Magic Powder is an Urban Fantasy comic-book series by Jeff Schiller and Daniele Aquilani.
In the city of Thesz, the only city not controlled by the elves, the Dwarvfather has been arrested for smuggling magic powder, and the local underworld is in turmoil. In this vacuum, an elvish librarian, one of the last people alive who knows how to create the powder, sees an opening and is prepared to spark a gang war to exploit it.
This series contains examples of:
- Anyone Can Die: At present, no character is truly safe, and each issue ends with a tally of which major characters got killed off that issue.
- Big Eater: It's been said that Gundel will eat almost anything, including other orcs.
- The Big Guy:
- Fazull is a hit-minotaur, so large that he can only operate in Thesz for short bursts because he towers over every other sentient creature there, and is therefore an easy target for return fire. Indeed, he is killed in the third issue, when the dwarves track down his farm, surround him, and shoot out one of his kneecaps.
- Issue 4 introduces Leph, the Seeker's large orcish bodyguard. As the Seeker is a goblin and not particularly strong, he uses Leph to intimidate larger folks.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Gundel was able to keep his lieutenant Oz under control for years because he once defeated him in a pit fight.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Arana is a ruthless crime boss, but she does love her niece Teema and has been preparing her to join the family business. For all that she disdains her late brother's Caz's vices, it's clear that she loved him, too.
- Fantastic Drug: The titular magic powder, also called fairy dust, has the power to give users temporary enhancements. For instance, Zjah is able to use it to augment his strength, while Volta uses it to make himself look like an orc.
- Fantastic Racism: The various races do not like each other, and the only reason they've avoided an outright war for so long was because of the Dwarvfather. His arrest at the start of the series creates a power vacuum that Zjah exacerbates by killing two of the gang leaders.
- Fat Bastard: Oz, Gundel's successor as the head of the orc clans, is a massively obese orc who is well-known for his cannibalism. He's also much-despised for being a vicious bully who forces other orcs into rigged games of chance.
- Finger in the Mail: In the first issue, Zjah and Volta send a box containing Caz's head to his sister Arana, in order to convince her that one of the other gangs killed him, thus sparking a war.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: In the first issue, Zjah goes from being a simple librarian and museum curator to the most wanted man in the underworld after killing Gundel and Caz, the heads of the orcish and goblin clans, respectively.
- Functional Addict: Most of the major figures in the underworld use magic powder. The leaders tend to be the ones who can best manage their addiction and not let it affect their judgement.
- Gang War: In the first issue, a war breaks out among the gangs after Dwarvfather is arrested and Gundel and Caz are murdered, as none of the surviving players know who actually committed the murders.
- Had to Come to Prison to Be a Crook: Timebomb, the dwarvish bomber, was innocent when he was first sent to prison - he was wrongfully arrested because it was assumed that he and his fellow demolitionists made a bomb that struck Thesz. After escaping, he was unable to find legitimate work and thus became a bomb-maker for the dwarvish mob.
- Klingon Promotion: The orcish clans have a very simple promotion system - you kill someone and then you get to take their spot in the hierarchy until someone else kills you. This is how Gundel became the head of the orc clans, and when he's killed, his lieutenants immediately slaughter each other to determine who will become the new boss.
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Subverted; the dwarves of Thesz resemble Black people, but shorter and stockier, and their women often have facial hair.
- Our Elves Are Different: In this setting, the elves were once ruthless conquerors who have taken over most of the world. In the present, they are supposedly civilized and peaceful, but Zjah and Volta prove that their old instincts never truly went away.
- Puppet King: Caz, the head of the goblin clans, is only a figurehead. His sister Arana is the one who actually runs everything.
- The Shut-In: Issue 4 introduces Strangelight, a powder-addicted dwarf who pretty much can't leave her apartment because she's fried her brain on powder and can barely remember who she is most of the time. It's revealed that the "Thesz Reports" that appear at the back of each issue were written by her, as a way of compiling blackmail so that nobody comes after her.
- Slasher Smile: Zjah tends to get a very wide, toothy grin on his face whenever he gets to do violence.Volta: Only a mad elf smiles after spilling so much blood.
- Spotting the Thread: In the third issue, Oz begins to wonder if it was really the dwarves who killed Gundel, because while the method of execution (smashing the head with a hammer) matches dwarven gangster customs, and dwarves are the only ones who easily could lift a hammer that size, there were also signs of magic use, something that dwarves can't do.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Gundel, the leader of the Orc clans, is a brutal mobster but is the most-beloved figure in Thesz. It helps that he's a notoriously generous tipper.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: In the first issue, Caz the goblin blows chunks after seeing Zjah obliterate Gundel's head with a large warhammer.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Strangelight's extensive powder use has given her something approaching functional omniscience, which has made her quite rich as an information broker, but it's also fried her brain so badly that she had to write a dossier on herself to remind her to eat and stay hydrated."This is you. You are me. If you're readin this and you don't know that, you're screwed."
- Wretched Hive: Thesz is overrun by dwarvish, orcish and goblin gangs. The only reason anyone would want to live there is because it's the only city not controlled by the elves.
