Wren James is the award-winning British author of 11 science-fiction and fantasy novels, including The Quiet at the End of the World and The Next Together. They were also a story consultant on the Heartstopper TV series. The Victors is their debut graphic novel, created in collaboration with Beth Fuller, an Irish artist living in Copenhagen. The Victors is her first graphic novel too.

There are many stories that tell of a chosen hero who has a destiny to achieve. This graphic novel tells you the story of what happens next.

It is set in a world similar to our own, except magic and magical creatures exist. The world is dealing with the aftermath of a war with demon kind, both in a physical sense (cleaning up after all the damage) and a mental one (characters dealing with problems like PTSD).

The main character, Dirk Earnest, the aforementioned chosen one who has saved the world, just wants to go to university and get on with his life. However, he has a fanbase, so the book also looks into celebrity and dealing with fame and social media.

Dirk also has to deal with the fact that Medusa, a shapeshifter who fought for the demons, is his new roommate. She is trying to come to terms with starting a normal life too, which is not as simple for her as being evil.

Dirk is meant to kill Medusa, according to prophecy, so there’s that too.

All of this brings a story steeped in magic but very grounded, and also queer.

Beth Fuller’s art really helps to bring together the worlds of magic and realism. Her illustrations are very realistic, but she adds touches to characters like Medusa to make them ‘other’.

 

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One of the art elements I particularly enjoyed was the design of the opening pages to each chapter. They set the tone for the chapters, and some of them have a nice fantasy element. The pages are a nice mix of everyday ‘normal’ scenes and ones that feel like they are from a full-on fantasy book. They mix seamlessly; it is a really impressive artistic debut.

I was impressed by both creators’ debuts in the medium, with Wren James not falling into the trap of overwriting; I didn’t feel unnecessary captions or dialogue, for example. James also let their collaborator use her art to tell the story.

I don’t naturally gravitate towards fantasy books (I’m more of a sci-fi guy), but the underlying story made this work for me. As with the best fantasy and sci-fi, the genre setting is just the window dressing to tell a story about real people. The creators do a good job of that.

The book is aimed at a YA audience, but I think it also works for those of us who are young at heart. This one was a nice surprise. I hope both Wren James and Beth Fuller do more graphic novels in the future.

Discover more about The Victors here.

 

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