Welcome to the Maynard

Welcome to the Maynard #1-4

by James Robinson, J. Bone (Artist), Ian Herring (Colorist)

From the celebrated creators behind Starman and Super Friends comes this magical comics tale of crime and theft in the world of hospitality. 

Welcome to the Maynard! A grand hotel full of luxury and style…but where the guests are all wizards, witches and mythical creatures!

Enter a world of magic, mystery, thrills and fun.

Join Philippa (Pip) Dale as she begins her new job as a bellhop (and trainee house detective) at the exclusive Maynard Hotel for Wizards (and folks of a magical ilk). This opulent, amazing hotel exists right under the noses of everyday San Francisco, where real magicians, witches, mystical characters and fantastic creatures all come to stay.

However, Pip’s working days aren’t merely full of amazing sights and magical experiences, they come with thrills and dangers too. She must try to catch a magical hotel thief, although their strange choice of thefts suggests that murder is the ultimate goal. Can Pip solve the mystery of who the thief’s target is in time to save the intended victim? And at the same time, she must go about her other duties at the hotel almost all of which involve spells, enchantment, and drama of one kind or another.

Helping her are many fun and funny hotel employees, all of them with magic running through their veins too. The Maynard is a unique, special hotel where the strange and mystical come to stay. It truly a place like no other, especially now Pip is on the case to liven things up even more.

So check in, sit back and enjoy the fun. Welcome to the Maynard!

Collects Welcome to the Maynard #1–#4.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy

120 pages, Paperback

First published July 22, 2025

About the author

James Dale Robinson is a British writer of American comic books and screenplays.

Reviews

[Niche · Rating 3 out of 5]

A woman, Pip, apprentices at a magic hotel to train as a detective. Also, there's a big event coming up and a magical thief stealing property from guests.

To be honest, they could have ditched the entire detective/thief plotline and just used the bellhop at a magic hotel setting and I think I would have been more interested. There's also half-magical people in the setting that felt like a really obvious racism metaphor that never really developed i.e. the lead is half-magical, meaning she can't use spells (though may be able to with more risks involved) and full-magical couples can give birth to full-magical children, but once you have a non-magical or half-magical person in the genealogy, you can only be half-magical at most. There's also some weird co-dependent sibling drama.

The lead has a girlfriend that didn't add much to the story other than some relationship drama and I guess to tell the audience that she's a lesbian so the author can have a romance plotline with the bartender if the series continues? It's pretty minor, but I still can't put it on my "no romance and lgbt major characters" shelf as there's a side story with a depressed widower pining for his dead wife.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do you like movies from the 1940s that have a little bit of that era's screwball comedy mixed with a PI story?

Add some light fantasy/magic wielder elements and that describes this series in the proverbial nutshell (that I read in digital floppies).

This is one of Robinson's few excursions into comics after his movie/television writing career. The premises is that there is a hotel in San Francisco where magic users can stay. But a thief is causing problems for the hotel and enter new bellhop Pip who is working undercover for her hotel detective uncle.

If you like the movies I described above I think this is a read that you will enjoy.

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Everything here felt kind of half-baked. The world building is extremely vague. I have no real sense of what mages are or should be capable of in this world, and the rules seem to turn on a dime. The characters feel flat, and the dialog is uninspired. The main character has a mundane girlfriend she has to hide everything magical from, which should have added some kind of tension. Unfortunately, that girlfriend has so little presence that I simply couldn't care about her or the relationship. Plus a very unsatisfying ending, without any consequences for anyone involved. This just needed more work, on almost every level.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the concept and the world was fun. Unfortunately, we are following a main character who does almost nothing on page. She chases people but always fails in catching anyone and throws herself into dangerous situations without thinking. For a mystery, there is little intrigue or smart detective work. Things just happen and get revealed to our detectives. The MC's girlfriend is a nonentity and a waste of page time.

I was enjoying the world enough to continue with the series until the last issue, when I realized our main character was never going to use her brain or succeed in her job. I did love the bright, creative art with a little throwback edge to mid-1900s.

[Raven Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has it's moments, is mostly predictable for the adult reader, but still cute. I wasn't OMG BEST ever, but for the most part the characters are clever, sweet illustrations and for the at least 10 to 14 reader. The ending was a bit rushed, but can be forgiven as it is splashy. Read via an online reader copy.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This feels like a screwball comedy from the 1940s with a magic twist. Pip is the newest bellhop at San Francisco's hotel for magicians. She's secretly also in training to be a hotel detective and investigating a thief that is targeting the hotel. I had a lot of fun with this. It's kitschy and timeless, as is J. Bone's artwork. I hope we'll get welcomed to the Maynard again in the future.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun story. Low stakes, but solid character work and world-building. The art is by Jason Bone, who has a great cartoony style (and once drew a short story I wrote a long time ago). I'd be okay with more of this comic, but have no idea if we'll get more or not.

[Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

This style is nice but not specifically for me.
I'm not interested nor invested int he characters nor mystery.
It's fine.
Definitely for younger readers.

[bogo_lode · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little uneven but I'd like more of it

[Minki Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

+ Fun vintage cartoon art
- Boring story

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

strong artwork and generally strong writing, though the subplot with the "muggle" of the cast fell flat for me as they did not really explain the secrecy of their world to give it any weight.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mystery at a magical hotel! There are some great characters in this, and their designs are superb.