Greg Rucka's and Nicola Scott's Black Magick

One of Nicola Scott's rare panels that employs colouring, which appears only when the
characters perform witchcraft or magick is present.

Comic-book writer Greg Rucka's and artist Nicola Scott's Black Magick series deserves a mention again because it's head and shoulders beyond the depiction of magic, particularly Wicca, in other comics of the medium. Add to that Scott's drop-dead gorgeous art and Rucka's compelling script with flawed, complex, as well as strong, heroine Rowan Black, and this comic book is an example of just how good comic books can be.

The classically rendered faces of the characters and the high attention to the details of Wicca are superb. There's the element of film noir with private detective Rowan Black, combined with witchcraft and an ages-old witch hunt. The story is set in Portsmouth, a fictional U.S. city, where Rucka draws on a well of fictional local history, adding a layer of mythology that might not be possible setting Black Magick a in U.S. city that might be too relatively young to achieve the sense of history he is aiming for. The book has a great ominous vibe, a complex character in the underachieving witch (but very competent cop) Black, and her complex relationship with her hunky co-worker.

Two trade paperbacks in and I'm a recent convert. Highly recommended.

(Disclaimer: This book will ruin you for reading about Wicca in most other comics.)