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W.I.T.C.H. 10th Anniversary

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Celebrating 10 years of W.i.t.c.h. comics since April of 2001!
Artwork redesign from the original issue cover of WITCH #01: www.comicvine.com/witch-hallow… by artist Galistar07water.
Background design by :iconashflura:

Traditionally, Disney is recognized for the creation of Mickey Mouse, The Lion King, and Disneyland resorts. An empire founded by the late Walt Disney (1901-1966), it strives to make dreams come true with some of this century's most beloved and iconic characters to practically all ages. But however big this empire is, it still had a small gap in its marketing campaign that mainly concerns of pre-adolescences. In the mid-late 1990's, Elisbetta Gnone, Baraba Canepa and her husband, Alessandro Barbucci, came up with the idea of a fantasy/superhero comic series called "W.I.T.C.H." It tells the story of five girls in their early teen years who are chosen to be the new Guardians of Kandrakar, protectors of a kingdom of light that resides in the center of the universe, from those who wished to bring destruction to it and all of the worlds under Kandrakar's jurisdiction. To perform their duty, the five girls were given a magical ability to control a certain natural element. Will Vandom is the Guardian of Energy, the Keeper of the Heart of Kandrakar, and the leader of the group. Irma Lair is the Guardian of Water, Taranee Cook is the Guardian of Fire, Cornelia Hale the Guardian of Earth, and Hay Lin the Guardian of Air. Together, they are now part of a sisterhood that had lasted for generations and the first letters of their name spelled "WITCH".

Like their intended audiences, the creators made these five girls practically the same age as the readers in order to establish a sort of a connection between said readers and the new characters. And it's not just age, because just like any girls their age, WITCH wears trendy clothes, crushed on boys, have family and school problems...and are gifted with magical powers and must use them to save the universe. While it may not be Mickey Mouse or the Little Mermaid, W.I.T.C.H. still has all of the main ingredients of Disney's magic: Love, friendship, courage, loyalty, art, and magic itself.
After years of putting their ideas together, Elisabetta Gnone, Barbara Canepa, and Alessandro Barbucci presented their idea of W.I.T.C.H. to Disney at an international meetings. While Disney's publishing partners were interested and intrigued by the new idea, they unfortunately remained skeptical because it contained characters that Disney wasn't familiar with. The three creators decided to spent a few more years perfecting their ideas for this comic series and finally in April of 2001, they released the first issue of W.I.T.C.H. in Italy under the Walt Disney Company Italia. The issue's title was called "Halloween". In the beginning, the first issue sold an average of 80,000 copies. By the time it released issue #15, about 200,000 copies were sold. By 2004, W.I.T.C.H. became a huge hit not just in Italy, it's place of origin, but practically all over the world. By 2005, W.I.T.C.H. grew out of its small magazine size and expanded into its own franchise which included dolls, short chapter books, websites, and an animated series adaptation produced by the United States and France.

However successful W.I.T.C.H. has become since its first issue released, it wasn't without bad news. During the early years of its publication, it was said that both husband and wife team, Alessandro Barbucci and Barbara Canepa, lost control a little after issue #02. The three creators of W.I.T.C.H. lost their rights to the series and left, while Elisabetta Gnone stuck around a while longer before she, too, left. Since their departure, the traditional styles of W.I.T.C.H. started to change drastically. From artists to characters development to story writing, W.I.T.C.H. is not what it used to be years ago. In Northern America, the marketing campaign was declining and W.I.T.C.H. was out of print and publication since. While no longer available in the United States, W.I.T.C.H. continued to be printed and translated in the English language until August-September of 2008 when the Philippines discontinued it at issue #74. Since then, the comic series is no longer available in English. Throughout the later years, other nations began to follow and stopped its publication while a few others remained strong, including Italy.

Fans who had remained loyal to the series immediately saw the transition from the old style to the new, and many of them weren't happy with some of the changes to the point where they wrote strong, negative criticisms on their blogs and personal fan-sites. While it maybe true that W.I.T.C.H. comic series has now lost some of its most important charms, it still had a little bit of magic left enough in itself to keep the franchise alive. Although its original creators left the series, they managed to leave behind a legacy that had a huge impact on those who were enchanted by the comic's strong Guardians characters, creative story-telling, and intricate artistic styles that will forever remained in their memories of their earlier years.

In 2001 during the year of the first released issue of W.I.T.C.H., I was a 12 year old girl still in the sixth grade and drawing anime style characters, such as Sailor Moon, terribly (I am self-taught in free-hand drawing and I have never took a drawing class). I didn't know of its existence until I saw a commercial about a new animated series called W.I.T.C.H. on the Jetix channel. At the time I didn't pay much attention to it because I was into "Digimon" ( and still am!). A few months later when it was mid-way through the airing of the first season, I got bored enough to watch an episode. At first, I thought that it was interesting and okay, but I wasn't entire hooked yet. A few weeks later after watching my first W.I.T.C.H. episode on television, my family took me and my younger brother to the nearby bookstore. There, I saw the American (slightly censored) version of the original comic series. At first, I thought that it was one of those silly comic adaptation from the animated series and didn't realized that it was actually the other way around until I did some research. I sat there in the bookstore reading the very first 6 issues compacted into 3 books and immediately saw how much of big difference it is from the animated series. I started to watch more episodes of the series, including the ones that I missed and I started to do some more research on its history. By then, I was officially hooked. I fell in love with its unique ways of story-telling and artistic style and I felt that there was a certain charm to it that I have never felt before.

After waiting months on end for the American released, I got impatient and went online instead. To my luck, I was able to find a gold mine of comic scans online and began to read those instead. After years of reading WITCH, I also began to notice the difference as it transitioned itself from one saga to the next. I noticed the changes in the art styles, then the story-telling, then the entire thing which, I admittedly think, is now crap (the changes, not the entire WITCH universe). What was once a magical experience, I find WITCH now somewhat tasteless and a shell of its former glory. There were some issues that I still think was good, while others were so terrible and childish that it makes me preferred its rival, Winx Club, more than itself (Yes, it's that bad). I am now very disappointed that WITCH isn't as great as it used to be, and I find myself criticizing some of its new issues even more. Some people might ask me, "If you don't like it, then why bother continuing to read it?" My only answer is because I can't find myself to hate it entirely. W.I.T.C.H. has been around for a while and I fell in love with it as a teenager. Although I do find that it lost most of its magical touch, there are still some moments which I thought was wonderful enough for me to continue reading.

After ten years, W.I.T.C.H. has changed greatly, but personally, I still find that it still has that certain amount of charm that I just couldn't discard easily. W.I.T.C.H. comics has been a great inspiration to me in more ways than one, and to this day I am grateful to it. After drawing countless works, I finally made a small switch to WITCH art style. Although not best at first (as I'm still learning) I suddenly find myself drawing my own W.I.T.C.H. fanart calendar series, started my very first fan-comic side story of C.H.Y.K.N. (WITCH's predecessors), and now I'm slowly developing my new idea for a full blown WITCH fan-saga (called WITCH: Dreams of Lusteria)!

And so to commemorate this month as the official 10th year Anniversary of W.I.T.C.H. comic series, I've decided to take the first design of W.I.T.C.H. issue #01, Halloween, and updated its look, while keeping the same poses for the characters and making it look like a real W.I.T.C.H. comic issue that you would find selling out in the newspaper-kiosks in Italy. :boogie:

Witch regards to all WITCH fans out there, both new and old, I wished you all a Happy 10th WITCH-iversary. Cheers and lets hope for another 5 years or more! :party:

GUARDIANS UNITE!

The Runics by Galistar07water
Image size
2550x3509px 1.99 MB
© 2011 - 2024 Galistar07water
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WolfKnight30's avatar
Way to go!
GUARDIANS UNITE!:D (Big Grin)