A Mischief of Magpies Is a Haunting Unexpected Fantasy (And One of the Best Comics of 2026 to Date) [Exclusive Early Review]

May 6, 2026

When it comes to stories of big fantasy made uniquely intimate and personal, there’s no one who does it quite as well as Simon Spurrier and Matias Bergara. While their previous works, Coda and Step by Bloody Step, are distinctively different stories in terms of scale and structure, they both feature rich worlds and strange journeys that leave indelible prints on the minds of readers long after the final page. Their latest series, A Mischief of Magpies, with its first issue headed to stores from DSTLRY in July, captures that same intensity and beauty with another unique fantasy tale poised to take readers into a surreal high fantasy world on not just a quest but into a mystery as well.

in A Mischief of Magpies, a teen named Mar is dealing with a secret: every so often and completely without warning, Mar finds himself falling out of our world and into an extraordinary city of fantastic proportion. It’s a city that is also a machine, traversing a shoreless ocean and divided into halves, one that is bright and shining above the waves and a darkened world below endangered by a mysterious beast. And, on the beach between these two halves? A group of magpies with a lot to say. But while falling into a mysterious and fantastic other world would seem exciting, this new world seems to have real stakes and, on top of that, Mar’s real life is a tangled mess of its own. ComicBook has been given an advance opportunity to review A Mischief of Magpies and without getting into spoilers, it’s not just a brilliant comic, but it might be Spurrier and Bergara’s best to date.

Rating: 5 out of 5

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A Mischief of Magpies Perfectly Builds Its Fantasy World and Its Reality in Equal Measure

The idea of a protagonist going from the “real” world to a strange “fantasy” world unexpectedly or against their will isn’t exactly a new concept. There are many stories that see the hero find themselves departing reality to end up in a strange land where they are given a mission or a responsibility. One could argue that such a setup is a core trope within fantasy and it exists for a reason; these sorts of stories are exciting and interesting, especially when done well. However, with most stories that use this function, there’s typically a lot of worldbuilding for one setting rather than the other. The fantasy world is well-fleshed out and we have a much more narrow view of reality.

That is not the case with A Mischief of Magpies. From the very first page, Spurrier and Bergara work together with words and images to fully form and create Mar’s reality. We’re introduced to who he is as a person long before we fall with him into the machine city and it’s that setup that makes all the difference. We’re as invested in Mar’s real-world existence as much as we will soon be the machine city. It’s something that makes the story all the richer but also lends to an additional layer of disorientation when Mar does end up falling into this other world. When Mar does drop into this strange new place, the reader is already invested into him as a person—his struggles, the way he’s misunderstood, the challenges he is quietly enduring as a world spins brokenly around him for reasons he has no control over. When Mar lands in this other world, there’s still chaos and confusion, but now he’s in it, being seen where he hasn’t been seen in the real world.

Every Detail Matters (And The Meanings Are Part of the Mystery)

This fleshing out of both reality and fantasy gives the story its own unique anchor. This is no longer merely a story about saving a strange land, but it’s also about what happens to Mar when he’s not in the strange land, but it’s not the only bit of creative worldbuilding that elevates this story. Spurrier is a master of creating fine details that serve his stories in multiple ways and that’s especially true here. I don’t want to give too much away; this truly is a story that needs to be absorbed panel by panel with as few pieces of information going in as possible, but there are details about the machine city that not only drive Mar’s mission in the strange new world but also are telling a larger tale of their own. Words—spoken and otherwise—have real meaning. There’s also the matter of an object that Mar is given at a certain point that you will only slowly come to realize what it actually represents and when you do, you won’t be able to look at it or its place in the story the same way.

While Spurrier’s words are a huge part of all of this layered and meaningful storytelling, it’s Bergara’s art that does so much heavy lifting. There are elements here that look every bit as on par with the creatures from films like NeverEnding Story or Labyrinth or other such stories with intersections between our reality and this other strange world, but there are also details in expressions and movements and placements that create their own stories. It’s the finest case of the art and the writing supporting each other to the extent that you cannot have one without the other; too much would be lost.

Ultimately, A Mischief of Magpies is a haunting and beautiful book that goes far beyond merely being simply a solid fantasy. It’s an immersive story that resonates on so many levels. There’s a magic to this book that will break your heart—and it might be one of the best books to come out this year.

A Mischief of Magpies #1 goes on sale July 15th. Final order cutoff if May 25th.

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