| Courtney Crumrin | |
|---|---|
 Cover to Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Oni Press |
| Schedule | various |
| Format | Limited series |
| Publication date | March 13, 2002 - Ongoing |
| No. of issues | 13 (Including Courtney Crumrin Tales) + 10 (2012 series) |
| Main character(s) | Courtney Crumrin, Aloysius Crumrin, Miss Crisp, Butterworm |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Ted Naifeh |
| Artist(s) | Ted Naifeh |
Courtney Crumrin is an independent comic book series written and illustrated by Ted Naifeh and released through Oni Press.
Publication history
Courtney Crumrin was originally published as a limited series of 12 comics compiled into three books entitled Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things, Courtney Crumrin and the Coven of Mystics, and Courtney Crumrin in the Twilight Kingdom. Two shorter books entitled Courtney Crumrin and the Fire-Thief's Tale and Courtney Crumrin & the Prince of Nowhere followed, then compiled into a fourth volume Courtney Crumrin's Monstrous Holiday. They pick up from the end of book 12 where Courtney is invited to join her uncle on a trip to Prague.
During the summer of 2005, Naifeh released a one-shot entitled Courtney Crumrin Tales, which focused on Courtney's Uncle Aloysius as a young man. A short color prelude has also appeared in Oni Press Color Special 2002.
In April 2012 Oni Press and Ted Naifeh started a new ongoing series, simply titled Courtney Crumrin, for the first time created in color.[1] This series ran for ten issues and was collected in two volumes, Courtney Crumrin: The Witch Next Door and Courtney Crumrin: The Final Spell.
Naifeh was quoted in 2013 as saying "[I]f I feel drawn back to Courtney's world, I may take another trip there someday. It's not a completely closed door."[2]
Characters
- Courtney Crumrin - A young girl who is an outcast at school and ignored by her parents. When her parents move in with her Uncle Aloysius she discovers she can do magic.
- Aloysius Crumrin - An old man who has shunned public life, but the Coven often asks him to do their dirty work. A powerful warlock who loves Courtney deeply.
- Courtney's parents - Two people who seem to not care that they have a child and are often off in a world of their own. Considered banal by the upper class of Hillsborough.
- Ms. Calpurnia Crisp - Courtney's school teacher. She is in fact a witch herself, doing a favor for Aloysius, watching over Courtney.
- Butterworm - A goblin that lives in the forest by Courtney's home. He often helps Courtney out but he still seems to be up to no good.
- Butterbug - Butterworm's little brother. Can't speak properly because his tongue is too big.
- Boo & Quick - Two cats of the neighborhood who can talk and brought Courtney along to witness the selection of a new leader among the cats.
- Tobermory - A huge, scarred cat; former leader of the cats of Hillsborough. Was wounded and lost his left eye fighting a huge Mastiff, The Hound of Radley Hall.
- The Dreadful Dutchess - A night thing from the Twilight Kingdom who has begrudgingly helped out Courtney on several occasions because of Courtney's relationship with Skarrow. Her familiars are giant cats.
- Skarrow - The Dutchess's "son", in actuality a human, and Courtney's beloved friend in her new town. He lived for centuries in the underworld, then left it, searching for human affection.
- The Twilight King - Ruler of the Twilight Kingdom. He was the spirit of the forest on the surface, but Human activity drove him and his subjects underground. His queen stayed "in the dwindling wilds of the earth until they were no more". He rides a horse and wears a crown of barren branches.
- Tommy Rawhead & Bloody Bones - "The Worst Goblin That Ever Was", a giant hobgoblin that is feared by other night things and wizards alike. Magic has no effect on him as he has been "accurs'd one hundredfold".
Trade Paperback Volumes
The 7 volumes of the series come both in paperback and hardcover, and they are the following:
- Volume 1: Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things - ISBN 1-929998-60-0
- Volume 2: Courtney Crumrin and the Coven of Mystics - ISBN 1-929998-59-7
- Volume 3: Courtney Crumrin in the Twilight Kingdom - ISBN 1-932664-01-7
- Volume 4: Courtney Crumrin's Monstrous Holiday ( This is a collected edition of:
Volume 5: The Witch Next Door ISBN 978-1-934964-96-5
This volume has five chapters:
Chapter one (Page 9 to page 31): Describes the history of Aloysius, Herma Harker and his father, Heronoymous Harker, he tried to use Herma to gain access to Aloysious House and eliminate him whom saw as the source of the punishment received by coven members that broke Ravanna's law.
Chapter two (page 35 to page 56): Introduces Courtneys new neighbor, Holly, whom became Courtney's friend.
Chapter three (page 35 to page 56): Holly befriends the other classmates who tell their point of view of Courtney and her effects on the school kids.
Chapter four (page 59 to page 80): Holly go with Courtney to Gobbling Town, gives honeysuckle nectar obtained in a previous trip, she tried to make Courtney drink the nectar but Courtney exchanged previously. Holly got slept and is captured, the Courtney is also captured.
In some editions the pages are mixed in a wrong order in the section from page 51 to page 81. The page 49 should be followed by the pages 60 to 74, and after the page 74 continues pages 51 to 59. The second half of page 59 marks this division, this is clear on the page 56, when Holly starts telling Courtney the child names told by the other classmates on the pages 60 to 74.
Chapter five (Pages 83- 129): Cortney confront "the lord of the hunt", and is helped by Templeton, then is rescued by Aloysius and Calpurnia Crisp.
Volume 6: The Final Spell - ISBN 978-1-620100-18-9
Chapter one:It starts with the story of Aloysius and his brother Wilberforce when they were child and explored Goblin Town with his brother, they were trapped by the Dreadful Dutches, but decided to keep only one as his child and let them decide, Aloysius choose that Will will stay with the Dutchess and returned home, one hundred years later Aloysius was dying due old age while his brother had the same child age as wen he enter Goblin Town. It continue with Courtney and Calpurnia escaping from the
Chapter two: Aloysius, Trianne and Isobel (his daughter) reach Calpurnia and Courtney but they escape and hide at Mrs. Wrathum house. Aloysius reach them and is not afraid of Mrs. Wrathum Golems, instead of it he control and calls her Cerridwen.
Chapter three: Calpurnia fought with Aloysius but faints while Courtney hide and Calpurnia is taken to the council. Aloysius go to Courtneys bedroom looking for her diary and her mother give it to him. Courtney hides in the Dutchess castle and speaks with will and tries to convince him that maybe Aloysius let him with the Dutchess for his own good.
Chapter four: Aloysius go to the castle and fight with will in his animal form and hurts him and is able to sleep courtney and take her to the council. In the page 100 Aloysius speaks during Courtneys trial seen it no as a trial for Courtney or him, but as a trial for the whole council for his own part and finds all of them guilty but hi was too weak and Courtney is sentenced as be no longer a witch.
Chapter five: Courtney forgets that she is a witch and is bullied by her classmates again, her mother tries to make her feel better and take her to buy clothes. Aloysius asks Courtney to read the diary for him. While Aloysius is dying at the hospital he akss her to read the diary and she remembers her life and goes to the council and make everyone there to forgot that they are witches. The Dutchess visits Aloysius and offers to replace Will with him.
The next day she wakes up, the family is moving and her new “brother” Will wakes up to join to the family, they are happy since Aloysious left them everything except the house that was left to Calpurnia.
Volume 7: Tales of a Warlock (Prequels) - ISBN 978-1-620100-19-6
Tales of a Warlock tells the story about the Crumrin family and Aloysius as a young and adult warlock.
Courtney Crumrin Tales: A Portrait of the Warlock as a Young Man - ISBN 1-932664-32-7
This books explores the origins of the Crumrin family, Aloysios early years.
Courtney Crumrin Tales Volume 2: The League of Ordinary Gentlemen - ISBN 978-1-934964-68-2
Aloysious works for a lawyer that also runs an agency that investigate supernatural crimes, Aloysious gets engaged with his daughter and at the same time joins helps their organization without telling them that he is a warlock, when his fiance discover his secret got scare and the relationship ends, she gets married with one of the detectives of the organization.
The Crumrin Chronicles (Sequels)
The Crumrin Chronicles Vol. 1: The Charmed and the Cursed
The book starts with a two pages introduction named “Alchemy, magic and love”, on it Ted Naifeh quoted Carl Gustav Jung phrase: The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed. It continues talking about alchemy and its use to transform one substance into another, about transcendental love and how love can transform the person that loves when puts the loved person first and at the same times sacrifices the self interest, and sometimes the person that is loved. This is followed with a Martin Luther King phrase: Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. Then tells about Kelly Crumrin, a writer and Ted Naifeh partner in 2002, he named Courtney Crumrin after her.
The books explores the life of Aloysius brother Will in high school, since he lived one hundred years as a child he speaks different and behave in a different way, Courtney gives him a charm that makes all the school alumni admire him. Their parents works at Eclipse, a five years old company that is growing and it's CEO is a vampire that was underground afraid of Aloysius while he was alive, but when he realizes that Courtney is a warlock apprentice and Aloysius relative tries to enslave her as a vampire. Will and his friend used his grandmother's book that traps whom reads it into the story and made him read it and he gets trapped inside the book.
The Crumrin Chronicles Vol. 2: The Lost and the Lonely
Is the most recent installment of Crumrin series, it was published on October 25, 2022.
Film adaptation
On July 27, 2007, DreamWorks Pictures, Walter Parkes and Laurie McDonald acquired the film rights to this comic book title as a collaboration with Oni Press's film production arm Closed by Monday Entertainment along with a film adaptation of The Damned.[3]
References
- ↑ "Oni Press: Courtney Crumrin #1 2012". Archived from the original on 16 June 2012. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
- ↑ Pitts, Lan (2013-03-22). "COURTNEY CRUMRIN Wraps, but Naifeh Has New Plans". newsarama.com. Newsarama. Retrieved 2014-07-02.
- ↑ McClintock, Pamela (July 27, 2007). "DreamWorks drawn to comic pair". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
