The Herder Witch is a comic book series by Soojin (or Sandy) Kim
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Morie is a witch, in a land where witches were once common. With her companion Yanna the changeling, they perform odd jobs around the towns with magic for cash. But when Morie becomes the target of a celestial cult, she and Yanna go on the run, in search of the help of old friends on their travel.
The comic series is currently ongoing, and can be read here. To support the creator, their Patreon is here.
The Herder Witch contains examples of:
- Apologizes a Lot:
- Padora is endearingly overly apologetic, unlike the prior seen witches, including Morie, who had plenty of pride in themselves.
- Yanna is frequently apologetic, through more out of nervousness and her youthful inexperience. This backfires a bit when she's in animal form and Morie is suddenly rammed by a frantically apologizing sheep-beast.
- Batman Gambit: Morie is suspicious of star seers, but decides to trust them after they tell her about a kidnapped father she could rescue. It's only after she's completed that job that she discovers that they told her about it so they could lure her out into an open field for capture.
- Bears Are Bad News: While passing through Blossomville, a bear gets loose and goes on the rampage. Thankfully, fellow witch Padora is there to freeze it in ice and then capture it inside a magical container.
- Cast from Sanity: A variant; magic requires the sacrifice of a memory to function. Morie's attempt at teaching Yanna spells includes her implanting Yanna with a foreign memory so as to have something she can expend for her practice spell.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Averted. Most witches like Morie tend to be just passing magic users for hire, not supernatural villains.
- Embarrassing Cover Up: Since Morie wants to keep a low profile on her journey, she hitches rides with passing villagers. When a few of them hear she's a witch, they ask why she doesn't use her magic to fly to her destination. Morie hems and hesitates to explain about the star seers, fearful the news about them could spread, and finally settles for lying: "I can't fly."
- Fashionable Asymmetry: Padora has asymmetrical hair, resembling a bowl cut with a plaited braid down the right side.
- Green Thumb: One of Morie's magical abilities. She eludes the star seers' first attempt to kill her by creating a forest in the flat valley she's caught in, giving herself cover in which to hide.
- Homoerotic Subtext:
Morie and Padora's interactions carry plenty of romantic implications, from their happy and easily relaxed manner around each other (compared to how serious Morie's been around other people), to occasional intimacy with touch, and the nature of the memories they share to one another. Morie also quietly laments when they have to part on their journey, wondering if they could've become something more. According to the author, Morie is bi. - Literally Shattered Lives: Averted when Padora restrains the bear in ice. The villagers are ready to smash it to pieces, but she explains that doing so will just cause the bear to break free again.
- Mundane Solution: To entertain Yanna while Morie is out of their inn room, Morie leaves her a note telling her there is a coin for Yanna hidden in the room. Yanna tears the room apart looking everywhere... except for the overturned cup Morie had left the coin under.
- Transferable Memory: How spells are taught in this world. Morie and Padora in the fifth issue transfer each other knowledge of their exclusive spells in such a manner, Morie learning Padora's water spell and Padora Morie' light spell. The memories can also be extracted in solid form (as small shells) to be absorbed later.
- Uplifted Animal: Yanna used to be a common sheep until she met Morie and was transformed into a human-like girl. That same magic allows her to shift between both forms, while still retaining her intelligence and speech ability.
- Voluntary Shapeshifter: Yanna, who can transform from a huge sheep-like beast to a Little Bit Beastly girl with horns and hooves.
