During the lockdown I turned to many nostalgic TV shows from my childhood including binge watching The Winx Club. After finding out there’s also going to be a live-action adaptation as well as a book tie-in, I was excited and also remembered how many books and comics they had when I was younger. Looking into it, there’s been even more realeased since I grew up and I decided to start reading through them again from the beginning.
The Castle
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The Castle follows the first day of Alfea for Bloom and friends, and a quick introduction to the realm of Magix.
It follows the storyline of the series, with some scenes being almost exactly the same as those in Season 1, Episode 2 “Welcome to Magix!”.
I enjoyed the focus on this episode of the friendships forming between the girls. Whilst Stella and Bloom almost immediately hit it off and become best friends, some of the others not so much. Tecna being a bit abrasive and annoying the other characters is something that is leant into a lot later in the series for larger plot points, so I liked that these parts were shown.
There’s some brilliant artwork throughout the book, including the introduction of Alfea, the Trix and Bloom’s first transformation. There’s also a couple of pieces which look like they’ve been pulled from the TV Series’s storyboard and are a bit more rough. I’ve always enjoyed the overall art style, and the comic just shows even more of it.
The second comic is again focused on a trial the Winx Club, or more specifically Bloom, overcome with the Trix. This comic follows Season 1, Episode 3 “Alfea College for Fairies”. However The Secrets of Alfea deviates slightly from the TV show, giving us some extra content.
There’s a bit more Tecna conflict, showing that she’s the one most at odds with the group due to differing interests. On top of this development, we’re introduced to the Specialists. Whilst the intro is needed, I found the skteches of them to be a lot rougher than some of the other scenes and characters which is disapointing.
This issue introdcuced us to the wider Cloud Tower motto of “Wherever there is joy, a Witch will destroy” which the Trix do hold up, but so does the headmistress and other students. We’re shown that witches in general are opposed to the fairies, and it’s not just the Trix and the vendetta against Stella to get her sceptre.
The Secrets of Alfea
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A new part of the comic is the introduction to the Magic Labyrinth which is within the basement of Alfea. Similar to mythology’s labyrinth, it’s something that traps you as you get lost although it doesn’t appear to have a mintotaur or other monster within. I loved how it was explained that whilst Bloom was lost for hours, time acts differently within the Labyrinth – and I hope this is something that is revisited in a later comic.
The Secrets of Alfea also introduces magic fashion which is a great addition to the fashion focused franchise. Bloom finds a dress that alters itself to fit your size, but also your wants from the dress. It’s not only introduced, but written into the plot as Bloom uses the thread to find her way out of the Labyrinth, and it then re-creates the dress after being unthreaded (is that the right word??).
The Boys from Red Fountain
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The third comic, The Boys from Red Fountain is the first to properly deviate from the TV shows plotline. It does slightly mirror Season 1, Episode 4 “The Black-Mud Swamp” in that the specialists are transporting the Troll, but the actual events are different (with some added depth for characters).
At the start of the book we’re introduced to Timmy and Riven as the girls talk about meeting them at the dance. They’re both insinuated as bad choices for Tecna and Musa, but the rest of the comic then focuses on Brandon and Sky instead.
This part probably would have fit better in the previous comic, showing them meeting during the dance instead of during girl talk. Although in the Winx Club show I don’t believe they’re mentioned at all for the dance. The girls chatting also felt like it had rougher artwork, so perhaps this was added after to fill out the pages and introduce the pair of them earlier in the series of comics.
The key change in this book is that there’s an explicit assassination attempt of Prince Sky, which isn’t in the series. There’s a thought out plan to get him attacked, which he narrowly survives with the help on the Winx girls. This gives his character a bit more depth as you wonder who and why (and I hope we find out!).
On the other hand, we know this isn’t the doing of the Trix because in the same comic it emphasises they don’t take issue with the specialists. Whilst they have a vendetta towards Stella, wanting her sceptre, they leave Sky alone when they appear in the protected lands.
This story also brings us some more building on what is taught at Alfea. Whilst the series focuses on sneaking out and the adventures taken by the Winx Club, the comics are showing they learn alot from classes. With Flora stating “Moving together in harmony makes everyone stronger! It’s the first thing they teach at Alfea!” it gives more depth to the fairies and why they form an immediate connection.
This connection is also what pushes them to become the Winx Club. Whilst they are friends (and they call themselves this!), they’re not all as close to each other and conflict is shown between them. Stella and Bloom are very different from Tecna, Musa and Flora with the former being more laid back and ready to jump without thinking. So this helps overcome this central conflict, which will hopefully improve as the comics go on.
A Friend for Bloom is a flashback comic to tell the others how Bloom and Stella met in Winx Club Season 1, Episode 1 “An Unexpected Event”. It introduces us to both Bloom and Stella, and the beginning of their close friendship, giving reason why they’re the closest of the group in previous comics.
I defintely felt like these were drawn first as if it were alongside the first comic/storyboard for the Winx Club show. Some frames have a more realistic art style, and some are more rought. I thought the story was good as we need that Bloom intro from the show but it placed as a flashback to ensure the first comic was more engaging for a reader.
I liked this comic as it shows Bloom’s relationship with her family and her life on Earth that she’s left behind. Mike’s disbelief even after seeing magic is funny, and Vanessa shows how supportive she is of Bloom. It also leads to exactly before the first frames of comic 1, so if you wanted to read it as the first comic you could.
A Friend for Bloom
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Prisoner of the Dark
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The fifth comic, Prisoner of the Dark, is completely different to the TV show. The theme of it is that Bloom is struggling in Magix, Flora even says she’s been depressed and anxious. This is about her relationships (where light teasing gets to her more easily) as well as her abilities as a fairy. She’s lost her interior equilibrium (or balance, or harmony), so she can’t use her powers as well. This depth shows that negative emotions can harm fairies.
There’s even more conflict between Bloom and Tecna in this one. Stella plays middle-man trying to make sure Bloom knows Tecna is trying to joke, but Tecna is made to be someone who doesn’t understand emotions. This is similar to the show, but I feel like she’s portrayed more robot-like due to her logical upbring in the comics.
Because Bloom is struggling to even draw anymore (I think we can all relate), she sneaks out of Alfea to get a Heron’s feather from the dark forest. When the Trix get a hint she’s around, they trap her within a tree – I know this is used as a plot point in season 2 so I’m intirgued if this spell is re-used later in the comics too.
This issue show’s how persistent Stella is to find and help Bloom (where Sky calls her a bloodhound) and this mirrors when Bloom wanted to save Stella in the previous comics. This really shows off the friendship that has been reiterated in most of the comics so far – cementing the two as strong fairys as well as best friends. There’s also Stella feeling personally responsible for dragging Bloom to magix if she’s not happy being there, so she’s not as selfish as she seems to be.
This issue shows Tecna’s first transofrmation on page, and I realised then that we’d only seen Stella and Bloom transformed so far. This shows that you can’t immediately transform into a fairy, and that training is needed a bit to control it. Winx Club is a bit more full on showing these being easier for characters.
Pirsoner of the Dark also feels like a turning point for the Trix. Whereas before we’re unsure of motivations beyond wanting Stella’s sceptre, we finally find out their goal of wanting even more power and stopping at nothing to get it.
Overall the first 5 comics cover a lot of the same content that the Winx Club TV show does, but also adds a little bit more here and there which creates more depth to secondary characters early on, as well as the world building. I loved the welcome additional info on Alfea and Cloud Tower, as well as having Sky be a more important character (important enough to have assassination attempts!).
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