Book Review: Pixies of the Sixties - We Can Work It Out

Great Britain in the swinging sixties–The Beatles are taking the music charts by storm, the pop-culture revolution has gripped the nation’s youth…and human and fairies live uneasily, side-by-side.

As the only woman working at the Daily Telegraph, Carrie Mallinson is determined to become London’s first prominent female reporter. But after being assigned to a complicated murder investigation, the plucky journalist quickly uncovers hidden truths about her past and evidence of a terrifying force within the fairy world that challenges her certainties and makes her reconsider her priorities at the paper...

Sidelined at Scotland Yard following the racist blunder of a colleague, Sergeant Amar Singh–a young policeman of Indian origins–finds himself reassigned to the department’s underfunded fairy division. There, his investigation into the murder of a young fairy soon sets him on the trail of an odious trafficking ring, revealing a dark conspiracy that threatens to shatter both human and fairy alike...

Pixies of the Sixties: We Can Work It Out by Alice Geslin, Harry Bozino, Loreto Aroca, Maria Riccio and Florian Daniel will be released November 28, 2023. Humanoids Inc. provided an early galley for review.

This is the second in the series of collected editions of the Pixies of the Sixties series; March 2023 saw the release of the first volume with the subtitle You Really Got Me Now. When I heard the premise of the series, I definitely felt I needed to check it out as I am a huge fan of fantasy as well as the 1960's London scene.

The chosen era works well for these stories. It is a simpler time, when the world was more physical and in-the-moment, less overshadowed by the growing levels of technology. It was also a time of change, a time when people of diverse backgrounds were looked at with caution and fear. It allows the writers to tell tales of those struggling in society by using the allegory of fairy-folk as an additional lens to focus the themes. I would have liked a few more topical and musical references though.

I really enjoyed the artwork on both stories. It is crisp and clean, harkening back to the time when I got into comics myself in the mid-70's. The coloring further supports it, making the entire book a pleasure to look at. The sketches at the back were a nice glimpse into the character design process by the artists.