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The Great Wiz and the Ruckus
A young wizard must bring together the great wizards of the Realm and find the next ‘Great Wizard’ in order to save their world from Calamity and Ruckus.
Red is a Wiz tasked with finding the other Wiz’s of the realm so they can band together to form the Great Wiz, a being of light, and destroy the growing evil darkness known only as the Ruckus. On this journey, he meets Bog Wiz, Sad Dad, and Feather Duster—but soon their fate rests on the shoulders of a young Wiz named Bean who is too strong, too hot-headed, and completely untested to be any real help. Bean might not be ready to be the hero the world needs, but Red is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that the Ruckus doesn’t win.
It's a battle of good versus evil in this amazing adventure written and illustrated by Joey McCormick (Adventure Time). When heroes and villains come in all shapes and sizes, sometimes, all it takes to truly save the world is one small Bean.
Red is a Wiz tasked with finding the other Wiz’s of the realm so they can band together to form the Great Wiz, a being of light, and destroy the growing evil darkness known only as the Ruckus. On this journey, he meets Bog Wiz, Sad Dad, and Feather Duster—but soon their fate rests on the shoulders of a young Wiz named Bean who is too strong, too hot-headed, and completely untested to be any real help. Bean might not be ready to be the hero the world needs, but Red is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that the Ruckus doesn’t win.
It's a battle of good versus evil in this amazing adventure written and illustrated by Joey McCormick (Adventure Time). When heroes and villains come in all shapes and sizes, sometimes, all it takes to truly save the world is one small Bean.
208 pages, Paperback
First published February 13, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 5, 2019
This read like a storyboard for a TV show rather than a graphic novel. Very little was ever explained, and while there were a lot of action and fight scenes, they were really hard to follow. The art really reminds me of the author’s other project, Adventure Time. I didn’t mind it but it also never really grabbed me. The story is a pretty bare-bones good vs evil fantasy world, but it ends stronger than it begins. Usually I like being thrown straight into a story, but it didn’t really work for me here.
August 4, 2019
Cute premise, but definitely confusing at points.
February 9, 2022
I wish it was more developed honestly, perhaps in several volumes. The story is lovely and the characters charming. Even the art style is quite unique
January 27, 2025
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A fast-paced adventure tale of saving the world and the balance of light and dark
The looming threat of the Ruckus has returned. In order to restore balance, five Wiz's (I don't know why this is the plural form but it is apparently) must band together to summon the Great Wiz. But is the youngest Wiz, Bean, truly prepared for what that summoning entails?
The story is quite fast-paced. You're pretty much dropped into the thick of it right from the beginning. There isn't a lot of development and we don't get much detail on the world-building. The main character is apparently blind (i.e. does not have eyes), but it never really comes up in the actual story and he doesn't appear to navigate the world any differently than his sighted companions. Magic, I guess?
An okay story. I liked the characters well enough. Fairy predictable. Some annoying typos and mistakes throughout. They don't take away too much from the story, but they are quite obvious (missing commas, wrong form of "to"/"too").
Simple, quick read. Nice artwork. I liked the idea of this, but the whole thing felt rushed.
A fast-paced adventure tale of saving the world and the balance of light and dark
The looming threat of the Ruckus has returned. In order to restore balance, five Wiz's (I don't know why this is the plural form but it is apparently) must band together to summon the Great Wiz. But is the youngest Wiz, Bean, truly prepared for what that summoning entails?
The story is quite fast-paced. You're pretty much dropped into the thick of it right from the beginning. There isn't a lot of development and we don't get much detail on the world-building. The main character is apparently blind (i.e. does not have eyes), but it never really comes up in the actual story and he doesn't appear to navigate the world any differently than his sighted companions. Magic, I guess?
An okay story. I liked the characters well enough. Fairy predictable. Some annoying typos and mistakes throughout. They don't take away too much from the story, but they are quite obvious (missing commas, wrong form of "to"/"too").
Simple, quick read. Nice artwork. I liked the idea of this, but the whole thing felt rushed.
October 19, 2019
This graphic novel by Joey, Adventure Time, McCormick could and should have been more than it was. Set within a fantastical world, a time has come in which an ancient evil has been summoned to cleanse the land and its people. Only a band of Wizs can stop it but they must be brought together and the youngest of them, a child, must face an inescapable fate.
It sounds like it contains all the hallmarks of fantasy greatest but the story seemed too much for McCormick to juggle. Little backstory, sense of place or even, at times, plot meant that the story was often confusing. A pity as over several books, it probably could have been something special. More KS3 because of one scene in which one character is cut in half - a frame that was never needed and would have made the entire book accessible to a far broader audience.
It sounds like it contains all the hallmarks of fantasy greatest but the story seemed too much for McCormick to juggle. Little backstory, sense of place or even, at times, plot meant that the story was often confusing. A pity as over several books, it probably could have been something special. More KS3 because of one scene in which one character is cut in half - a frame that was never needed and would have made the entire book accessible to a far broader audience.
May 8, 2021
I wish I could have liked this more, but right off the bat, one feels that this one is the adaptation of some Nintendo JRPG that was never made, and that the art was commissioned according to some kind of KABOOM! style guide. The whole thing just feels kind of hollow, even though it really shouldn't. This should have all kinds of warmth and wonder, and it just kind of doesn't. Maybe others will feel differently, but this one feels like for all of the work, talent and energy poured into this one, there is some kind of spark missing.
March 11, 2019
I really enjoyed the art, but there wasn't a whole lot to the story.
It does have an Adventuretime-ish feel but I felt like I was thrown into this world with no explanation and it sort of drug on. We follow the wizards gathering to stop the ruckus and while the story did build, I found myself wondering what was happening at times.
I'm also likely not the demographic for this book, so take that for what it's worth.
It does have an Adventuretime-ish feel but I felt like I was thrown into this world with no explanation and it sort of drug on. We follow the wizards gathering to stop the ruckus and while the story did build, I found myself wondering what was happening at times.
I'm also likely not the demographic for this book, so take that for what it's worth.
June 30, 2019
DNF. The best thing I can say about The Great Wiz and the Ruckus is that the art is adequate. The story is both extremely cliched and at the same time very difficult to follow. One Wiz must gather the five other Wizes to defeat the Ruckus. What are Wizes? What's the Ruckus? Why do I care? The first 50 pages didn't answer those questions and I honestly could not be bothered to read any more atrocious dialogue in search of answers.
January 5, 2022
This was like if a computer AI wrote a middle grade adventure graphic novel. Except that that would probably at least be absurd enough to be funny. No connection built to the characters so no investment from the reader. I usually reserve 1 star reviews for books I have strong negatively feelings about, but this was just bad and I don't care about it.
July 23, 2022
I don’t understand why the reviews are so negative. I think maybe the expectations fans have of Joey McCormick because of Adventure Time did this book a disservice. Sure the story is simple, at it’s core; but the art is really expressive and lovely and personally I think the adventure holds just the right amount of weight and wonder for a short, one off kid’s story.
December 27, 2019
This was pretty painful to read. Art was ok, but the story/characters were undeveloped, basic plot points were left unexplained, transitions were abrupt and confusing. The book was rife with errors, and the author could really benefit from a lesson in proper punctuation and grammar use.
September 25, 2020
Five Wiz's must come together to save the world in this fantasy story. Bean, the youngest, is not aware of the sacrifice that they have to make, and Red puts off telling Bean as long as possible. You can see the Adventure Time influence in this art.
July 28, 2021
This book was so bad I couldn’t even finish it. The art is fine, but the plot and characters are impossible to follow. The reader is thrown into the middle of a story with zero context, zero backstory, and zero explanation. The dialogue is uninspired and plain boring. Just bad.
February 21, 2019
Great adventure graphic novel! Good story and art. I'd hand this to 3rd-6th grade.
March 8, 2019
I loved it! A keeper! Well done!
April 4, 2019
When it clicked for me, I couldn’t stop crying. Loved it.
September 27, 2019
I did not understand what was happening most of the time while I was reading this. Not enough information was given to make the events and sacrifice meaningful.
December 31, 2019
Did not (couldn't get myself to) finish.
May 5, 2020
Was this not copy edited? Oof.
December 21, 2021
The artwork was great and the concept was there, but it felt like reading a slightly fleshed out outline more than a complete story.
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March 1, 2019I... have literally no idea what happened in this book? The idea for the story seemed really cool, but I just had no idea what was going on. I liked the art, except I had no idea which characters were good and which were evil and I didn't know anyone's names. I think this would have worked much better as a cartoon.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews