Curse Words: The Hole Damned Thing Compendium

Curse Words #1-25

by Charles Soule, Ryan Browne (Artist)

From the creative team that brought you EIGHT BILLION GENIES!   HERE AT LAST from CHARLES SOULE (Star Wars) and RYAN BROWNE (GOD HATES ASTRONAUTS): CURSE THE HOLE DAMNED THING, is the complete collection of the magical, hilarious, oddly moving story of an evil wizard named Wizord, his talking koala sidekick Margaret, and their journey to be good (or at least slightly less bad) in this dark, unforgiving world of ours.   Collects all 28 issues originally published by Image Comics and the previously unpublished full-length epilogue issue CURSE AFTER WORDS. This is the definitive collection of the series that JOE HILL (JOE HILL’S RAIN, Locke & Key) calls a “terrific, terrific comic.”   Collects CURSE WORDS #1-28 and CURSE AFTER WORDS Epilogue Special

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Mystery, Comic Book, Collections

744 pages, Paperback

Published December 19, 2023

About the author

Charles Soule is a #1 New York Times-bestselling novelist, comics author, screenwriter, musician, and lapsed attorney. He has written some of the most prominent stories of the last decade for Marvel, DC and Lucasfilm in addition to his own work, such as his comics Curse Words, Letter 44 and Undiscovered Country, and his original novels Light of the Jedi, The Endless Vessel, The Oracle Year and Anyone. He lives in New York.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Curse Words is alright.
But it kind of cemented my feelings of blah about Charles Soule.

The gist is an evil wizard comes to earth to destroy it at the behest of his master, falls in love with our world, and decides to become a better person. With the help of his badass ex-girlfriend and a talking koala named Margaret, they try to save earth from The Hole World and its evil ruler, Sizzajee.



The wild journey ultimately leads them leads to a the chicken or the egg mystery that was the only part of the story I thought was somewhat clever. But in the end, it petered out and didn't really turn into anything truly interesting. So..?



The only surprise was that it didn't really have much in the way of surprises. I kept waiting for something other than love will save the day and it never happened.
The ending was just kind of...Oh. Ok?
And then there was some sort of odd epilogue tacked on for no discernable reason whatsoever.
There were some interesting moments, and this isn't a bad comic. But overall this won't go down as a favorite for me.
However, if you really enjoy magic/wizards/whatnot then you might as well check Curse Words out.

[Lukasz · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

I love Urban Fantasy and protagonists with a faulty moral compass. If you’re like me, then Charles Soule’s “Curse Words” is the comic book series for you. This delightfully irreverent series pulses with magic, mayhem, and a hefty dose of dark humor, and it’s every bit as chaotic and entertaining as it sounds.

The powerful sorcerer from another dimension, Wizord (nope, not a mistake, he’s not subtle), arrives on Earth to destroy it, only to discover he kinda likes it here. Which won’t sit well with Sizzajee, the baddest bad in the entire universe and his master. Long story short, instead of destroying Earth, Wizord sets up shop in NY and becomes a wizard for hire. Sizzajee gets angry and sends Wizord’s old pals to annihilate him. But fear not! Wizord’s trusty (and shape-shifting) sidekick, Margaret the Koala, is a resourceful creature.

Soule’s writing won’t appeal to everyone - it’s not subtle, but it’s sharp and witty, and often laugh-out-loud funny. It balances the absurdity of the premise with some genuinely heartfelt moments, particularly in the dynamic between Wizord and Margaret, and later with Ruby Stitch.

The stakes remain high; the magic is wild, and the humor is dark. Soule has a knack for combining the fantastical with the mundane, which makes the story unpredictable and consistently entertaining. I mean, it’s packed with magical mayhem, including turning a client into platinum folk singer or fighting former magical associates, including a hogtaur.

Ryan Browne’s art is spectacular. I enjoyed his vibrant and detailed style that perfectly complements the chaotic energy of the story. The colors pop off the page, and the character designs are as imaginative as they come—Margaret the koala is a particular standout. As an artist, Browne’s able to capture the grandeur of epic magical battles and the humor in more mundane character-focused scenes.

As you probably guessed, I loved the story. But I’m not blind and need to emphasize its offbeat humor and over-the-top scenarios may not be to everyone’s taste. If you’re looking for a grounded, serious exploration of magic, this isn’t it. The tone is irreverent, and the humor lacks subtlety, which might be off-putting for some readers. Additionally, the plot can sometimes feel all over the place, and rapid shifts in pace and tone don’t always help to get a clear sense of direction.

With that said, I literally devoured the Omnibus in two sittings and enjoyed myself a lot. Curse Words is a magical romp that I found hilarious and heartfelt. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and is all the better for it. It’s wild, different, and unabashedly fun. If you’re in the mood for it, you’ll have a great time.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim. It was on the New Arrivals shelf at the library, and seemed like a satisfyingly thick tome that would hopefully bring many hours of reading pleasure. I vaguely recalled seeing Charles Soules’ name on other projects that looked intriguing, so the chance to check out some of his work was a factor as well.

Wizord arrives on Earth from another dimension called Hole World. He's been tasked with destroying it by the nigh-omnipotent ruler of Hole World, Sizzajee. As possibly the most evil wizard in HW, Wizord should be more than equal to the task. Except that, away from Sizzajee's influence, he's starting to discover how much fun it can be to do good …

And we haven't even gotten to Margaret, who prefers being a koala.

This was a fun book! Tongue-in-cheek, obviously, but that's part of its charm. The ridiculous aspects are presented in a deadpan, serious fashion that just makes me smile all the more.

Ryan Browne's art is lovely. No matter how bizarre Soule's story gets, he seems up to the challenge of drawing it with a gleeful inventiveness. His work reminds me of Rick Veitch in places …

Yes, the entire story is contained in this volume. All of the twists and turns build to a satisfying and spectacular conclusion. While, obviously, one should never say never, the prospect of a sequel and/or continuation seems slim.

All told, this was a satisfying and entertaining read. Recommended!

[Donovan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bloody and funny, light and dark, you get the full magical spectrum in Curse Words. While the characters are kept at wand’s length, the story keeps you under its spell—an evil lord pulling the strings in his own little world until his most powerful wizards make a sexy mistake and are exiled. Eye-meltingly illustrated and a fun read, my only wish is for a little more drama.

[Peter Derk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one's got its charms, but at the end of the day, wizards doing magic, not like a ton of new shit brought to the table.

Get it, "charms."

Now Charmed, THAT was a show. They cracked the code: What if wizards were hot babes?

Or maybe The Craft pioneered that. Wizards, but BABES.

Or Sabrina, depending on...yep, just checked, Sabrina was 20 in real life when that show filmed, so it's acceptable to call her a babe.

This is a pretty good idea that has mostly been limited to magic. Why? Those are all well-regarded pieces of media that probably made someone a shitload of money. Why can't Hollywood use this same idea in other genres?

A western, but what if, instead of grizzled dudes, everyone was babes?

A sci-fi with astronauts, but instead of a ship where it's mostly dudes and one babe saves the day (well, sorta, I guess Ripley saved herself and a cat), it's mostly babes, and then one of the babes saves the day. It could also just be all babes.

A heist movie where it's all babes. And they're robbing, like, Hooters HQ.

Arachnophobia, but instead of spiders everywhere bothering Jeff Daniels, it's a bunch of babes, and instead of bothering Jeff Daniels they're bothering some other babe. By the way, there's a boob shot in that movie, which I know because it came out in 1990, so I was 7, and you come to know these things. Only problem was, it was a boob shot of a lady in the shower, and a spider gets washed down her cleavage. It's very confusing to a young lad to watch this, something vile bookended by boobs. I don't know what the director was thinking. Let's do the boob thing, THEN the spider thing separately. C'mon, man.

Indiana Jones, except he's on a quest to find a secret city of babes, and he does immediately, before the credits, so the whole movie takes place there.

Star Wars, but with babes instead of the stars. AND instead of the wars. I guess this is the place to admit I've never seen Star Wars, but I feel like babes could be put into it pretty seamlessly.

Harry Potter, but instead of a wizarding school, it's Babetown, USA, and they have to open a bikini car wash to save the rollercoaster on the pier. But other than that, it's EXACTLY like Harry Potter.

Babe Wizards. It's a proven formula.

[Akshay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a comic that I actually did not read during its initial run as a normal, monthly comic BUT I had been curious and due to my appreciation of the work of Charles Soule, I was intrigued and got a second chance when a Kickstarter for the series popped up - cut to some months later and I received in the mail a joyous bundle of books that included a few novels by Soule, a strange page-a-day comic called Blast Furnace by Ryan Brown and the ginormous hardcover that is this tome I'm reviewing today.

In short, it is the story of a wizard named Wizord from a hellish alternate reality that was sent to Earth to prepare it for annihilation and take-over, only for him to find he quite likes our little blue chunk of the cosmos and decided to settle in and try and make it work. Meanwhile, his erstwhile boss, the demon Sizzajee is righteously pissed-off that his favourite wizard lackey from his innermost circle has defected. Wizord tries to fit into Earth life, ends up revealing himself as a magic-man to humanity and plays at being our saviour/hero while trying to fend off the wizards and such sent by Sizzajee to take him out - all while trying to keep damage to a minimum to us mere mortals.
Oh and his "side-kick" (or partner to be more honest) is a rat who becomes a koala and then much much more over the course of this story and is simply a smart little thing named Margaret. #TeamMargaret

So that's the gist of it and if that sounds too wild to you, I promise that you have not seen anything yet. There's alternate realities, a pocket reality, magic, mayhem, murder, body parts, intrigue, sex, lies, politics, a vendetta, romance, mystery and it is insanely, gloriously entertaining.
Sizzajee's court of characters is a rainbow of nightmarish mystics that can be best described as cringingly wierd and hilarious. But the interplay amongst them and the development of this alternate reality where a single all-powerful magical being is trying to reign supreme and yet there is somehow a rebellion and political in-fighting. All this while Wizord tries to stay ahead of his hunters and his ex-boss while struggling after he realises his magical reservoir is not endless and he has to struggle to keep his head above water - and of course, as his magic wanes, his beard shrinks until it disappears.

The story while primarily written by Soule, is undoubtedly a collaboration even in that sphere with artist Ryan Browne who is most famous for his series God Hates Astronauts which is about as bizarre a comic as I have ever read. The truth is that over the course of this series, I got a massive vibe of that very comic and it even reminded me a bit of a comic I love called Dr. McNinja (which everyone should check out, just saying...).
Basically I think my feeling this way is because unlike his other works on a wide variety of characters, in this instance, Soules' writing is different. It feels almost like a true collaboration because Ryan is frenetic in what I've seen of his story-telling and there is a truly chaotic stream-of-consciousness nature to almost all of it. Blast Furnace was literally a page-a-day project he did where he sat and with ZERO planning (I believe him!) he drew out a page with dialogue to create one insane comic, and the previously mentioned God Hates Astronauts has a similar vibe but one where he is more polished and perhaps took some time to plan out the story.
This comic very much has that same feel at every major beat, twist and turning point but I would say handled with a bit more skill and polish which is where Soules' experienced hand is probably showing. There's less chaos and more thought and impact to at least certain key parts of the narrative and the twists aren't just bizarre but you can see the threads and bread crumbs in hindsight.
And it's all brought to life in a style of art that's too realistic to be telling the bizarre story it is and yet that's so bizarre that it shouldn't be real. It is the hallmark of Ryan Browne and he is definitely a force of nature in some respects. Everyone I know who has been a writer/artist and wants to push the envelope draws strange things and tries to be weird and unexpected and to shake the norm (Japanese manga are replete with this) and yet few are able to do it and not seem like you're being weird just for the sake of it and are in fact genuinely creative and doing something that leaves a real impression. Every page, especially the magical fights, are drawn wonderfully and things oscillate between looking mundane and drab and colourful and cutesy and violent like a mad spinning top on top of a chart listing options - but Ryan manages to do it in a style that's simple yet effective.
The only weakness as such comes at the end when the duo are trying to go out with a bang and have a heartfelt moment that ties the narrative together. None of it is bad but somehow it's less effective than the rest of the series and is perhaps less impactful than intended and was like a big bang that was a mild boom instead and gently faded in the wind.

And that's the real selling point of this comic in the end: the combination of creators. Love it or loathe it, to me this comic is what comics can be at their best. It is madness, it is creativity, it is fun, it can be thought-provoking, challenging and a bit of a head-scratcher. It tries to push what we can think and make the wheels in your head spin and that is what good story-telling is meant to do and few mediums allow it in the way a comic does in my humble opinion. In its own way, it is way harder to work as a team than to write a story on your own as you saw fit - so when someone does that well, kudos to them.

[William Hawthorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun magic system and great art with a pretty good story

[Highland G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn’t see that coming, well done! A few flaws here and there but overall a really fun read.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It feels like a damning indictment of my reading priorities that I spent several days with this 700+ page behemoth and ultimately am assigning it two stars. I think, though, that if I hadn't read the whole Curse Words series straight through and instead read it in single volume chunks, I might have liked it better.

That's definitely the opposite of how I usually feel about long-running series, but Curse Words didn't really need to be a long-running series. My primary complaint: there are almost no surprises. You'd expect a series to build and change and offer myriad twists. Instead, Curse Words is just a bunch of wizards battling each other. Sure, they sometimes change allegiance, but it's never really shocking. The reveal of the Hole World's origins is odd and anti-climactic. None of Curse Words ultimately amounts to much.

Maybe I could cut the series some slack if at least the characters were interesting to spend time with. But that's very much not the case here. Wizord is kind of a dick with no personality. Margaret is somewhat interesting, but oddly becomes less so as her origins are revealed. The other wizards are basically one-note and interchangeable. Even the villain is just that: a villain. Nothing else!

Ryan Browne's art grows on you, at least. Chunky and overly bright at first, it starts to match the goofy storytelling with oddball creativity. The whole of Curse Words feels like a gag that went on too long. I probably shouldn't have stuck around for all 700 pages, but I kept expecting something to happen. Unfortunately, nothing really ever did.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts as a very straightforward comedy comic with lots of very goofy names for things (a wizard named Wizord who comes from the Hole World, for example) and then a bit of the way through hard shifts into being a world-building lore comic with an intricate time-travel/dilation component that basically doesn’t make any sense. There are big reveals throughout this series that would make me go “Huh?” and I would go back and re-read earlier issues to see that, yes, this absolutely was not planned and does not hold up upon a re-read. It very much feels like Soule was making this up as he went along, and while it did make me laugh sometimes, I think it’s ultimately just not really my thing. I would’ve been a lot more into this in the long run if it had stuck to its origins and just been a pure comedy.

[Kurt Lorenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

1-5, The Devil's Devil, ☆☆☆☆
6-10, Explosiontown, ☆☆☆☆
Curse Words: Holiday Special, ☆☆☆☆
11-15, The Hole Damned World, ☆☆☆
Curse Words: Summer Swimsuit Special, ☆☆☆☆
16-20, Queen Margaret, ☆☆☆☆
Curse Words: Spring Has Sprung Special, ☆☆☆☆
21-25, Fairy-Tale Ending, ☆☆☆☆
After Words, ☆☆☆

[Christian Van Hullebusch · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazingly wild and insane ride!

[Pavel Pravda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je to zajímavá městská fantasy, která mě sice bavila, ale nadšení se nedostavilo. Má to zajímavou zápletku, která se postupně rozkrývá a uzavírá přes všech více než 700 stran. S tím “uzavírá” bych ale asi měl být opatrnější. Soule si nedokázal uhlídat kauzalitu, čili příčiny a následky, a vzniklo zde cosi jako časový paradox. Do poslední chvíle jsem doufal, že Soule přijde s nějakým uspokojivým vysvětlením, ale dopadlo to přesně naopak. Konec se zvrhl v jednu velkou šílenost, ve kterém už nebylo pro jakoukoliv logiku místo.

Jinak je ten svět ale vymyšlený dobře a zábavně. Líbí se mi zde použité principy magie a čerpání moci. Nemůžu se ubránit pocitu, že jsem něco podobného už viděl, ale zde se s tím pěkně pracuje. Oceňoval jsem při čtení zejména “indikátor nabití” u Čaroda a to, jak s ním Ryan Browne pracoval v kresbě. Líbí se mi zde nápady, které jsou bláznivé a zábavné a často mají své následky později v příběhu. Přestože je to dlouhé, tak to nesklouzne k epizodovosti, tedy k tomu, že by tam byly uzavřené menší příběhy s hlavním příběhem na pozadí. Tady se pořád jede hlavní příběh a nic tam není zbytečné. Moc mě nebavil veškerý děj, který se odehrává v Dutozemi. Přišel mi docela otravný. Je to ale neoddělitelná a důležitá součást příběhu.

Kresba je na první pohled pěkná a při rychlém čtení není co řešit. Při bližším pohledu a delším prohlížení panelů ale ten první dobrý dojem často opadl. Některé stránky jsou skutečně precizní a pěkné. Jinde mi ale obličeje připadaly škaredé a kresba příliš hranatá. Zpracování knihy je opět prvotřídní.

#teammargaret

[Storm Bookwyrm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Curse words is immature as heck, like what a teenager thinks the most radical, awesome idea of a wizard world and wizards fighting eachother should be. And that's it's charm, being crude, being outrageous, and being absolutely weird, all in a completely puerile way. Again, that's it's charm.

Another part of its charm is the story that bubbles up to the top of this soup of radical-tubular-hormonal-ness. Because there IS in fact a plot to be revealed, slowly, inch by inch, weird details coming into focus and making you go "Wait, oh my god, so THAT'S why that weird thing is the way it is! That's great!"

...until it all comes crashing down.
Perhaps it's my fault for expecting something... well, 'more' from a comic that I've been PRAISING for being immature, but I think I might have been expecting one or two things to come together into something more clever at the finale than they did. It was disappointing enough to knock it down to a mere two stars for me, though I think I'll enjoy picking this up and reading it again someday, and perhaps revising my rating to be a little bit higher.

[Chrisman · Rating 2 out of 5]

## WHY I PICKED IT UP ##

Third (and final?) stop oh my Ryan Browne binge after being reunited with *God Hates Astronauts*.

## WHAT I LIKED ABOUT IT ##

It was familiar and unchallenging: an alien visitor to earth hellbent on its destruction becomes enamored with earthlings and their feelings, and decides to turn on the big bad guy and protect the humans while discovering the true meaning of love, or whatever.

## WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE ABOUT IT ##

Exactly the same as above. Unoriginal set up. I'm not interested in continuing.

## WHO I'D RECOMMEND IT TO ##

I don't know, the art was cool. There were some cool explosions and stuff. It just doesn't really bring anything new to this story. You can skip this one.

[Paul Allard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long interesting fantasy comic series.

Having already reviewed some of the separate volumes, I’ll avoid repeating myself too much. The comic series deals with Wizord from the Hole World, originally sent to destroy our Earth. Events ensue which make him change his mind and other characters from the Hole World therefore become involved, secrets are revealed and there’s lot of magical fighting depicted. Many of the characters are interesting and well-developed and the artwork is quite good, colourful and detailed. Overall it’s fun and many will enjoy the experience. I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Soule has generally proven himself a mediocre writer, but this is one of his stronger works. It's about a wizard come to destroy the world, and how that changes him. It's got some characterization and lots of carnage, but the highlight of the book is probably the origin-revelation about two-thirds of the way through. In the end, it drags a bit, particularly in stretching out the story of that origin and in the final confrontation. But it still is pretty enjoyable.

Call it 3.5 stars: good for Soule.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure when I started reading this about 3 weeks ago. I found it somewhat interesting, but thought maybe I wouldn't be able to sustain that interest. Obviously, I was wrong. It's the story of how people can change set in a fantasy world of magic. It's funny, violent, gross, touching, and out there. Ryan Browne's art holds all of it together and he's the consistent artist throughout. Happy that I was able to check this out digitally through the library.

[Ed Erwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wizard with a sword, named Wizord, a scarlet witch, named Red Stitch, and a talking koala named Margaret battle to save/destroy the Whole world and the Hole world. There is nothing subtle about this, but it sure is fun!

I prefer Eight Billion Genies from the same creators, but this is fun, too.

[Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A phenom writer and phenom artist collide to make a fun and imaginative (and artistically gorgeous) romp through a weird world in which a villainous wizard learns what it means to be good. Seriously, the art is spectacular. The story is good, the ending lets it down a little, but not much. Endings are hard. Even in reviews.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visually dazzling and fun the (w)hole way through. Perfect for someone who loves irreverent takes on fantasy tropes and is new-ish to comics (me). I wanted a little more of a twist or ! at the end to tie it altogether, but I had an absolute blast.

[Sara Q · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not know I needed a hipster wizard with a sidekick talking koala in my reading list, but yes, yes I did. Found this collected volume on Hoopla and enjoyed the whole thing. Some Deadpool-esque humor, a bit of family drama, and lots of magic fights.

[Matt B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was easily one of my favorite reads this year! I pray we get more and more original stories like this one from Charles soule. Ryan Browne's artwork is beyond incredible and the two blend so well together. #teammargaret!

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graphic novels are relative new reading for me, and I chose this after enjoying 8 Billion Genies, another project Charles Soules has helped created. "Curse Words" was interesting, well drawn and pushed my imagination. I plan to read more of Charles Soule's projects.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading the Hole Damned Thing is long! But with train rides and plane rides, it kept me hooked. Loved the concept and the art and getting classic fighting and characters who want to be better but do it poorly. Read on hoopla.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books. Read it and read it again, why don't you.

[Riccardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, and has a quokka in it #realmargaret

[Chris Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun story. Has some really good moments. 3/5 because compared to eight billion genies I liked it a lot less. Still a fun read.

[Tyler Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️
Another great story by Soule/Brown. Wouldn't have found out about this if it weren't for Eight Billion Genies. Unique perspectives on magic and evil-turned-hero stories. Sizzajee reminds me a lot of Deadpool, especially in the seasonal issues (which what?! Christmas and Summer Break issues in a 28 issue series?!) Margaret's journey and story arc was great to watch play out and enjoyed reading the ridiculous ways Wizord and Ruby Stitch found ways to find magic in a not-so-magicless world.

[Scott Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really cool story about an extremely powerful (evil?) wizard from another world. This entire series has a lot going on it it. Love, hate, good, evil, touching moments, and hilarity.
Margaret FOREVER!!!!