Welcome To The Maynard #1 Review

 

Writer: James Robinson

Artist: J Bone

Colorist: Ian Herring

Letterer: Jim Campbell

Cover Artists: J Bone; Chris Samnee & Jordan Gibson; Fábio Moon

Editors: Daniel Chabon, Chuck Howitt-Lease & Foster R. Kupbens

Designer: Riley VanDyke

Digital Art Technician: Adam Pruett

Prepress: Jake Johnson

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Price: $4.99

Release Date: November 27, 2024

 

Pippin Dale has a new job. She has returned to San Francisco to work as a bellhop. The Maynard Hotel welcomes witches, wizards, and otherworldly beings, but that doesn't make it a safe workplace. The guests like to show off, and some of their spells are dangerous. Worse, someone is invading the guest rooms and robbing them while they sleep. Can Pip survive the rigors of the Maynard Hotel? Let's leap on our broomsticks, swoop into Welcome To The Maynard #1, and find out!

 

Story

While Pip is troubled by San Francisco’s recent decline, the Maynard Hotel is a hive of magical activity. As the doorman ushers her into the lobby, witches and birds fly through the three-story atrium, and elephants cavort above her head. Unfortunately, Pip neglects to mention that she is a new employee and not a guest. So, when the assistant manager demands to know why she didn't enter through the staff entrance, Pip covers for Boots, another kindly bellhop who has taken her in hand. After a quick uniform change, she is ready for Boots to show her around. Pip must learn her duties quickly in Welcome To The Maynard #1 because she will be the sole bellhop on staff tomorrow.

 

Boots sympathizes with Pip, who has endured great struggles in her life. Despite her youth, her mother has passed away, and Pip never learned her father’s identity. Her mother was a Halfie and passed on her partial magical heritage to Pip. For all she knows, her father could have been a full-on Mage. But Pip can’t tell any of this to her partner, who has no magical abilities and couldn't see The Maynard if she stood before it. After a day filled with duties like pushing a luggage cart filled with cats for a witch who travels to her room on a broomstick, Pip tells her partner she works at Motel 6. But that's not the only secret Pip keeps from her roommate in Welcome To The Maynard #1.

 

James Robinson conjures a host of colorful characters for his story, such as the bartender Ray, the manager Margot Rathbone, and the uniform attendant Maggie, who alternates between a talking magpie and a Human witch. As Pip struggles to ground the airships of arriving guests, ferries their luggage to their rooms, and wrangles pets back into their travel containers, she keeps her eyes open. Pip knows a cat burglar is terrorizing the magical guests at the Maynard, and she is determined to catch the thief!

 

Art

J Bone brings an old-timey sensibility to James Robinson’s modern story with rectangular panels bordered by white space. Welcome To The Maynard #1 opens with a cat burglar sneaking into a guest room to open a wall safe hidden behind a painting. When the guests awaken, the black-clad burglar repulses their spells and departs as smoke rises from their still bodies. As the Transamerica Pyramid rises in the distance, Pip rides past the trash-filled streets on a cable car and walks through an adult entertainment district. Then, the buildings seem to separate. But instead of revealing Sirius Black's family home, Pip sees a fairytale carriage drawn by unicorns and a guest arriving on a flying carpet as a giant sculpted bird crowns the elegant statues and architectural details of the impressive façade.

 

Ian Herring adorns J Bone’s art with a restrained palette that helps the foreground and primary characters shine while lightly coloring backgrounds with pastels, gray, or white. Pip’s gray hair hints at her difficult upbringing as Boots opens a green door with a port hole. She emerges wearing a red and yellow uniform in keeping with the Magical Monopoly Game sensibility of the Roaring Twenties style hotel. Pip returns home after her first day to a purple-and-blue apartment. While her partner reclines on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, Pip remembers a surreptitious meeting beneath orange and yellow lanterns in Chinatown.

 

Jim Campbell spell-casts black letters into white dialogue balloons and yellow narrative boxes. The letters embolden for intonation, swell for volume, change color for emphasis, and turn gray for lowered voices instead of shrinking. White block letters denote time and location, while sound effects help us hear a cat burglar open a safe and leave a room, and Pip tackle a thief amid ravens and pixies while dragons and witches fly above San Francisco in Welcome To The Maynard #1. Thanks to Dark Horse Comics for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

Pippin Dale's troubled past gives her a philosophical view of life. While Pip makes friends with the magical hotel staff, she must be on her best behavior to avoid incurring the wrath of the strict management. Pip must keep calm and carry on as if the guests are in no danger while she protects them from being robbed, injured, or killed by a teleporting thief in Welcome To The Maynard #1.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

For another cover see my review at Comic Book Dispatch. 

To look inside see the preview at Dark Horse Comics.