I discovered the W.I.T.C.H. comics in the middle of 2007 and first wrote this story down three months later. It’s rather personal and I only sent it to one friend by email. The only reason I’m posting it here for the world to see is because you don’t know who I am :-)

 

Note: as this was written in September 2007 some of the information will be out of date.

 

 

Man, I've been wanting to write this up for weeks. It's the sort of thing I'd put in a dairy or blog if I had one.

 

This is the story of how a 36-year-old guy fell in love with a comic aimed at pre-teen girls.

 

So, there's this animated TV series called W.i.t.c.h. You've probably seen it. I caught the first season some time ago when it was on in the weekends and enjoyed it enough that when the second season started showing on Monday afternoons I recorded it so I could watch it when I got home from work.

 

One day I stumbled across a reference on the Internet to the fact that the TV series was based on an Italian comic book. It's been published as a monthly 60-page comic since 2001. It's now published in 50 countries in 20 different languages, but inexplicably is not available here. I found a web site that had scans of the comics and downloaded the first issue.

 

The artwork in the comics is beautiful. Since it's aimed at young girls the stories generally center around school, the friendship of the girls in the group and their relationships with family members and boyfriends. That, and saving the world.

 

Now this is how my obsession started. I hadn't mentioned it was an obsession yet had I? Recently I'd fallen into a deep funk. For no particular reason I'd just become rather depressed to the point where I didn't really feel like doing anything. This is not clinical depression, but melancholy would probably be a good fit. It also coincided with the middle of winter (actually probably not coincidental), so every evening I was returning home from work to a cold, dark house, but there was one thing I could look forward to. A couple of days after this started I'd found the W.i.t.c.h. comics scans, and every evening I'd be in bed early, curled up in the dark with my laptop, reading the next issue. It was the one thing in my day I could really look forward to.

 

What's really noticeable about the TV series is that it was very much Disneyfied. This isn't terribly surprising since it was made for Disney, who also publish the comic. Differences? In the comic a couple of characters have died. On Disney kid's shows the words 'kill' and 'die' are generally banned (not kidding, it's true) along with anyone actually dying. In the comic girls argue with their parents, hurtful words are spoken, pets die, people cry. Couples who were destined to be together are separated. It's sometimes quite heartbreaking, but it also means that when the characters are happy I can feel that much more for them.

 

[Addendum: This is a line from Cornelia's song 'Bloom' on the soundtrack album: The bitter and the sweet / They go hand in hand / But you must take both so you truly understand]

 

For some reason when I was already depressed reading emotionally-charged stories was exactly what I wanted, but of course their effect on me was greatly magnified. I had to look up a thesaurus to remember the word: catharsis.

 

A few days after discovering the comic I had become obsessed with all things W.i.t.c.h. Every evening I would look forward to reading another comic or two. The weekends were something to really cherish, because then I had time to read several issues a day. I started trolling the Internet for fan sites and merchandise. I remembered seeing the first three DVDs of the TV series at The Warehouse. I'd enjoyed the TV series but would never have considered buying it before, but now I had to have more W.i.t.c.h. Still in a severe melancholy I went in after work and looked through the children's DVD section. Nothing. No sign of the DVDs. Sigh... except, at the end of the very last shelf, I found one, and behind that the other two DVDs! All three DVDs that have been released so far, the only copies in the store, and they were all marked down by 25%. I left the store grinning like an idiot.

 

The next three DVDs which make up the rest of season one are due out in a month, and I will buy them, but I've already downloaded the rest of season 1 and all of season 2 and watched them all. I've read all 63 of the comics that are available online so far, plus the annual specials, plus the mini comics, and god help me, yes even the sticker book.

 

I desperately wanted to buy the comics, but they're simply not available here, and impossible to get delivered. But a funny thing happened in the USA: Disney decided that girls there don't read comics, so rather than release the comic they released 'chapter books'. These are books based on each comic issue. Presumably the name refers to the fact that like the comics each book only tells part of the story, as the comics generally take around 12 issues to cover a story arc. Fortunately Disney relented and recently started publishing the comic in the USA by printing two issues at a time in a bi-monthly graphic novel. I managed to get the first two from an online retailer which can order stuff in directly from the USA without charging exorbitant freight. The next five (all that's out so far) I had to order myself from a USA mail order seller, I have this year's UK annual on order, and the TV soundtrack CD is on its way from the UK.

 

[Oh! wow. I just found they released an official music video for one of the songs. The girls are done in CGI! That is so cool]

 

So that's my story. When I read the comics again will they be as good as I remember? Probably not. I know my memories will have been effected by my emotional state at the time, which is why I wanted to record this now before I forget. Since I'm doing it anyway someone else may as well get to read it too.