What just happened? Ash & Thorn is a creative romp, action-packed, and full of
action and engaging story...not to mention bold images.

What if Buffy had found out about being the Chosen One in her eighties? There are other twists on the original here too, like the not-Watchers being more thoroughly supernatural in and of themselves, instead of just amateur magicians, but that's about the size of it. It's ingenious, because when Buffy came out the idea of the kick-ass heroine was itself still fairly novel, so by twisting what has now become familiar, Ash & Thorn is able to recapture some of its initial incongruity and poke at other prejudices. Nice little details come in its train, too – just as Buffy reified the emotional realities of being a teenager, so this can play the same trick with more senior concerns. What if the end of the world could be affected by local planning meetings? Well, in a sense it can, but making that more demon-y works in the same way Buffy would play the same trick with awful roommates &c. I sometimes had that frustrating sense that one more pass could have elevated it from good to great, but all the same, I suspect a constituency exists which would absolutely love this series, and I hope they find it.

(Netgalley ARC)

Ash & Thorn is a compilation of the first five issues of the eponymous series by Mariah McCourt (writer) and Soo Lee (artist) with a bang-up cover by the brilliant Jill Thompson. Due out 27th Oct 2020 from Ahoy Comics, it's 120 pages and will be available in paperback format.

This was unbridled fun for me (a middle aged bionerd comics/gaming fan of long long loooong standing). Take one unrepentantly no-bullcrap octogenarian female black retired art teacher's seen-it-all-and-isn't-putting-up-with-your-apocalyptic-nonsense with an equally annoying school marm-ish trainer/helper and a young goth female teenaged protege. Add one "Puck'ish" Nightcrawler looking (the blue Marvel guy) miniature fairy for comic relief, and an eldritch crossworlds horror - wearing an attractive property developer white guy meat-suit, and stir well.

The dialogue is often funny and the plotting is solid. I really loved it that the creative team didn't take every cheap old-lady trope (Lottie Thorn is pretty badass - she uses her baking to stomp, not build bridges) and just run with it. She reminds me in All The Best Ways of Joan Hickson's Miss Marple and Granny Weatherwax ( ❤❤❤ ).

I found it completely delightful and I'm glad to see Ahoy putting non-mainstream work out here for us. I've always loved fiction which combines humor and horror. It's not easy to do, and this team manages. There is a fair amount of gore and violence, but nothing egregiously out of context. I would put it at PG-13. I was unfamiliar with the series before (but have enjoyed the team's previous individual work) and I'll be looking out for more!

Four stars. Love it!

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This was good to see, even if that goodness was the fact it's pretty much an all-female cast, and pretty much an all female creative crew. There was a bit more to the goodness here, mind – just not as much as was needed to make this really memorable. The old wise one is here to declare the Earth's latest champion against the eldritch demon things, and the Apocalypse, and running out of scones, and suchlike, and lo and behold our specie's saviour is in her eighties, and is a person of colour. But, more importantly, she might just have the balls and spunk needed to get the job done. She's fine, the bickering with her mentor is a bit less so, and I liked the granddaughter, but a lot of good is wiped out by the annoying naked blue fairy. A slightly uneven story, a character allowed to be racist and sexist because she's in her eighties and a person of colour – you can pick holes in this. I'd rather not, for I guess it might almost break some small ground, and I would wish it success in that. My response to it as a frivolous, flippant throwaway, is to give it three and a half stars.

This was really fun, and I love the premise. Basically, what if the Chosen One, or "Champion" in this world, was an 80+ year old Black woman? And what if her Watcher/mentor was an old woman as well? The comic walks a fine line between horror and cottagecore, and it does a fabulous job while also being pretty damn funny, in my opinion. Case-in-point: the ephemera at the end includes "apocalyptic' real recipes for baked goods (that actually sound really good), from the mischievous fae character Pickle's point of view. I also love the art.

Lottie Thorn is an 80 year old, black, woman, former art teacher, not at all what you would expect from a Champion, aka the chosen one. Yet, one day a little old lady shows up at Lottie's door and tells her she is there to train her to save the world. Lottie's teenage student Sarah becomes a sort of sidekick and a fairy named Pickle provides a bit of comic relief.