Storm Front (Dresden Files Series #1)

For Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name.

My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. I'm a wizard. I work out of an office in midtown Chicago. As far as I know, I'm the only openly practicing professional wizard in the country. You can find me in the yellow pages, under Wizards. Believe it or not, I'm the only one there.

With rent past due and a decent meal becoming an issue of some importance, Harry needs work, and soon. A call from a distraught wife, and another from Lt Murphy of the Chicago PD Special Investigation Unit makes Harry believe things are looking up, but they are about to get worse, much worse. Someone is harnessing immense supernatural forces to commit a series of grisly murders. Someone has violated the first law of magic: Thou Shalt Not Kill. Tracking that someone takes Harry into the dangerous underbelly of Chicago, from mobsters...

Publishers Weekly

Beginning an unusually successful adaptation, this volume covers the first part of the book that introduced Harry Dresden, a modern wizard who's set up shop in downtown Chicago. Unlike Hellblazer 'sJohn Constantine, Dresden is unambiguously heroic, cooperating with the police to solve gruesome magical murderers while also working solo as a supernatural PI. The two cases he undertakes here don't seem related, but they both send Dresden out into the mean streets and eldritch corners of the modern world. More to the point, they let Butcher (and adapter Powers) set up a rich, quirky universe for Dresden to explore, as when he interviews a spiteful vampire madam or fights a trench coat-clad demonic assassin. Powers and artist Sayaf do a very nice job of working a lot of text-conversations and Harry's reflections-into lively-looking pages. The action is well handled, too, especially when the climactic battle with the demon moves from inside Harry's apartment to outdoors during a thunderstorm. The Dresden novels are already New York Times bestsellers, and this comic looks like another winner. (June)

Jim Butcher is a full-time writer who lives in Independence, Missouri, with his wife, son, and ferocious guard dog.