It’s 4/20 so you know what that means… We’re going to review a comic all about weed. Yeah, you read that right. Weed. And also “we”. See for once I’m not alone in this review. Given the subject matter I felt it needed a more, uh, informed opinion. Over to the one person I know who has a medical card – our owner Jenn. Her review will be along shortly, if she manages to actually focus long enough to write it that is.
We discovered Weed Magic during a stolen hour on the con floor at NYCC last year. I was drawn over by the massive poster in the booth with the tagline “Red Eyes. Full Bong. Can’t Lose”. After a chat with writer Brian Phillipson and a brief flick through #1 I was sold.
I apologise in advance (well, kinda) for the puns.
Hollywood, California. It’s 4/20 and two lovable stoners – Moe and his best friend Bunny – find themselves (and the whole city) completely dry. When local vagabond My$tic gifts the boys a strange and exotic strain of cannabis (along with a cryptic warning), Moe and Bunny soon discover that this “magic” weed provides potent yet fleeting super-human powers of body and mind. The love child of “Pineapple Express” and “The Greatest American Hero,” Weed Magic will delight the sober and stoned alike. Red Eyes. Full Bong. Can’t Lose.
Weed Magic
Put bluntly (hehe) this series is surreal and funny as hell. And I read it stone cold sober on a Monday afternoon!
Issue #1 introduces our heroes Bunny and Moe and gives us a glimpse into what the magic weed is capable of. Cue a bonkers montage, meeting some beautiful ladies, and the rescue of some wild animals. Moe works as a Law Clerk and once our heroes find their powers, they decide to use them for good. Sort of. By helping solve some of the backlog of cases at the office where Moe works. If you can lay hands on the extended Dealer’s Cut then do it, cos it adds a hell of a lot to the story.
#1 is fun, but #2 is where things get really fun. Accompanied by Emily and Grace our heroes find themselves transported back to biblical times in search of the lost seed that could grow more of the good stuff. And when I say Biblical Times I mean Sodom and Gomorrah, and selfies with Jesus. Ever wondered about that Burning Bush? Well wonder no more!
I’m going to admit something. I wasn’t expecting these comics to be THIS good. Like. All around really good. The art by Alex Cormack elevates what’s already a really fun story to another level. There are visual references littered throughout the series – a pastiche of the Last Supper, Bob Ross, King Kong (or should that be King Bong?), and The Evil Dead were among those I noticed. There’s also an actual plot. It’s a little hazy in places, but if you squint through the smoke you can see it. That and the humour were what kept me reading.
Now #3, subtitled Appetite For Munchies, is where things start to get really interesting. See it’s not just all stoner humour and fart jokes. Although there are fart jokes. The last few pages of this issue set up a menacing bad guy lurking in the shadows who wants the magic for himself.
The Future
I’m genuinely looking forward to #4 to find out how things unfold after that cliffhanger. For the first time ever I say roll on 4/20!
If you wanna check out Weed Magic for yourself then issues 1-3 are already available. All issues are priced at… you guessed it. $4.20! You can buy from Bliss on Tap publishing. Issue 4 was originally due out on Wednesday (the closest NCBD to 4/20 but alas, due to the Covid-19 pandemic things have been put on hold. We will bring you a review of that as soon as we get it.
Hey, Jenn here new comic-book reviewer and full-time stoner. Clare has been dying to get me to read comics for ages, and when we were at New York Comic-Con, and I saw a sign that said 420 and found these comics, I knew I had to load my bong, and take a ride and this is my Weed Magic – Comic Review!
My challenge IF I chose to accept it via, our editor, Clare, get high and start reading… this Is what happened. Weed Magic – Comic Review.
I am glad I was talked into this easy read. I started laughing and chuckling from the first second I started reading and not just because I was lit. Bunny and Moe are all of us. Today is the ultimate 420 day well, we all needed to be prepared. Personally I have been preparing for today for a month, but it’s not about me, it’s about Bunny and Moe and their epic Weed Magic adventure.
When the comic starts, our two boys are on a quest for the best weed for the holiday, sadly they waited so long it was all gone. Don’t fret dudes, they have a friend (Mystic) and he hooks them up with some primo stuff for the occasion and then some. If you know any stoners, they heard the keywords Weed, high, epic high, magical high, weed, pot, free.
Mystic does tell them basic things like, this is the last of its kind, smoke wisely, gives you powers, makes you smarter… but any stoner just heard…
They soon find out, that it does make them smarter, and they can do things that they couldn’t do before and well, best high ever man… and they want to help more…
Our boys go on a second adventure, that has them meeting girls, getting a talking monkey, and well smoking out Jesus. Yes, that, Jesus. I mean they are smart heroes now, what can go wrong? The boys are on a quest for more of the seeds to plant more. I mean if it’s that epic, who wouldn’t want to share. I mean there have been times when I found what is the “epic” strain for the best high ever man, and you just want to share, so I got it right away.
I don’t remember the last time I was genuinely laughed and giggled out loud when reading something, but this was it for me.
I mean once you smoke out Jesus, what more epic shit can happen? I mean I can’t fathom anything better or more epic right? Well for one fart jokes, well actually not better, just an enhancement.
By the time I got to the third installment of the series, I was hooked. I mean it’s not just about the weed, it’s funny as hell. There is a storyline and plot and it keeps growing throughout the three books out. The fourth book is coming, just delayed because of that little pandemic that’s plaguing us (insert sarcastic tone here).
I mean we need more after, Appetite For Munchies. We meet a villain, an old friend comes back to say hi, they clearly are getting laid now (they hooked up those girls from The Smoke of Hell), and there is that cliffhanger…
I am new to comics, and I know that this will not be my last time visiting this new land for me, even if it’s not 420. For a better and clearer review of these comics check out Clare’s non-lit review here.
Happy 420! Like all of you, we’re staying home chilling, keeping it on the down-low & trying to do our part.
So with comic book stores currently closed and distribution on hold, Weed Magic No.4 won’t be released today, but it will find its way on to the shelf of your local shop once the world opens up again. In the meantime, enjoy some out of sequence art panels from the latest issue.
Take care of yourselves and may we all have a little more weed & magic this year.
“Laced with humor from the first page to the last panel…” – High Times Magazine
ORDER NUMBER: FEB201592
Published by Bliss on Tap
(W) Brian Phillipson, Jordan Lichtman (A/CA) Alex Cormack
Rescuing a talking chimpanzee from an animal testing facility? Check. Smoking out Jesus? Check. Defeating a 420-foot woman terrorizing Hollywood? Check. What adventures await in Weed Magic No.4? It's time for a road trip to Las Vegas! While Moe and Bunny accompany the girls of Blue Dream to their concert at the 420 Festival in Area 51, Senator Dimples and Irv must navigate government drones, some unsavory business types from Irv's past and literal visitors from another planet.
One author who was far from shy on the pot topic was Brian Phillipson, the co-founder and president of Bliss on Tappublishing. I wasn’t surprised as his booth was one of the only places where I could find cannabis in comics at this and last year’s New York Comic Con. They publish Weed Magic, a comic book series which had its first issue released during the week of 4/20/17.
There have been two follow up issues since, both released on the weeks of 4/20 in the following years with every copy costing $4.20. And odes to the stoner holiday don’t end there. If you took a hit every time you saw those numbers in the first issue, you might find yourself in a kush coma before reaching the last panel.
Laced with humor from the first page to the last panel, Weed Magic features the tale of two friends that fail to get weed on 4/20 before the dispensaries in LA sold out. So, they decide to cop buds from a man in an alley while desperate to score some smoke for the holiday. He claimed it was magic but they didn’t take it seriously. It wasn’t until they smoked half of their supply and gained superpowers that they realized they were the caretakers of the last of this magical weed. HT: Do you read many comics and graphic novels? BP: Yes. HT: Have you seen any other comics featuring pot? BP: Not so much in comics that I’ve read. The stories aren’t matching how many people smoke weed. HT: Did you have any concerns before releasing Weed Magic? BP: Yes. Weed Magicwas one of my earlier ideas. First off, it was mid-2000’s so I thought, “can you get away with it? Will a distributor put it in stores? Can I sell it for $4.20?” And there were the nagging thoughts of “someone is going to do this, someone is going to do this,” and every year no one did it. But so many comic writers are stoners and so many stoners read comics. That’s when I thought, someone has got to do it and it’s going to be me. So, I finally ask the distributor “are we allowed to put this out?” and they started cracking up which was the first good sign. So I followed up with “well you’re not going to let me sell them for $4.20, right? And they responded “THAT’S GENIUS!” So I’m like, “how come no one is doing this?!” HT: I guess you found the right distributor. BP: Not even, it was Diamond, the same distributor of Marvel and DC comics. HT: So there’s no conspiracy? Then why aren’t more people including cannabis in their comics? Are they just not passionate about it? BP: I feel like people are self-censoring themselves… Or they’re scared. Or they don’t want to be outed as a consumer or advocate. HT: But they’re not afraid to portray nudity, violence, cursing and other R rated content in their comics. BP: That’s funny, I’ve actually been asked if I was worried about kids coming across it [Weed Magic] and I responded that they probably shouldn’t be reading it but they can also find a hot girl in a G string at the next booth that nobody is worried about. HT: Is there something that sets Weed Magic apart from other attempts at a comic series that may have featured cannabis in some way? BP: Well, to start, it’s meant to be read in a certain state of mind. We are also raising the bar higher, no pun intended. Alex Cormack brings higher quality illustrations to our pages than you’d expect from a stoner comic. And my co-writer Jordan Lichtman is a General Counsel who has always been up front about his cannabis use and never afraid to advocate for the cause. So far, it’s been well-received and now we’re even sponsored by our local dispensary in Los Angeles.
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