Author: Kiersten White
Publisher: Ten Speed Graphic
Rating: 4/5
Buy: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Thanks to NetGalley and Ten Speed Graphic for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

There’s a specific kind of dread that comes from nostalgia turned wrong — the feeling that something you loved and trusted wasn’t what you thought it was. Mister Magic: The Graphic Novel lives in that feeling for its entire runtime, and it does not let you go.

The premise: five former child stars from a beloved but deeply mysterious children’s show called Mister Magic reunite thirty years after a fatal accident ended production. No surviving footage. No scripts. No records of who — or what — the show’s host actually was. Just memories, and a remote desert compound that seems to have been waiting for them.

I went in not knowing anything about this story beyond the back cover. I still couldn’t stop reading.

Scott Peterson’s adaptation and Veronica and Andy Fish’s artwork do something smart — they lean into the graphic novel format rather than just illustrating prose. The mixed-media pages are the best example of this. Scattered throughout are layouts designed to look like Wikipedia articles, Reddit threads, fan message boards. It’s a creative choice that makes the cult fandom surrounding the show feel lived-in and believable, and it keeps the storytelling from ever feeling static.

The central mystery holds up. You spend the whole book trying to decide whether these characters have returned by choice or been pulled back by something that never finished with them. The answer, when it comes, is satisfying — which is not a guarantee with this kind of story.

The artwork does its job well throughout. Nothing here is gratuitously dark, but there’s a consistent unease running through the visuals that matches the tone of the writing perfectly.

If you have any affection for 90s children’s television, cults, or horror that works through implication rather than shock, this one is worth your time. And now I need to go find the novel.

If the nostalgia and childhood memory themes in Mister Magic hit close to home for you, my debut poetry collection Fading Light: Echoes of a 90s Childhood might be right up your alley. It releases August 30th — head over to Goodreads to add it to your reading list!

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