Sorcery 101

Infobox Webcomic
title = Sorcery 101


caption =
author = Kel McDonald
url = http://sorcery101.net/
status = M W F
began = May 12 2005
ended =
genre = Fantasy
ratings =

"Sorcery 101" is a webcomic written and illustrated by Kel McDonald. Launched on May 12 2005, the comic was originally drawn in black and white, but became full color on August 19, 2005.

Kel McDonald is currently a Junior at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah Georgia, where she is majoring in Sequential Art. Originally from Waltham, Massachusetts, the author returns there regularly to visit her parents.

Sorcery 101 first appeared on Comicgenesis and moved to Keenspot on July 27 2006. The story, which is updated on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, chronicles the life of Danny Gunn, a school teacher who is also an aspiring sorcerer. Many of the characters in this comic appeared in Veiled Truths [citeweb|url=http://www.comicatalog.com/interview02112006.htm|title=Interview with Kel McDonald, author and artist of "Sorcery 101"] , which McDonald originally wrote in seventh grade. While the comic has a largely supernatural cast, the storyline deals primarily with interpersonal relationships and is thematically more similar to Friends than Harry Potter. The comic presents werewolves, vampires, and demons as essentially "normal" people dealing with their own talents and limitations.

The comic also examines the nature of humanity, presenting traditionally evil creatures as nurturing parents, friends, and even husbands and wives. Drawing, perhaps inadvertently, on Existential theory, the author asks us to consider the human condition and attempts to find meaning and assign a soul through actions and subjective experiences rather than birthright. The story questions, on a fundamental level, what makes us human.

tory

"Sorcery 101" follows the life and troubles of Danny Gunn who is the former prince of Terra (which is a fictional country of the Sorcery 101 universe based roughly on England), but is now a sorcerer-in-training (as well as a private school teacher). Along with a myriad cast of his friends and acquaintances, including but not limited to: (1) his best friend Brad Wolfe; (2) Brad's wife Ally and their daughter Rebecca; (3) Danny's teacher: the vampire Pat Warren, (4) the enigmatic elder vampire Seth, who has his own plans for Danny.

The story is set on a modern world closely resembling our own, but there are notable differences. In the series vampires, demons, and werewolves have recently been discovered to be real, though most residents of this world still believe they are a hoax. The comic has a feel different from most supernatural comics. [cite web|url=http://comicsnexus.insidepulse.com/articles/50325|title=Looking To The Stars - Gazing On The Internet|last=Morrison|first=Matt] The story has modern firearms in use as well as ancient magics; cities and countries are named differently, but nevertheless seem to "match up" to real-world countries (example Terra=England). Curiously, the film "Star Wars" appears to have been made in Sorcery 101 world, as well as the TV show "," and other works of pop culture. There are comics that are mildly amusing but the main focus is on the story. [citeweb|url=http://www.argosy.ca/view.php?aid=39159|title=Arts & Literature: Webcomics: Sorcery 101|last=Draper|first=Tristam]

Characters

Main Cast

Danny Gunn

Danny Gunn is the main character of the comic. He was born the prince of Terra but gave up his royal heritage after forming a blood bond with Seth. The comic begins several years afterward and because the blood bond has also stopped his aging, he looks younger than his 35 years. [cite web|url=http://sorcery101.net/d/20050822.html|title=Sorcery 101 - Monday, August 22, 2005|last=McDonald|first=Kel|accessdate=2005-08-22—Explanation of a blood bond] Throughout that comic it has been revealed that he is easily distracted by members of the opposite sex and that he is a chain smoker. Some time before the comic began he moved in with his friends, Brad and Ally Wolfe, in order to help babysit their rambunctious and preternaturally strong, 5-year-old werewolf daughter named Rebecca.

Thus far Danny has been seen casting healing spells and learning fire spells in the comic, although according to Pat he also knows some powerful light spells.

Danny has an ex-wife and a seven-year old daughter named Natalie, both of whom have appeared in the story so far. Danny is currently a teacher at a private all boys high school wherein Jeff and Connor are in his class. He also has a tattoo of the batman logo on his butt.

He has recently been bitten on the hand by Brad when he nearly fell into a swamp. In the current story arc, "And out came the Wolves," he has since had his tail cut off, thereby making himself a human again.

Brad Wolfe

Brad Wolfe is a werewolf who has been friends with Danny for a long time. Thus far he has been shy and non-confrontational. The only time he has shown any violent behavior was when Ally was injured during the story arc Wild Things. [citeweb|url=http://sorcery101.net/d/20051230.html|title=Sorcery 101 - Friday, December 30, 2005|last=McDonald|first=Kel|accessdate=2005-12-30—Brad's response to Ally being hurt ]

It was mentioned that being a werewolf gives him increased strength even while in human form. Brad also sports other wolf-like characteristics all through Sorcery 101 while in human form, such as being colorblind.

Like Danny, Brad also looks younger than he is. Brad is also a huge Star Wars nerd. [citeweb|url=http://sorcery101.net/d/20050701.html|title=Sorcery 101 - Friday, July 1, 2005|last=McDonald|first=Kel|accessdate=2005-07-01—Brad wanting to see Episode 3] And he has made several references to the movie through every story arch.

Pat Warren

Pat Warren is a vampire who is teaching Danny sorcery. He used to be an air mage who learned sorcery after getting turned into a vampire. His mage powers have since then [http://sorcery101.net/d/20051216.html faded] , leaving him to survive with his sorcery and vampiric gifts. Throughout the comic Pat has had a hostile disposition and has shown an instant dislike of Brad ever since they first met during the Introduction story arch. [cite web|url=http://sorcery101.net/d/20050624.html|title=Sorcery 101 - Friday, June 24, 2005 |last=McDonald|first=Kel|accessdate=2005-06-24—Pat and Brad meeting for the first time.] It is also implied that he is Ally's great-grandfather.

Ally Warren

Ally Warren is an air mage and demon hunter. She's married to Brad and the boss of the house Danny, Brad, Rebecca, and herself live in. She works at a bar frequented by demons. She has been shown to have a temper when it comes to people insulting her family. [http://www.sorcery101.net/d/20051212.html] .

Rebecca Wolfe

5-year-old daughter of the character's Brad and Ally. She has inherited lycanthropy from Brad, making her hard to handle for anyone who isn't a werewolf.

eth

Seth is the vampire character Danny is blood bond to. Since he first appeared during the Predator storyline he has been portrayed as a smooth, suave, and almost sociopathic guy. He has created a blood bond with Danny and apparently has a claim on Brad. He keeps an eye over them both (more often than not at the promise of scotch). He is apparently quite famous in the vampiric community, with legends that he may be a storm god, the Antichrist or (his favorite rumor) that he was kicked out of Hell for fear of taking it over. He is also shown to be able to endure sunlight without dying.

Minor cast

Suryu

Suryu is a prominent vampire who runs the shape shifter auction Jeff gets caught by. She seems to for one reason or another hate [http://sorcery101.net/d/20060508.html Seth's sire] while at the same time [http://sorcery101.net/d/20060707.html lusting after Seth] .

Aaron and Loki

Aaron and Loki are a team of mercenaries hired by Seth to assist him Brad and Danny in rescuing Jeff from Suryu's shape shifter auction.

Jeff

Jeff is one of the students in the class Danny teaches. He and Connor are friends. During the comic he started out normal, after being alone with Rebecca [http://sorcery101.net/d/20060310.html chain of events] he became a werewolf. He's now Rebecca's babysitter.

Connor

Connor is another one of the students in Danny's class. He's Jeff's friend and also seems to have fun making up rumors, namely ones [http://sorcery101.net/d/20060306.html about Danny being gay] .

Melanie

The girl Danny is going out with. Is often portrayed wearing a T-shirt that reads "MBI" standing for "Male Body Inspector."

Natalie

Danny's daughter.

William

Pat's friend who runs a magic shop.

More info on the main characters, as well as minor characters of the comic, can be found at [http://sorcery101.net/characterpage.html Character Bios]

Chapters

Introduction - Here most of the main cast is introduced (with the exception of Seth). Danny has a sorcery lesson from Pat. Brad and Danny go to rent a movie but Danny gets into an argument with a kid that claims to know necromancy but is almost as inept, if not more, at magic of any type as Danny.

Predators - Danny drives Ally to work and runs into a female snake demon. The snake demon invites him back to her hotel room and once there she robs Danny. Since Brad is at the movies, Ally is at work, and Pat is sleeping, Danny is forced to ask Seth for help.

Life Lessons - One of Danny's students steals his spell book and tries to cast a love spell on the girl he likes. It backfires and ends up affecting Connor instead.

Wild Things - Danny and Brad are captured by a group of wolf demons. Ally and Pat come to the rescue and quickly defeat the demons. Ally, Brad, and Danny go home while Pat chases after the demons that fled. Pat finds the demons killed before he can reach them. A few days later Danny is baby sitting Rebecca while tutoring Jeff. Danny takes a cigarette break and leaves the room. Rebecca ends up biting Jeff. Ally and Danny go to stake out his house that next full moon but unfortunately Jeff is out drinking with his friend Connor. Jeff ends up puking in an alley and transforms shortly after. Two vampires capture him and he is put up for auction. Seth sees Jeff and later mentions it in passing to Danny. Danny, Brad, and Seth then go to rescue Jeff from a vampire named Suryu, who is the one selling him. Seth comes up with a master plan and ends up in a duel with her.

Responsibilities - Ally, Danny, and Pat go help Ally's cousin Rita handle a gang of demons.

Old Allies - While retrieving a book for Pat, Danny learns about Pat's past from William.

Out Come the Wolves - Danny is accidentally bit by Brad while a bounty hunter is trying to kill Brad.

Business as Usual - Ally, Brad, and Danny break Ally's mom out of prison.

Migraines - Danny tries to find out what is wrong with his daughter in this chapter.

References

External links

* [http://sorcery101.net/ Sorcery 101]
* [http://forums.keenspot.com/viewforum.php?f=112 Sorcery 101 Forum]
* [http://community.livejournal.com/dannysdomain/ Danny's Domain: Livejournal Community]
* [http://www.comicatalog.com/interview02112006.htm Comic Catalog Interview with Author]
* [http://www.argosy.ca/view.php?aid=39159 Review in Argosy University Newspaper]
* [http://comixpedia.org/index.php/Sorcery_101 Comixpedia article]
* [http://piperka.net/info.html?cid=666 Piperka profile]
* [http://comicsnexus.insidepulse.com/articles/50325 Insidepulse Review]