Phillip Sevy and Christie Porter on balancing fantasy, smut, and storytelling in ‘She Comes With Magic’

Admittedly, a wizard who channels magic through the power of orgasm is a pitch you might see from a cheesy porno. However, with the forthcoming She Comes With Magic, writer Christie Porter and artist/co-writer Phillip Sevy aren’t relying on shock value alone.

The oversized debut follows Maeve, a wizard whose magical abilities are (as you’ve likely already guess) powered by orgasm. While the premise certainly holds your attention (for a variety of reasons), the creators have said that the real challenge was making sure readers cared about Maeve long before the next spicy scene.

With the recently-launched Kickstarter campaign having quickly reached its funding goal, it sure seems that readers are just as interested in Maeve’s fantasy adventure as in its provocative premise. Looking deeper, there’s a story here worth investing in addition to all that wondrous NSFW imagery.

Epic Fantasy First, Erotica Second

From the outset, Porter and Sevy wanted She Comes With Magic to stand apart from stories where sex overshadows everything else.

“From the beginning, our goal was ‘Epic Erotica,'” Sevy said. “Trying to find a way to balance sex and story. If the balance is off, sex feels like a distraction from the story, or the story feels like it’s tacked onto the sex.”

For Porter, the answer was making Maeve a fully realized protagonist whose motivations extend beyond the bedroom.

“When it comes to finding the balance between a story driven by sex and a story driven by character, Maeve made our job easy,” Porter said. “She became such a strong presence as we developed the book.”

A Philosophy For True Creativity

For Maeve, her wants extend far beyond the sexual.

“We recognized the need to give Maeve desires and a drive outside of just the sexual,” Porter said. “She wants to have sex and she wants to save the world, and for Maeve those two drives are intertwined and interdependent.”

Sevy added that the first issue was carefully structured around fostering Maeve’s agency.

“We’re firm believers that in a first issue, you’ve got to give readers a reason to care about the character,” Sevy said. “Maeve is active, she leads the story, she makes choices and decisions, and isn’t an object.”

Whenever scenes became too indulgent, the creators had a way to regain more control.

“If things ever got too indulgent, we’d hack away in edits until we got just enough of each scene before cutting away,” Sevy said. “Always leave them wanting more, on all fronts.”

A Genuine Kickstarter Success

While the campaign’s rapid success fully surprised the creators, one aspect stood out above all else. Sevy was shocked by how quickly backers purchased a limited “blind” variant cover that hadn’t even been revealed publicly due to Kickstarter’s shifting mature content policies.

“We decided not to show the cover,” Sevy said. “But backers still pledged to the ‘blind’ cover really fast!”

That enthusiastic response has already influenced future plans, with Sevy adding, “For future issues, definitely keeping a spicy variant and adding a few more limited edition covers.”

Porter admitted that she initially worried readers wouldn’t fully understand the project because several of her favorite preview pages couldn’t be shown publicly.

“There are a few colored preview pages that we haven’t revealed,” Porter said. “I thought those pages would be the thing that helped readers ‘get’ this book.”

Instead, readers embraced the project without needing to see everything.

“Those fears have been dashed by the response to this book,” Porter said. “I’ve never been happier to be wrong.”

The Value of Erotic Comics

Our conversation eventually turned toward the standing of erotic comics within the broader industry. While horror, romance, and superhero books have become increasingly accepted across mainstream publishing, explicitly adult comics still occupy a much smaller corner of the market. Sevy believes the disparity says more about cultural attitudes than audience demand.

Referencing Brian K. Vaughan’s comments surrounding Spectators, Sevy noted how society often treats violence as acceptable entertainment while remaining uncomfortable with consensual intimacy.

“We, as both children and adults, have been conditioned to accept horrific acts of violence as fine in entertainment,” Sevy said. “But we have to cover our eyes or fast forward through sex.”

Sevy added, “So, yes, there’s a stigma. Should there be? No.”

Porter sees comics as uniquely capable of challenging that stigma because the medium cannot easily hide behind implication.

“Smut and NSFW comics are stigmatized because sex, particularly the enjoyment of it, is stigmatized,” Porter said. “A comic like She Comes With Magic can’t obfuscate sex with innuendo; it’s right there on the page, kicking stigma in the teeth.”

Both creators also point to other recent successes that demonstrate readers already see the value of NSFW comics.

Added Sevy, “We can look at the success of Stjepan and Linda Šejić’s work…Spectators, Sex Criminals, White Trees, and more in comics and easily see there’s a big demand for it.”

He also pointed to the wider publishing landscape, and how so-called “smut” has reached the mainstream.

“There are shelves of explicit books at Target, of all places,” Sevy said. “Why can’t there be smutty comics there too?”

Mainstream’s Move Toward The NSFW?

Asked whether explicit adult comics could eventually become commonplace at major publishers, Porter offered two answers:

“The cynical answer is they will when they realize the audience is already there and they’re leaving money on the table.”

Then she laughed before quoting comedian John Mulaney: “Not unless everyone gets really cool about a bunch of stuff really quickly.”

Still, both creators believe the landscape has already begun shifting.

Sevy pointed to books such as Sunstone, which began online before finding wider publication, and Alexis Flowers’ I Roved Out, which became one of Zoop’s biggest crowdfunding successes.

Added Sevy, “Sometimes we need to pioneer and preach them in order for a publisher to be willing to take a chance.”

While She Comes With Magic is currently thriving through Kickstarter, Sevvy hopes that the series demonstrates that readers are hungry for truly ambitious adult storytelling.

Added Sevu, “We’re showing everyone that there is an audience for high-quality epic NSFW stories.”

Porter shares that very sense of optimism.

“I would genuinely love to see comics publishing eschew the stigma and reach a place where they could put out some steamy comic books made by true freaks,” Porter said. “That’s a world I want to live in.”

A Creator-Owned Project Like Few Others

For Sevy, whose previous credits include X-Men, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and Tomb Raider, She Comes With Magic has become a highlight, adding, :This has been the most satisfying and fun project of my career.”

The freedom of working on a creator-owned comic allowed him to push himself further than ever before.

“It felt like a new door in my creative brain was unlocked,” Sevy said. “I was unbound and allowed to go wild.”

That enthusiasm extended to the artwork itself, adding, “There were pages I spent three or four days on, panels I spent 12 hours on, and the entire time I was having a blast.”

After more than a decade in comics, Sevy believes his experience and excitement finally converged at the right moment.

“A combination of skills and passion has elevated this project to an entirely new level,” Sevy said. “I hope we can keep working on this series for a long time.”

She Comes With Magic is currently available to back on Kickstarter until August 5 at 11 a.m. EDT.