Good news, everyone! Your favorite British boy wizard is about to return to comics, and before you move on, please note that every boy wizard is technically someone's favorite, so there is no reason for you to get mad if it's not who you're thinking of.

The sorcerous kid in question this time is the eponymous star of The Journal of Luke Kirby, a strip that ran in the pages of 2000 AD from 1988 to 1995 --- which, as 2000 AD is quick to note, means that he predates both Harry Potter and DC's Tim Hunter.

Despite a well-regarded seven-year run, the story has never been reprinted, but next year that's all changing with a new paperback release of the complete story by writer Alan McKenzie and artist John Ridgway. Check out the full announcement below!

 

The Journal of Luke Kirby, 2000 AD
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Cider With Rosie meets Harry Potter via John Wyndham and Alan Garner, The Journal of Luke Kirby is a coming-of-age story about power, magic, and family, set in an enchanted rural England.

Sent to stay with his Uncle Elias in the countryside in 1962, Luke discovers the man has magical powers. After their housekeeper is killed by a horrific beast, Elias offers to make Luke his apprentice and teach him the magical arts. Luke is the inheritor of a great magical dynasty and, learning first from his uncle and them a tramp called Zeke, Luke begins to harness his extraordinary powers with the potential to be the greatest alchemist of all – but at what price?

From its slow pace to the evocative artwork, The Journal of Luke Kirby is a lost gem from the second wave of 2000 AD; the idyllic setting undercut by the new world of magical danger Luke discovers hiding under the surface in a coming-of-age tale that deals with burgeoning maturity, fear, loss, grief, and the ending of innocence.

John Ridgeway’s artwork, moving from black and white to colour, evokes the classic comics of the 1960s while his scratchy, dense style also provides an eerie dissonance befitting the dual world in which Luke now finds himself, while later stories with art by Steve Parkhouse bring a more pop-art aesthetic.

The collection will include all the Luke Kirby stories from 2000 AD: Summer Magic (1988), The Night Walker (1992), Sympathy for the Devil (1993-4), Old Straight Track (1995), and The Price (1995).

 

The Journal of Luke Kirby, 2000 AD
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The Journal of Luke Kirby, 2000 AD
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The Journal of Luke Kirby will be reprinted in its entirety in paperback in May of 2017.

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