While reading the first issue, I didn’t realize Mamo issues were double-size. I just thought creator Sas Milledge had some preternatural sense of pacing; she does have it, but the issues are also double-sized. They don’t feel like two issues slapped together, either. Milledge fluidly paces the issue—starting with a cliffhanger resolution through a bunch of character development and reveals. There’s never a false step. It’s incredible. Mamo #2’s even better than the first one.
The opening cliffhanger resolution leads into witch Orla explaining to mortal Jo how her witch grandma wasn’t buried right (for a witch—or anyone, really), and it’s causing the disturbances around town. When they start investigating, it turns out Grandma wasn’t just doing the regular town witch stuff; she was also keeping the ordinary folk ignorant of the fae (the magical creatures) around them. So they didn’t just not know what to do when she died; they had no idea they had to do anything. And unless Orla (and Jo) fix it, magical nature will literally retake the town.
Plus, the mystery of grandma’s improper burial. And Milledge gradually reveals more of Orla’s backstory regarding her relationship with her grandma and why no one around town remembers her even though she keeps saying she grew up there. Milledge also puts in a lot of work on world-building, doing a genuinely exceptional job with it. Jo’s learning about the world around her, information she should’ve had, but Orla’s a somewhat standoff-ish teacher. Everything’s a surprise—grandma not being buried right, grandma not educating the town about the balance with the magical—not to mention having a sidekick.
Orla’s also learning from Jo, whose family welcomes her in—there’s a hilarious and heartwarming breakfast before they start their first day on mission together. There is a lot of excellent character development set against the seemingly tranquil but upset world. Milledge once again manages to make the pages convey the breeze and the sounds of the nature the characters find themselves in. It’s such gorgeous work.
We also meet some of the other townspeople, who, it turns out, know more than Jo (and less than Orla), which gives Milledge some mileage in the unintentionally unreliable narrator department. It’s exceptional work.
The issue’s a delightful, often immediately rewarding experience. And the soft cliffhanger—set in a flashback—is superbly executed.
I can’t wait to read more Mamo.
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