Episode 020: The Witch Boy
“Even magic has rules…
Everyone in Aster’s family is born with magic. Boys grow up to be shapeshifters; girls into witches. No exceptions.
But Aster can’t seem to get the hang of shapeshifting. Instead, he spends his time spying on the witchery lessons the girls are getting. He seems to have a knack for casting spells and wants to know more, but the only person he can share his growing gift with is Charlie, a girl from the non-magical side of town.
Then, during a night of shapeshifting practice, one of the boys goes missing. Aster knows he can search for the boy with the witchcraft he’s been secretly learning. Could breaking his family’s most important tradition save the day - or ruin everything?”
This is actually Molly’s middle-grade graphic model debut
This week we are reviewing “The Witch Boy”, a comic by Molly Knox Ostertag, where a boy is pushing back against the societal roles imposed when wishing to learn how to be a witch like the rest of the girls in his family. I felt this would be another good fit for November as it uses a clever way of highlighting the societal gender roles members of the queer community have to push against with a supernatural focus.
You can either listen to the podcast above, or you can read below for a majority of the transcript of the podcast! Now as always, our discussion will begin with a brief summary of the comic followed by spoiler free thoughts and feelings. This will be followed by an in-depth discussion of some of the key plot points that occurred and we will then finish off with my overall rating of the comic and a heads up about what we are looking at next time. If you have not had a chance to read The Witch Boy and don’t want to hear any spoilers, then please feel free to skip the detailed section and listen to it afterwards if you so wish.
Right from the get go, I have to say I really enjoyed the premise of this story and how the author has taken a societal construct such as gender & their perceived roles, and managed to frame this in a clever supernatural setting. Although it’s maybe slightly on the nose in the presentation, I do like how the gender role debate is set within a magical setting to make it slightly easier for younger readers to absorb.
As it is a graphic novel, the visual element is quite key in conveying the story, and the style chosen by the creator works well with the intended audience of the story. With it being a middle-grade graphic novel, its visual design is not too complex or challenging, but detailed enough that it is still engaging. I quite like the bold use of colours as it keeps things simple but still engaging and really complements the story that is being told.
In terms of representation, the key LGBTQ+ representation is given by our man character Aster who is a very clear allegory for trans and gender non-conforming people who wish to be able to live their lives on way, but are told its not within the acceptable rules society has decided we all have to follow. As well as this really strong queer representation, we do also have some explicitly representation too, with not just one of Aster’s family members having two mothers, but his best friend Charlie has two dads. It’s a nice balance that gives both homosexual and lesbian relationships some time here as well as the trans narrative story.
And finally, for the spoiler free section I also just want to give a short out to the extras both at the front of the graphic novel and at the end. In the front you have a family tree that is very helpful in helping to see how everyone in the family is related, and I did refer back to it a few times as even with comics I sometimes have facial blindness (especially if they are all related and so will have similar physical traits at times). Then in the back of the paperback version there are some short notes about the designs of the characters and their clothing, which is always nice to get some more insight into the creators thoughts when creating media.
Final Feelings and Recommendation
Now, who to recommend this to? Well if you are a younger person questioning what your gender may be, or you are a parent or carer of a younger person asking these questions, it is definitely worth your time reading this. I would also say this is a nice light read for anyone not wanting something too heavy in terms of visual presentation or overall story.
Overall, I would give this comic a strong 7 out of 10 buckets of scrying water. Its a brilliant allegory for any gender non-conforming person to hear, and its done in a very light hearted and colourful way.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Now, just a reminder that at this point, I will be going into a more detailed analysis of the comic which means there will be spoilers! If you haven’t managed to read The Witch Boy yet and you don’t want anything spoiled, then this is your last chance to avoid the discussion. Or you can go ahead and close the page, go read the comic and then come back afterwards to finish reading. I promise I won’t mind. Still here? Well then, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The graphic novel quickly launches into a lesson for all the female members of the household, where we catch Aster, our main character, spying on the lesson due to the strict rules they have within the family. We are quickly shown that within the household there is a strict ruling that only females can learn magic while the males have to learn shapeshifting all because tradition says so. I mean if that doesn’t sound familiar to a lot of us in regards to societal pressures of expected gender roles, what would haha.
We have Aster’s mother Holly explain to them, and us, about the reason for this rule. Grandmother had a twin called Mikasi who once learned the spells the girls were learning, and in turn became corrupted and lost control of his power, resulting in him becoming a ferocious beast. This caused a lot of damage and he disappeared with a family treasure, so it is understandable why the family would be apprehensive about allowing the mingling of magic lessons. But at the same point, the family has taken the wrong route to trying to protect itself by enforcing such a binary system upon the kids as they grow up.
Aster gets roped into playing with the other boys in the family, although some of them are less than thrilled to have him involved in their games. It’s something that resonated with me and probably a lot of the queer community, especially those who were lumped into playing with the boys, where they almost seem to instinctively know the person who isn’t like them and subtly (or sometimes not so subtly) try and push them out of that social circle.
This isn’t the only time others offer comments into Aster’s life, with his sister asking if he wouldn’t enjoy dinner more by eating it with the boys instead of the rest of the girls or when his parents talk about this wanting to do witchery as just a phase. Ugh. Nothing like family members making you feel uncomfortable in your own skin. At least when his grandmother overhears him practising witchery, she just says if you're going to do it, do it right!
With all these microaggressions taking place, it is no wonder Aster wanders past the house boundaries one day to get some peace and quiet. However they really need to be a bit more careful in their surroundings since a human has caught them practising witchery on a bush! Thankfully they seem nice and a little awkward, and so we have the start of a special friendship being born.
Soon we have the night of the ritual that has been hinted at, where all the boys will be able to meet the spirit animal that will help them unlock their full shapeshifting abilities. Unsurprisingly this is not a night that Aster has been looking forward to, especially since they don’t feel this is the kind of magic for them. Yet there is no escaping going through family obligations when your family won’t listen to you when you say something isn’t you, something I am sure we can all vibe with as something we grew up experiencing.
One of the other boys, Sedge, sees a red spirit and accidentally follows it across the boundary stones of the house, where he is promptly kidnapped by the spirit. The family goes into panic mode looking for Sedge, the men physically looking around while the witches prepare to scry for the boy, with Aster getting it out of his sister Juniper on how this is done. He then goes and attempts this himself and manages to actually get something, as it seems something is talking about hiding from the witches. See, almost as if enforcing strict gender boundaries limits us in what we can achieve!
Over the next few days the males of the family are all talking about needing to be strong to protect the witches, even if they can defend themselves if given enough time. Aster leaves home for a bit and bumps into Charlie again and they end up bonding over the fact that they both share experiences of people saying they have to fit into their gender stereotype. It’s always such a good thing when we can find those kindred spirits in life who can share our experiences.
When Aster does get home, it seems that Aquila and Tupelo are now missing too. This leads to the girls being taught how to defend themselves the next day, being shown four tools that can serve as weapons, as the fifth is mentioned as missing. Mmmm I smell foreshadowing!
By now we know to expect Aster to be spying on these lessons, and sadly the other boys in the family catch him doing this and call him down. It’s here where they start questioning if he has something to do with the missing kids, finally deciding to pick on the outsider of the group it seems. They push him about, transform into their animal forms, and keep harassing him to do the same. But instead Aster lashes out and does witchery on them before freaking out that now they know what he can do and running off to hide somewhere.
As nightime comes in, Aster stumbles into a creature that seems to act like Sedge, and luckily his mum appears to capture them just as they try to attack. While he is trapped the mysterious red light from before taunts Sedge, while the parents talk about how he has been twisted into the worst creature possible. Eventually Sedge does get better and is able to provide some insight into what happened to him and the others, but not enough for the others to be able to do anything.
Aster does try to reach out to both his aunt and mother to offer his help, but they are both too stuck in their binary ways of thinking to actually accept the help that is being offered. Then when in bed reading over a pilfered witch book, the red creature visits Aster to try and lure him to join him with the promises of a powerful shape shifting form, clearly not knowing who his audience is as he judges based on nothing but appearance. Yet Aster doesn’t have to decide right away and so is hit with a silencing spell to make sure he doesn’t blab about what has been discussed and leaves a way to contact them when they have made up their mind.
At this point, Aster is confiding in Charlie that maybe it would be better to take up the creature's offer since at least he can make his parents happy by finally being able to transform. It's so sad that regardless of the means of getting there, Aster considers this since he can make his parents happy in the end by doing the ‘right’ kind of things, as we know some people will do this in life and live a false life just to keep others happy. Thank fuck we have Charlie who talks some sense into him by sharing her experiences and reminding him not to be so dumb. We all seriously need a Charlie in our lives to keep us grounded and remind us to live our true lives.
Charlie sneaks over later, after having their leg healed by Aster, and together they plot to trick the creature and use the weapons from earlier that Aster spotted with the witches. When they do call the creature, a portal opens to a creepy red realm and Aster steps into it. Thankfully they are very clever and don’t give their name to the creature when it meets him, and it sneakily does the same. First rule of magic people! Names have power!
Aster is taken to a cave where he finds the other boys who seem to be under some very bad magic, half transformed and feasting on a rotten corpse of a deer. Unfortunately one of these boys lets Aster’s name slip out and the creature then strikes, grabbing Aster and taking this chance to taste his soul to find out his power and activate his spirit animal.
Now as we know, it's what's inside that counts, and finally someone else confirms Aster knows themselves better than others, as the creature cries out he tastes like a filthy witch! As this is happening, Aster spots the missing sword from earlier and realises that this creature was once Mikasi. After some quick tricks, he escapes with the other boys, gets them through the portal, and manages to trap Mikasi in a binding circle at home now that he has their name.
It is here that we get the full family history from the grandmother and how her brother had also wanted to learn witchery, but again it was kept from him due to the ‘rules’ put in place. This led to him becoming bitter over time due to the teasing, and so he went off and learned his own way, which did lead him to trying to shapeshift but then becoming a terrible monster and injuring his soul. It's such a clever way the creator highlights what can happen when people are forced into boxes that don’t reflect them just due to the rules, and it reminds me of the stories you will hear about children who will trying to bind their chests without any advice and then end up being seriously injured because people decided to impose their vision of that person upon them. Not to even mention the damage it does to one’s mental health being constantly denied your true self from those closest to you.
Grandmother also reveals she also had some form of shared abilities, just like her brother, as she changes her hand into a claw and wonders if the reason things went wrong for Mikasi was because he wasn’t meant to learn witchery, or if it was because he was shunned from wanting to do so. Grandmother lays down some sage advice to Aster’s parents, telling them to listen to him when he says he is a witch. Finally someone in the family willing to accept Aster knows themselves better than others do!
In the end we get a fairly happy conclusion to this tale, with Aster’s parents unsure of how they feel around this but they are willing to work through this. Meaning that Aster is allowed to study witchery, he gets to stay with his family, and he now has a positive and meaningful friendship with Charlie. Overall a fairly good conclusion!