way in references to anime and familial support provide enough comfort for even me, who has become very shy about reading new material in the wake of my mother’s passing earlier this year, to trust that everything will turn out okay.

I snorted with laughter a few times while reading, and I loved the world Layne created. It functions fairly well without delving into the nitty gritty mechanics of the magic system, or how some creatures have more/different magic than others. I had a lot of questions, but enough were answered that I was able to stick with the original intent of the story – saving Blob Ghost from their imprisonment inside the mall. I also really loved the way that Blob Ghost communicated with pictorial concepts rather than words, and was never misgendered by anyone.

I will definitely be rereading this for the sheer amount of background detail Layne managed to slip in, and that in my fast paced flipping I probably missed some things on my initial go around with the comic! I will come back to this post to see if I find out how old Beetle or Kat are – my instincts tell me teen, maybe late middle school early high school? Either way, they fit well with the audience for the book which is that sweet spot between middle grade and high school.

The art in this comic walks a fine balance between simple and stylized, with some minor inconsistencies in the character art. In the beginning, Beetle doesn’t have ear piercings, and they appear sporadically throughout the comic despite being featured on the coverart. Kat’s facial structure, with some artistic liberties taken since she is quite literally an animated skeleton, is still hard to define just what kind of animated skeleton she is. There are some homages to manga/anime tropes and stories, and it’s nice to know it exists in this world, as well as fan-fiction.

The flow of the piece worked really well for me until I hit the action sequences; a noted difficulty for my mind’s eye in other works, so I can’t fault Layne here like I try not to fault other artists. I will say I was able to follow hers a bit better than some of the super hero comics I’ve read, so this is probably truly just a “me” thing.

Other topics the comic addressed were (without spoilers): friendships, what happens when an old friend comes back to the new friends and their feelings, first romance, standing up for yourself. All very solid messages about acceptance and kindness, and sometimes standing up to friends as well when they’re doing something wrong. This book had a lot of positive messages in it, and I can’t wait to add it to my library’s collection! I hope more people pick up this sweet tale and fall in love with Beetle.