This week for our Comic of the Week spotlight we look at another in the SpiderForest stable of comics: Cetiya by Mitsukaiten. This one is rated 16+ so you may not wish to open this if you are at work due to its content being NSFW. That being said, the comic touches on a unique world where magic is commonplace, but it is not your typical magic. The magic in this world is downloaded like software into the body of the person, thus making them a vessel for any spell that uses the natural energy of the body to power it. Think of it as our body as the computer, or hardware, with its own internal battery, where you would then download the software to run the program as a part of your normal function.

This cyberpunk comic, published every Wednesday, follows a man who has sacrificed his own identity, deleting memories of his life to give him more space on the hard drive that is his brain to use for spells. He wants to be the best at magic and doesn’t care what he loses or gives up to achieve that goal. Along with his partner, who just wants to forget everything, they strive to take out a powerful international crime syndicate against the wishes of their parent corporation in order to fix a mistake that happened a few years ago.

The comic explores all that make us who we are: love, memories, experiences, power and trust. It looks inside to see what makes us tick and what we would do to protect it, forget it or give it up, for whatever reason, power, remorse or just to disappear. Give it a try, you just might find yourself caught up in this world.

How often do you come across a comic that is based on a school musical that gets produced BEFORE the musical actually sees the light of day? Take your time…okay, so like me, you can’t think of any, right? Well, that’s where you’re wrong, my friends. This week’s comic spotlight is exactly that!

School Spirit, by Daniel VanderWerff, updated Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, tells the story of a group of kids, from their perspective, who attend Come-by-Chance Primary school somewhere in the countryside of Victoria, Australia. By luck, the school is located right next to a cemetery, populated by ghosts and spirits (and if you are catching on, this is where the spirit in School Spirit come from) which a new student at the school by the name of Casper meets and interacts with. The comic is well written (although sometimes, if you are not up with Australian slang, it takes a bit to translate, but fear not, Mr. V has a handy Strine dictionary link on his site) and takes you back to the day when you were a kid and the world was a magical place that grown ups never saw.

Do yourself a favor and put School spirit in your links of comics you read! You won’t be disappointed!

This week’s spotlight falls on The Only Half Saga by Denise Randall. This mature audience comic started in 2004 and has been building ever since. With a rich history and deep mythology, it features a half-vampires, warlocks, full vampires and the humans and other mythological characters they deal with, sometimes peacefully, other times in battles that span centuries. As Willow’s Grove is a comic site that is more PG-13, I won’t delve too deeply into the mature storylines that Only Half Sags deals with, but I do recommend checking it out and seeing for yourself. It is definitely worth the read, but be warned, Denise has a big archive, so you may find yourself up, late at night, when things go bump in the dark…be sure to leave plenty of lights on as the bump you hear may be a vampire wanting you to invite them in.