Fantasy Sports 1: The Court of Souls, graphic novel kinetic enjoyment

If the potential fun of Space Jam, the kinetic energy of anime and aspects of the absurd from Ren & Stimpy, mixed in with a bit of magic, all had a graphic novel baby it would look something like Fantasy Sports 1: The Court of Souls by Sam Bosma. There’s so much to love about The Court of Souls that audiences might not be sure as to why they are attracted to the graphic novel. It’s an oversized graphic novel that reads like a classic comic book with anime roots in a story that’s set in a magical time where magic, zombies and monsters rule. This is the sort of book that, like a mother cat corralling her kittens by the nape of their necks to move them from location to another, will relocate reluctant readers from one area to another.

The art and energy in The Court of Souls joyously scream in a controllable manner that demands attention. If a reluctant reader, say who is in fifth grade, were to pick it up and turn the any page they’d be immediately curious as to what’s happening and turn forward one page. After doing this a couple of times they’d abandon all non-reading hope and turn to the first page so that they can see the glorious mayhem develop in real time.

The cover to Fantasy Sports 1: The Court of Souls has the same effect. Potential readers will see a kid dribbling a basketball that’s surrounded by a magical green haze. Sports graphic novels aren’t your thing? Surrounding this kid you can see massive skeletal hands and feet from a being much larger than them and about to steal the ball or ensnare the player. This skeleton figure is grey, blue-black and has a putrid, domineering appearance that makes the graphic novel all but open itself.

Wiz is the kid on the cover. She has a very difficult-to-obtain internship in this magical guild. However, the person she’s interning under, Mug, is a domineering brute whose crude methods are the opposite of the way that she handles situations. They both have an appointment with the head of guild to be reassigned. The head is not amused by their inability to get along and sends them out on a quest to find some magical relics.

It’s when they raid the tomb that the meet the aforementioned skeletal figure and the action and humor in The Court of Souls really take off. There are twists in the plot that won’t be mentioned here. There are so many possible ways that the book could’ve fallen short, taken predictable paths or produced a lame, uninteresting graphic novel that would’ve made it blend into the crowd. This is not that boring, disposable graphic novel.

For starters, it’s an oversized graphic novel that puts its footprint on par with an illustrated book. Its soft-back presentation tells you that it’s a graphic novel, yet its size says something different. The art has aspects that feel like manga, but it’s so detailed in certain parts that it can’t be called a manga. The panels have such movement that it looks like how you’d imagine this, if this were anime, but it’s in print.

Fantasy Sports: The Court of Souls is fun. This is a great graphic novel that will reach those who think that they don’t belong in its venn diagram because it crosses over into an area that they do enjoy. They don’t think that they like this or that, but they really something else, and the two can’t possibly exist in the same book, can it?  Fantasy Sports 1 is as kinetic as a graphic novel can get. The panels are beautifully illustrated and have a timeless appeal to them. The language and violence in The Court of Souls is, for the most part, at a level that upper-elementary will be fine with. It might push some of their boundaries, but not by much. What does a beaver build in the river? That word and the image of the big bad being ripped into two pieces are the worst of the book for those more sensitive, younger readers. It’s nothing that will prohibit the book from being in most elementary school libraries. Moreover, those youth who delve into The Court of Souls will discover a graphic novel that will rabidly entertain them and just might light the fire to make them discover the love of reading.

Fantasy Sports 1: The Court of Souls is by Sam Bosma and is available on Flying Eye Books.

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