Charm School Volume 1

by Elizabeth Watasin

Charm School is a book set in a Twilight World where monsters and magical people happily (and wickedly) live. In the town of Little Salem, good teen witch Bunny has a perfect girlfriend in vampire biker Dean, until a dark, and very insistent faerie comes along. Can Bunny resist Fairer Than's charms? And when she does, what will Fairer Than (and Dean) do about it? Find out in this romantic and action filled comedy of three hapless heroines in lust and love!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Lesbian, LGBT, Graphic Novels Comics, Romance

96 pages, Paperback

First published August 8, 2002

About the author

Elizabeth Watasin is the author of the Gothic steampunk series The Dark Victorian, The Elle Black Penny Dreads, the cyberpunk Darquepunk series, and the creator/artist of the indie comics series Charm School, which was nominated for a Gaylactic Spectrum Award. Winner of a Rainbow Award 2015, Best Lesbian Fantasy and Fantasy Romance, for Medusa: A Dark Victorian Penny Dread. A twenty year veteran of animation and comics, she lives in Los Angeles with her black cat named Draw, busy bringing readers uncanny heroines in shilling shockers, science fiction, and diesel fantasy tales.
Follow the news of her latest projects at A-Girl Studio.

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Predating the Twilight novels, this book follows a witch that attends a school in New Salem. It is akin to Hogwarts if one must have a comparison, in that other magical, mystical, and fantastic beings attend. Bunny the witch dates Dean, the cross dressing vampire, but draws the attention of Fairer Than, a magical, mystical member of the faerie folk with a few secrets of her own.

The story is direct, the rivalries standing, but the world is just fun to experience, but with subtle and unsubtle messages about how ready we are to accept who others are and who we are as well. A quick read, but one that might be worth one’s time if one wants to read a story about dating mythical creatures that predates and is superior to the best known teen vampire dating book that was aforementioned.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elizabeth Watison, while perhaps too slow in her production, is the finest black and white artist shy of the Hernandez Brothers of Love and Rockets fame. And her classic love triangle story of girl realizes she's gay, meets boyishly cute vampire and falls in love, only to then be pursued heavily by an outrageously hot and persistant faerie chick who has a lot more going on than meets the eye is ridiculously cute. The setting of a sort of "Halloween High" is excellent and the background characters have a lot of personality and provide endless amusement. I'm not even sure who I want to see Bunny the good witch end up with - both the sexy drag racing vampire and the smoking otherworldy faerie Fairer Than are awesome. This is cute and sweet and beautifully drawn, but painfully short as the trade only holds about 6 of the existing 7 issues. Also, there hasn't been a new issue of this out in over a year... much to my sincere dismay. They were never very regular to begin with but I have no idea - even from searching the internet - if this series has been discontinued or put on hiatus or what.

[Sarah Goodwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm torn on this one. On the one hand, I did find myself getting into it, though it was a bit of a struggle to begin with. I didn't really get on with the odd way people spoke, in a sort of semi-abbreviated Beano slang.

Also, I didn't like the black and white artwork, the cover is so bright and cartoonish, to have not even one colour inside is disappointing. I get that it was released at a time when it was cheaper to print black and white but this is a more modern collection and they could have added colour, or at least used glossy paper!

Still, I was interested in the story and wanted more of it, but to my disappointment the love triangle plot sort of ended ten pages before the end and was replaced with...nothing really, just a collection of single page...skits? Involving characters that didn't feature in the main story. And a story about how Dean and Bunny got together, which while lovely, was oddly placed at the end of the collection and not the start, where it would have fit in better.

[AJ LeBlanc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Welcome to the magical town of Little Salem where witches, vampires, werewolves, faeries, and more run things.

Meet Bunny, a good witch trying to please her aunties and get through another day at witch school.

Meet Dean, her crossing dressing vampire girlfriend.

Meet Fairer Than, the faerie who is determined to have Bunny for her own. Only thing is, Fairer Than is something more than faerie, and Bunny's going to need all her wits, spells, and heart pounding love for Dean to keep from being eaten alive.

I love the art work in this series. It reminds me a bit of an early 60's style Archie comic, but with a lot more sex appeal. The story line is fun, quickly introduces the characters, and got me hooked.

I need to get Book Two to find out who wins the heart of a witch in the battle of vampire versus faerie...

[courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

very cool graphic novel about the gay teens of a magical realm. very interesting, fun to read.

[kubby]

okay, so i read it. and it was really fun to read. there was definitely cheesiness to it. but no, really, i wanted to keep reading more. tasty little piece of dessert this book is.

[Aneesa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this comic book while floating around a lake in an inner tube. At least I didn't have to worry about dropping it in the water.