The Entire Harry Potter Series In One Comic

Part 2 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows hits theaters on July 15, making this is a perfect time to recap the entire series.

Luckily, artist Lucy Knisley has constructed a gigantic comic designed to do just that.

Knisley is most famous for her adorably frank slice of life webcomic Stop Paying Attention, and fans of her work should be well-acquainted with Ms. Knisley’s geek leanings. In the past, her predilections have mostly taken the shape of subtle allusions (read: Princess Peach never cameos in her work), but her recent Harry Potter mega-recap is about as deeply geek as you can get.

I should warn those of you who have yet to finish the Potter books: The full-size version of Knisley’s comic contains spoilers, cleverly reimagined though they may be. If your brain doesn’t immediately fill in the blanks when I say “[REDACTED] kills [REDACTED],” you may want to avoid clicking through to the comic until after you’ve torn through the remainder of Rowling’s universe.

The rest of you however, should spend the next few hours reliving the adventures of the world’s most famous British boy wizard (sorry Simon). Knisley’s art and tendency to spike Rowling’s dialogue with liberal doses of hyper-cute ‘net speak almost make me wish she had written the books in the first place.

If nothing else, Knisley’s version of Dumbledore seems way more entertaining. Think: Michael Gambon by way of James Turner. He’s the kind of guy who could teach you to polymorph a cat into a hydra, but would rather watch the cat play a tiny piano.

Oh, and if you enjoy the work, please hit the donate button attached to Ms. Knisley’s livejournal page. She’s a professional artist who makes her money entertaining people, and ensuring she can feed and clothe herself seems a valid way to thank her for her efforts.

Update: Though it seems the full-sized, Flickr version of the image is defunct, you can view the entire summary in bite-sized form by scrolling down Knisley’s livejournal page. Propers to tehbeard for pointing this out.