This week on View from the Gutters our topic work is Courtney Crumrin, Vol. 1 & 2, by Ted Naifeh. First released by Oni Press in 2002, it’s titular protagonist is Courtney Crumrin, a teenage girl who moves with her parents—a pair of social climbing nitwits—into the home of her great uncle Aloysius. Or perhaps her great-great uncle. No one seems to be sure.

Courtney soon discovers that her uncle is a powerful warlock, and begins to help herself to his mystic knowledge to both benefit herself and combat the Night Things—creatures of myth and fable that seem to inhabit her new home town in prodigious numbers. As the series develops Courtney—and we the audience—learn more about the world of witchcraft which she inhabits, and the magical community which she now finds herself a part of.

In our recommendation section, our hosts nominated Top 10, Swamp Thing, Moon Knight, Girl Genius, and Southern Bastards for discussion on the next episode, and our selected title is Swamp Thing by Brian K. Vaughan, Vol. 1.

We invite you to discuss both this episode and its topic on our subreddit.

Our hosts for this episode are Andrew Chard, Joe Preti, Kayleigh Fleeman, Tobiah Panshin, and Adam Panshin.