The Owl House is back, this time as a black-and-white graphic novel, while maintaining all the charm, weirdness, and magic that made the animated series so beloved. I finished reading the 150-page manga-inspired book about five minutes ago and instantly knew I had to write about it with tears still streaming down my face. In my last article on this IP, I covered a lot about its unfortunate and untimely series ending. Dana Terrace hasn’t been shy about her feelings toward working with Disney, which is why this book announcement shocked so many fans. As a lover of both animation and comics, I found that this follow-up, both in story and in format, was executed perfectly.
In The Long-Lived King, brought to us by Terrace, Mikki Crisotoma, Daun Han, and Rus Wooten, we follow King as he comes to terms with the fact that he will, at some point, outlive everyone he loves. When he tries to erase his own memories and feelings of fear and despair, he accidentally erases Luz’s memories as well, which leads King, Luz, and The Collector to try to fix the problem.
As the marketing and cover suggest, this story is intended for older audiences. Not only do we get Eda throwing around some curse words (which is so on brand and natural for her character to be the only one using curse words), but this story also feels like a natural step up into more mature themes for original fans of the series. Fans who have also entered new phases of their lives over the past few years may be struggling with similar conflicts and themes. King isn’t the only one facing big fears about growing up, death, loneliness, and filling a role in society. Death is weird and scary, and so is growing up in general.
Throughout this novel, we see many ways people handle their current dilemmas. King is so worried about losing his loved ones that he is running off and self-isolating while also self-medicating. He becomes easily agitated and refuses to open up to the very people he’s scared of losing to begin with, pushing them away himself before he can lose them via death or growing apart. Eda is aging, and her curse is becoming stronger, even rejecting magic as a tool to heal her. Like with King, she chooses avoidance, but not by running away. Instead, she continues head-on as if nothing can stop her, despite having lost a hand previously and severely injuring her leg currently.
Be warned: we’re fully entering spoiler territory now. As I alluded to earlier with self-medicating, King is using a device from The Collector’s to erase his memories. He’s erasing his memories of the dread and panic he feels about his future of being alone. However, as Terrace so beautifully puts it in this novel, “strong memories leave behind strong feelings that seep in, deep, deep down”.
We can run away from our bad thoughts, we can drink the pain away, or ditch town or become a recluse, but at the end of the day, none of these options will help heal the trauma of our past or future. It’s not until we decide to embrace all that makes us who we are, and make the conscious decision to work toward healing, that we let our loved ones in and face our fears and our hurt. As Luz puts it, “forgetting doesn’t fix anything,” and “maybe it can be good to remember the bad times in your life.” Of course, the bad times are painful, but remembering them means we survived and got through them. We can use the memory of something hurtful to propel us forward, become emotionally stronger, and help others who may be going through similar situations. Being reflective and vulnerable allows us the greatest human experience: true connection with the people around us.
I won’t say or spoil anymore, but please remember that you are never alone. Death is universal, and so is the fear of it. Aging is inevitable, but it can also bring so much wisdom. No matter how low you feel, you have loved ones who are present and care for you. Your story is unfolding in real time; hold onto the memories and let them guide you through life to create even more.
You can now buy The Long-Lived King anywhere you find books and comics. I can only hope that this will not be our last visit to The Boiling Isles. Lastly, I didn’t get to mention it, but the B&W art by Han in this novel is stunning and so detailed. I could feel these characters come back to life; it’s almost like they never left.