THE STORY OF GUMLUCK THE WIZARD

The adventures of a kindly if naïve wizard who wouldn’t mind being crowned this year’s Harvest Hero.

In a tale that will charm the pants off readers, moony young Gumluck—looking a proper “buggy-bumper” in the acid words of surly raven narrator Helvetica—uncomplainingly dishes out magical favors to unappreciative locals in hopes they’ll vote for him for Harvest Hero at the upcoming Harvest Dance. It doesn’t look likely, as “Prince Whoop-de-doo,” who looks like “a fancy toilet brush” (Helvetica, again), always wins because his royal dad counts the votes. But after venturing into the Haunted Forest and emerging with both a lost child and a tiny ghost, enduring a disheartening visit from the Truth Fairy, and saving everyone when the king’s castle falls off its steep hill, all comes right for Gumluck in the end. Meanwhile, Gumluck has time to consider deep questions like whether a lie can be good and a truth bad. “Truth is good,” the wizard concludes, “but I think helping is better.” By the end he’s even won over Helvetica, who christens him a “darling old noodlehead.” So he is, in the finest tradition of noodleheads the world around. His short, beardless, light-skinned figure shares space with lightly caricatured companions and townsfolk (some of whom appear to be of color) in the monochrome pencil drawings that decorate or sometimes fill nearly every page.

Rejoice, noodlehead fans! Here’s a tale to treasure.