Witch & Wizard: The Manga, Vol. 1

Witch & Wizard: The Manga #1

by James Patterson, Svetlana Chmakova (Artist), Gabrielle Charbonnet (Artist)

Imagine waking up to find that the world around you - life as you know it - has changed in an instant. That's what happens to Whit Allgood and his sister, Wisty. They thought that they were just a couple of normal teenagers, until their rude awakening at the hands of a dozen armed police! Charged with being a wizard and a witch, accused of having incredible powers they never dreamed possible, the siblings find themselves the targets of an upstart political regime, The New Order, which has swept the country and vowed to wipe "their kind" from existence. Now Whit and Wisty must fight for both their freedom and their lives as they unlock the powers burning inside of them!

Genres: Manga, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Young Adult, Magic, Comics, Fiction

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 20, 2011

About the author

Official US Site
Official UK Site
JIMMY Patterson Books
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James Patterson is the most popular storyteller of our time and the creator of such unforgettable characters and series as Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Jane Smith, and Maximum Ride. He has coauthored #1 bestselling novels with Bill Clinton, Dolly Parton, and Michael Crichton, as well as collaborated on #1 bestselling nonfiction, including The Idaho Four, Walk in My Combat Boots, and Filthy Rich. Patterson has told the story of his own life in the #1 bestselling autobiography James Patterson by James Patterson. He is the recipient of an Edgar Award, ten Emmy Awards, the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation, and the National Humanities Medal.

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Witch & Wizard may be another young adult series by James Patterson, but it is no Maximum Ride. Though this book was well-drawn and had a decent story, it wasn't terribly impressive.

[Selena Pigoni · Rating 5 out of 5]

This. Was. AMAZING.

I love Svetlana Chmakova's artwork. And combined with this story, it was definitely a win.

Great characters. Great plot... I don't think I've ever liked a Distopia story so much.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Considering the things I have heard about James Patterson books I have never been interested enough to read any novel by him. Not even the original novel from which this manga is adapted from but from the moment I found out on Svetlana Chmakova’s livejournal that she would be doing the artwork for the adaptation I was on board.

First of all to get my fangirling out of the way I will comment on the artwork. I loved it (points to cover). Svetlana does a great job of portraying different emotions through facial expressions and displaying action sequences without smothering the page in too much detail. And her character designs within a story are always unique enough that you won’t mix anyone up or mistake a guy for a girl (I’m talking about you Japanese creators). However, if you compared a few characters in this book to characters in her other series you might be like me and go “hey ___ looks like ___ from ____” but that has been my experience with other mangakas as well so I wasn’t bothered by this just making an observation.

The story, it has a lot of potential and I am still interested to find out what happens in volume two but honestly volume one was sort of a mess. Despite actually being around sixty-six pages longer than the standard manga volume Witch & Wizard: The Manga vol. 1 felt both rushed in story line and lacking in background information. The story starts off at some point in the future where the main characters along with their parents are on a platform in the middle of a packed stadium about to be executed, after this we jump to the past to find out how they all came to be in that situation. In the middle of the night while everyone is asleep both Wit and Whisty are taken from their home under the charge of being a witch and wizard and they are each allowed to take with them one item, their mother hands Whisty a drumstick while their dad gives Wit a blank book. Now from this moment it’s obvious to the reader that the parents know more than they are letting on and that Wit and Whisty know absolutely nothing about being “special”. They aren’t the only ones however to be charged for their “crimes” because when they get carted off to prison (which is an abandoned mental ward) they are surrounded by hundreds of other children their age.

Witch and Wizard was an action-centric story lead by two fairly interesting young characters, both Wit and Whisty despite being forcibly removed from their homes, imprisoned in a rundown building, forced to undergo testing, and over the top punishments under the supervision of cruel child-hating warden take all their hardships in stride. They rarely fail to crack a joke and never break out into hysterics, which would have been my reaction. I had first assumed since the new Government regime was so openly anti-magic and the public was jumping on board no hesitation that in the alternate universe, knowledge about magic was the norm and everyone was in the know but that really isn’t the case, magic is as new to Wit and Whisty as it is to everyone else but everyone else' reaction wasn’t what I was expecting. No one was questioning it, acting skeptical and there were a lot of knowledgeable people in this world which made me think background information on both the new government and the world of Witch and Wizard would have left me feeling less confused.

It would have also helped if the entire first novel hadn’t been packed into this one volume because so much had happened that there was barely any time to take a break and digest all that was going on. There was barely any character development for anyone and so currently I don’t really care what happens to anyone at this point. Hopefully this will change in volume two.

[Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Witch and Wizard Vol 1

This is the second manga that i have read. Its not the worst thing I have read. I will eventually check out more in the series but I'm in no rush.

[Quinn Dahlia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had awesome art, and the story was exciting, funny, and fast-paced. There were a few things I would have liked explained better, but I hope we will learn more in the next book. 4.5 stars.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could have been great. The premise is excellent and the setting is interesting. The description on the back cover grabs your attention. The prologue opens with the main characters facing execution, and then flashes back to explain how they got there.

It's just the "how they got there" bit that is riddled with problems. There are massive issues with characterization, from the two-dimensional main characters that seem to take everything up to imprisonment and mortal peril in stride to the similarly two-dimensional antagonists who murder children and cheer while doing so. The plot is disjointed and shaky, and is highly compressed. A LOT happens in this volume, and it happens so quickly that it'll leave you wondering what just happened and why. A lot of things that are different about this world when compared to our own (the existence of magic, alternate dimensions, etc.) are presented so matter-of-factly that I honestly believe the author completely expected us to know these things already despite never having been told.

And yet, despite all these issues, it's still a lot better than much of James Patterson's recent work, and a somewhat enjoyable read anyway. But if the second volume doesn't improve on what the first has done, I'll give the rest of the series a pass.

[R J Royer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This graphic novel adaptation of the book is rather good. I really enjoyed reading it as I have not yet read the original books by Mr. Paterson and I am really wondering if they are as good as these books are.

The story here has some really good points and should not be taken as mere fantasies as the personal tourture of those different than the comman is what many wars have been fought over in the past and present. This book just takes it to the point of what you expect if the world would be like with a lot of people following a horrible person.

Now lets talk about the art work for a moment. First, let me say that, for a black and white novel, I am rather pleased. It's not the best art in the world but I am not going to say anything bad about it because I feel like it's going to be better than what I could expect from most of the people I could have gotten to draw the book. It's great to see a story like this one being drawn but I really want to see more than what is here. I just feel like there's more to the story than what I am seeing and I am not sure what it is.

Ilu eh

[Anthonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A excellent manga that i enjoyed reading. A must for manga lovers everywhere.

[ElsaMakotoRenge · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art was nice. The story was just ridiculous and not great to me, I’m not even sure why. I won’t be continuing this series. Perhaps the novel version is better, I don’t know.

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book when I was still in middle school. then I couldn't find the second and third volume until now, so I read it again.
back in time, it was mostly the graphics and magic that interested me, but now I'm seeing things a bit more than that. like when at the end of the book, it talks about standing up against things or the way philosophy is banned! I might even start to read the actual book.

[Nathaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is hands down one of the best graphic novels I have ever read. The art is amazing. I love this style so much and want to read more manga-styled books. The plot is also really good. It's fast paced, well developed, and shows a cool 'alternate reality' version of our world. Definitely recommend to people who love reading books about empowering a younger generation. That is the core of this book.

[Jenan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful art..interesting story. Maybe repetitive a bit, but still enjoyable!

[NARU · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn’t interested in witches and magic and those stuff until I read this manga. sO fUn anD GreAt.

[Elizabeth Howe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first step into the Witch and Wizard world. It feels like something of a mix between 1984, Lord of the Flies, and The Salem Witch Trials. For two kids who were born into this world they don't know a whole lot about the political state of things and none of that is really explained making things feel a little rushed and disjointed. The premises for the story seems really solid but the execution in this Manga telling seems flat and a little rushed to piggy back off the status of the main novel. It is a Manga and the artwork is beautiful, I'll be picturing the characters like this when I read the main novel.

[Taylor O'Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extra star bc of the way that it brought me back to middle school. Still super cute all while being mildly cringy of course :p

[Hisgirl85 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. Lots of fast moving randomness. It felt odd with things left unexplained and odd setups and setbacks. I like the brother and sister angle, but I didn't feel like I was engaged in the story but watching and trying to figure things out.

[Cherie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good Manga about a brother and sister finding out they are a witch and wizard and being imprisoned for it. The story follows their journey trying to overcome the powers of evil and find their parents.

[Storm · Rating 2 out of 5]

James Patterson is a prolific author, who collaborates with a ton of other authors. His books run the gamut of Crime Fiction, the most successful of which is probably the Alex Cross Series. He also delves into juvenile, young adult and middle school series with mixed results, mostly average to bad. Witch and Wizard is one of the less successful ones.

This manga is an adaptation of Witch & Wizard, which is not a very well written book. The premise is okay but how they set up the villain is totally cartoonish and Wisty is totally stupid to the point where if she weren't so defiant and overpowered she'd forget to breathe.


Also lack of real resistance was completely unrealistic. This would NEVER fly in America, I mean, we do Protests for pretty much everything! And can carry guns! How did they all roll over and just comply with the One who is The One? What about Freedom? And Liberty? No way would the citizens let this travesty happen. It's just ...


Yes it has major problems, as shown by my review. However, Svetlana Chmakova's art does elevate the story quite a bit, and this might even have been worth 3* if there weren't already serious logic issues in the source novel. If only the whole manga had been in color.

[Joe Holman · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a decent start to a manga series. A quick read that I read in under 2 hours.

[Julie J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Witch & Wizard“ entstand als Zusammenarbeit von James Patterson und Gabrielle Charbonnet, die Zeichnungen stammen von Svetlana Chmakova.
James Petterson ist manchen vielleicht ein Begriff. Amerikanischer Krimiautor, 63 Bücher auf der New-York-Times-Bestsellerliste, übersetzt in 38 Sprachen. Darunter gibt es die Jugendbücher „Witch & Wizard“, deren Geschichte die Grundlage dieses Mangas bilden. Leider wurden die Bücher (noch) nicht ins Deutsche übersetzt.
Erzählstimme des Mangas ist Wisty. Die ersten sechs Seiten sind in Farbe und stellen eine Art Jetzt-Zeit dar, in der man ihre Familie auf dem Galgen stehen sieht, das Seil bereits um den Hals. Das Ganze auf dem Spielfeld eines großen Stadions, die Bühnen gefüllt mit einer schaulustigen Bevölkerung.
Von hier aus rollt Whisty ihre Geschichte auf:
Mitten in der Nacht werden die Geschwister Wisteria und Whit Allgood brutal aus dem Schlaf gerissen. Sie landen in einem Gefängnis, da sie angeblich magische Kräfte besitzen, von denen sie selbst bis dato nichts wussten. Schnell stellt sich heraus, dass sie diese Fähigkeiten haben, da Whisty mit ihren rotem Lockenkopf als Panikreaktion auf die Entführung in Flammen aufgeht.
Drahtzieher ist die neue Regierungsorganisation, genannt die "Neue Ordnung". Ein totalitäres System mit einem fanatischen Diktator an der Spitze, der eine Welle der Hexenverfolgung in Gang bringt. Minderjährige Hexen und Hexer landen in einem Gefängnis, in welchem sie für Experimente missbraucht werden.
Aus diesem gilt es für die Geschwister auszubrechen und für Freiheit zu kämpfen.
Verrat, Denunziation, Paranoia und öffentlichen Hinrichtungen bzw. Hexenverbrennungen im großen Stil als Unterhaltung erinnern an bekannte historische Ereignisse aus dem letzten, wie vergangenen Jahrhunderten.

Die Figuren sind durch die Gestaltung ihres Äußeren leicht zu unterscheiden, man wird im Lesefluss nicht dadurch gestört, dass man erst mal genau überlegen muss, um wen es sich in den einzelnen Zeichnungen handelt. Die Zeichnungen sind klar und passen zu einem „Jugendbuch-Manga“
Einziges Manko ist, dass die Mimik zu oft ins Komische abrutscht, wie dies im japanischen Vorbild gern als Stilmittel benutzt wird. Große Augen, offene Münder, zu Berge stehende Haare. Dies soll zum Schmunzeln anregen. Ist aber nicht sehr passend, angesichts dessen, dass die beiden Geschwister vorm Richter stehen, der sie zum Tode verurteilt. Natürlich ist eine Schockreaktion verständlich, in dieser übertriebenen Darstellung wird der Ernst der Situation jedoch ins Lächerliche gezogen und erschwert es dem Leser sich adäquat in Geschichte und Figuren einzuleben.

Verwirrend für alle Manga-Fans ist eventuell die europäische Leserichtung, von links nach rechts und für unsere Verhältnisse normal von vorne nach hinten.

FAZIT: Eine gelungene Umsetz, dessen Geschichte auch Nicht-Manga-Leser fesseln wird. Ein starker Hauptcharakter und die Freude auf die Fortsetzung, lassen uns diesen Manga mit mehr als nur einem ruhigen Gewissen weiterempfehlen.

[Connor King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Witch & Wizard is a graphic novel series that shows dystopian future where a political group, known as The New Order, now runs the government and routinely hunt’s down anyone who practices or is accused of practicing witchcraft. Wisteria and her big brother Whitford, are arrested and tried for witchcraft. After multiple interrogations and outbursts where their powers were on full display, they are sentenced to death. So now it’s up to them and their newfound powers to break out of prison and stop the twisted nature of the New Order. However, it appears that their jailbreak is only the beginning of a much bigger adventure. This certainly is an interesting read with a lot of suspense and odd twists and turns that you never would expect otherwise. My favorite aspect about this book is the idea behind it, taking concepts like the salem witch trials that would seem archaic and ridiculous today, and trying to create a modern society where instances like that are common place and perfectly fine in the eyes of the general public. Overall, I would give this novel 4 out of 5 stars, for being a suspenseful thriller guaranteed to get the read invested, and I would definitely recommend this story to those who are huge fans of fantasy.

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keep this in mind, I don’t normally read manga. Ok, that’s an understatement. I have NO idea what the major differences are kawaii (accept that it’s girly) anime, and manga... ok maybe a little anime but I have literally no experience. I was surprised how I liked this... I liked the artwork, the storyline, the characters, pretty much everything.
The only thing I DIDN’T like was how fast I finished it... in about 45 minutes 😂😂 if I had known that, I would have went ahead and gotten the whole series.
This was a great new start in manga for me. It had a good imprint, so I think I’ll try some more.

I’d probably say this was a middle school type of book, and surprisingly there was no swearing. Then again, I was reading it so fast I may not have noticed.

So the story is pretty much two seemingly normal teens (brother and sister) are taken from their house along with their parents and go on a long journey through prisons, tortures, unfair trials, annoying people, and discovering new powers along the way.
The end is a cliffhanger and I finished pretty fast, so if you hate cliffhangers go ahead and just get the whole series.



Anyway, I’m giving this 4.5 stars. I’m very surprised of how much I liked this 😊

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely depressing manga in some ways. It's a world where a group called the New World Order have taken control. If you look on Wikipedia you will see that this is one of the many conspiracies that exist and that the manga writers have taken advantage of.

The rulers are very Nazi-like in their actions. Their aim seems to be to gather all young people together and put them in prison if they have any magical abilities at all. Whit and Wisty are the two main characters. Their parents may have had magic but there still is a lot to learn about them in further volumes.

The NWO has no problem with executing people, even young ones, and they have no problem with bombing homes. The two main characters find what amounts to an underground resistance group of young people like themselves who are trying to survive, stay out of the NWO hands and find some way to possibly restore normality.

It also seems that it will be fairly realistic in the confrontation between the two groups as it's apparently the resistance will not win all the time and they may very well have a spy in their ranks. It looks like it's going to be an interesting series even though it is a dark one.

[Harvey Behunin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book so much it's one of the most fun and its about magic and terrorist called the N.O. (or New Order) a book I would highly say to read it and try other manga or comics and its super good and the mane characters are Wizzy,Whit,there mom and dad, and the new order its a very fun and good book and I would say if your interested in magic and witch craft I personally suggest this book and if you like I would love to talk and I think so highly of people who love reading and writing and drawing I would say this book is a little bit kid friendly but it has a little bit of blood and violence and one or two swear words and talk about fighting. but all in all it's very fun and I'm trying not to spoil any part of this book you will have to read it for yourself.

[Andrw · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a good book because it shows teaming. Also, it shows the power of magic. And it is a good book because it shows survival and shows how to be your self. This book is good too because it is good for people who are new to English and my favourite part was the claim witch when Wisty came to life again by the power of magic and I really recommend people to read it because it is easy to read and understand it. Also, this book shows how can everyone can help the other with their special magic. And one of the best parts when they took out the evil president by there powers even it was hard and then they rebuild the houses and made thire city better than the last time.

[Jackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This teen manga was better than I was expecting. The art by Svetlana Chmakova is very good. She is excellent at drawing characters and making their characterizations clear through her drawing style. A sister and brother (Wisty and Whit) find out suddenly that their parents are outlaws, and they are a witch and a wizard with incredible powers they never dreamed possible. They are deemed dangerous enemies of the New Order and imprisoned. I liked the character of Whit's girlfriend Celia and found the mystery surrounding her intriguing, but unfortunately, I found the overall political tone unappealing especially during our own political upheaval.

[Norah · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, this is my first manga that I purchase in English as hardcopy. I really enjoyed it, the story was so unique and exciting .The story talked about two sibling Whisty and Whit, they were arrested in the beginning and put together in the same cell to stop them from their own magic in that time both of them did not realize, that they have special power and that help them to get out of the prison to safe their own parents who went missing after both of the sibling went to jail

[Christofer · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a good book with a good plot. It bought a lot of different emotions to from different people. It also shoes care for example when the family is in the stadium to be hanged the mom cries but not for herself but for her two kinds and it a sad moment. Also towards the end the two witches/wizard are shown growing. Also both overcome new and sad events. For example the wizard girlfriend with killed because of accusation of being a wizard. Also it shows funny moments like turning a enemy into a small pet and keeping it in that form.

[Ellie Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked the art style that the author chose for these characters, I really like the two main characters Wisty and Witt. Wisty's attitude is sassy but also can be found hilarious. Witt is like the best older brother you could ever have. The cliffhangers that this book leaves makes you wonder greatly about what's going to happen to the main characters. It was a great first book and I can't wait to read the second one.

[Alejandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the art is great, the story and characters really fall short. There are glimmers of an interesting world, but everything is so rushed, and the characters so flat. Instead of 3 volumes, this should have been a 20-30 volume saga, truly fleshing out Wisty, Whit and even Byron. The villain was pretty stereotypical, I kept hoping things would turn around but never did. At least it was short.