Review: "The Long-Lived King" Takes Fans Back to "The Owl House" with Graphic Novel That Feels Like Animatics for Actual Episode

At long last, fans can revisit The Owl House in a brand new way thanks to the release of a brand new graphic-novel geared toward older audiences and readers - The Long-Lived King.

For a bit of background, The Owl House was an Emmy nominated, Peabody award winning, animated series on the Disney Channel that grew a massive fan following after its original debut in January of 2020.

Created by Dana Terrace, the series combined supernatural adventure, incredible world building, sometimes dark and emotional storytelling, and an eccentric blend of humor that helped fans stick around for its three seasons.

The series followed Luz Noceda, an imaginative and enthusiastic human teenager who accidentally discovers a portal to the Boiling Isles, a strange realm inhabited by witches, demons, and other supernatural creatures. Luz winds up apprenticing herself to Eda Clawthorne, while telling her mom that she's at a summer camp, instead following this rebellious witch known as the Owl Lady, and living with Eda's tiny, skull-headed demon companion, King.

Unlike many of the animated series that have come before and since, The Owl House is in the rare blend that is a true series, telling a story across its episodes as opposed to one-off adventures that seemingly reset after each installment.

That is one of the big reasons why the show had great ratings, though not necessarily with the target demographic of Disney Channel - with viewers largely outside of the ideal 6-11 range that the series initially aimed at. This is often cited as why the show's third and final season was cut short.

Now, a few years later, we get to go back to The Owl House with that older audience fully embraced in a new graphic novel, The Long-Lived King, that is now on store shelves and currently a New York Times Bestseller.

The graphic novel, written by Dana Terrace, former writer on the series Mikki Crisostomo, and illustrated by Daun Han (who also worked on the series), picks up where the series left off. Of course, remembering that we saw that years-later epilogue at the end of the series.

Now, we catch up with all of our friends as the Boiling Isles recovers after Emperor Belos and the Collector. As time goes on though, King has never fully considered what it means to be a Titan, and that he will outlive his beloved Owl House family. As such, he uses one of the Collector's Devices to wipe away his sad memories. But when he accidentally erase's Luz's memories, he must enlist the Collector and Eda to help recover them.

Before you come at me about spoilers - all this information can be found on the back of the book and descriptions. That said, from here on out I will remain spoiler free.

The illustrations featured throughout the book are stunning, and the black-and-white style will make fans of the series feel like they're looking at highly detailed storyboards or animatics for an actual episode of the show. In fact, the whole novel plays out like a long episode of the show and that's a good thing. It feels like a perfect continuation of the series that has grown up alongside some of the younger fans who have also watched it.

As such, when they say it is geared toward older readers - they mean it. There are some uses of language that were a pleasant surprise, and with the plot surrounding King realizing that he will outlive all of his friends, (bluntly) death is a large focus throughout the graphic novel.

However, if you're looking to catch up with the characters beyond Luz, Eda, and King, don't fret, they make an appearance. But, in most cases there is not a lot to their showing up outside of making sure that fans don't ask "what is X up to now?"

Some fans might even be left wondering what elements of this graphic novel might have been cut from the series. There is one moment in particular that - in the graphic novel - is said to have been banished by Emperor Belos that I feel would have fit perfectly somewhere in the series but glad it made an appearance here. It fit naturally and made me want more than the several panels it took place in.

That's really where The Long-Lived King thrives for me, is continuing to not only feel like a perfect extension of the series, but continues to build the world and the lore which is part of what made the original series so great. While many characters feel like a cameo, at least we got those appearances and we can hope that we'll see more of this immersive world in this new format in the future. 3.5 out of 5 plush memory toys.

You can find The Long-Lived King now at book stores and retailers including Books-A-Million, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.