Summer Magic: The Complete Journal of Luke Kirby

by Alan McKenzie, John Ridgway (Illustrator), Steve Parkhouse (Illustrator)

Before Harry Potter, before Tim Hunter, there was Luke Kirby, the original schoolboy wizard.

In the summer of 1962, young Luke Kirby is sent to stay with his Uncle Elias (a man he had never met) in  a British village called Lunstead, while his mother recuperates from an illness.

Elias reveals himself to be a magician, well versed in the alchemical arts and eager to pass his skills onto his young nephew. But as the apprenticeship begins a new, bestial horror begins to stalk those unfortunate enough to wander alone at night in the woods. Will the burgeoning magician be powerful enough to confront the monster? To enter this world of wonder, childhood innocence must be sacrificed…

Collects:

- Summer Magic (Progs #571–#530)
- A Winter’s Tale (Winter Special 1988)
- The Dark Path (2000AD Sci-Fi Special 1990)
- The Night Walker (Progs #800–#812)
- Sympathy for the Devil – Prologue (Progs #850–#851)
- Trick or Treat (2000AD Yearbook 1994)
- Sympathy for the Devil (Progs #873–#888)
- Old Straight Track (Progs #954–#963)
- The Price (Prog #972)

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Horror, Fiction, Graphic Novels

288 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2017

Reviews

[Paolo Macri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastical tale of trials and learning to control magic for a young Luke Kirby.

I didn't know what to expect going in, but I enjoyed the artwork and story of this completed series and its various lessons that Luke learn along the way to his path of controlling magic. Some chapters were weaker than others, but overall it was entertaining and fun.

4 stars

[Timo · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much better growing up story than Harry Potter. I would love to read more of his adventures.

[Chris Browning · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are only three things wrong with this book: firstly, the Parkhouse/ Abadzis and Higgins illustrated stories are obviously not to the same standards as Ridgway’s masterpieces or Parkhouse’s fully solo story; secondly, the Harry Potter blurb on the cover does the book a disservice as it’s really sod all like Potter being as it’s wildly imaginative and spooky; thirdly, it never ended as a cycle and instead suffered from creative differences with the comic’s editorial team of the time so feels like half a story

All these are quibbles though. Luke Kirby is unlike anything else 2000AD has ever done, closer to the works of Alan Garner and Susan Cooper than anything else published in the prog. Especially with Ridgway as the artist, it manages to combine something of the magic of 1950s British comics with a fully realised and vividly written paganism that laughably knocks Pat Mills’ angry pagan in a pub nonsense for six. Particularly in The Old Straight Track, the story genuinely seems to understand and pay serious homage to pagan traditions in the U.K., and it’s a thoughtful and beautiful way of dealing with these many strands. It starts out as a sort of low key thriller in A Summer Magic (which I can attest felt like something genuinely extraordinary when I first encountered it at the dying end of my first period reading the prog), but slowly becomes something more poetic and sadder and stranger

But the real genius here is John Ridgway. He’s been a hero of mine ever since his artwork for the Sixth Doctor era comic strips in Doctor Who Magazine. They remain sort of my ideal of all Doctor Who, weird and strange and unsettling and with a light touch the television show has never quite managed. Ridgway always seemed slightly loss in the grue of Hellblazer, and he manages to find the perfect vehicle for his timeless art here. He has this uncanny ability of framing images that feel like they are just before or after big events. His best pages have a sense of foreboding because of this. But it’s his shading and watercolours that are genuinely extraordinary here, having something approximating a visual representation of the magic hour in comic form. It’s also a very similar style to another hero, Ionicus. There’s a very similar theme to Ionicus’ William Kimber covers, a sense of something ghastly just out of sight of the reader. It’s an astonishing achievement and is honestly better than the writing is here. Possibly my favourite art the prog has ever done and far more deserving of fannish adulation than, say, Simon Bisley’s boobtastic nonsense

A quick bit of praise for Steve Parkhouse though - he struggles with Abadzis’ heavy handed inking in the hell story, and it’s a genuine shame that Ridgway didn’t give us his vision of the underworld, but by Old Straight Track he’s giving his absolute best. Very different from Ridgway, it instead feels like a tribute to Mick McMahon complete with lovingly water coloured scenes and scratchy inking. Even the lettering is beautiful. It’s a very distinctly different approach to Ridgway’s but no worse for it, complete with a nicely subtle tip of the hat to the Asian exoticism of Alfred Bestall’s Rupert stories. But it is nice that we end with a final vignette from Ridgway that promises much of what we might have expected in sadly unwritten future stories

[Colin Sinclair · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember reading the first story back in 2000 AD, but I seem to have missed the follow ups. It's an Alan Garner-esque tale, as young Luke Kirby learns he's from a family of magic wielders and takes his first steps on the path to mastery of elemental forces. Some of the art isn't the artists' best, but in other places it is outstanding. Excellent stuff all round and well worth a read.

[Jason Towers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Folk horror and British paganism in days gone by, pre-dating those other boy wizards. One of the great treasures of 2000AD's back catalogue. Only misses out on a 5th star because the incomparable John Ridgway didn't illustrate the whole thing.

[A J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stunning folk horror, a shame it never continued but there’s enough written to make it interesting. (If dodgy re. appropriation in ways both in character for white English folk doing magic and kinda weird, Om Mane Padme Hum to summon demons? Really?)

[Nick Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad I found this.
Took me back to my childhood.

[Zac Hawkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Often regarded as one of the best strips of the 500-1000 prog era and long out of circulation I’m glad it’s finally out there as Summer Magic is an excellent horror fantasy serial.

[Kenneth McMahon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as great as my memory told me, but the artwork is still the best part of it, particularly the English countryside scenes.