Phillip Sevy & Christie Porter Talk Their NSFW Fantasy ‘She Comes With Magic’

Fantasy is undoubtedly one of the most popular fiction genres today. That’s often spawned multiple subgenres. 

One of the most popular today is romantasy which often is lovingly and jokingly shorted to, well, smut. However, creators Phillip Sevy and Christie Porter have launched a Kickstarter for a new series that’s perhaps a new subgenre, that’s a cousin to romantasy — what I can only call erotic epic fantasy. Last week the Kickstarter for She Comes With Magic launched, and funded in less than 24 hours. The story of a unique mage in a conquered fantasy world, the first issue does a lot to get fans of fantasy excited … in more ways than one.

Content Warning: Though the images here have been edited, they are still Not Safe For Work and the interview will be discussing mature topics. Reader discretion is advised.

Tony Thornley: Hey Phillip, Christie, thanks for taking the time to sit down and talk about the book. So you’re almost a week into this Kickstarter, and She Comes With Magic has already blown right past the funding goals. How does that feel for a start?

Phillip Sevy: It feels really good! For the eight months we were working on this prior to launch, I was constantly imagining how the campaign would go. Would it fund? If so, how fast? Where would it end up? Etc. And even with a book as good as ours, there’s still no way to know. But we had people show UP and help us fund in less than 24 hours. Now we’re in the phase where every dollar people pledge over the goal is more money to help ensure future issues come out faster! We’re not doing this campaign to get rich. Our goal covers colors, covers, printing, and shipping. We don’t get any of that money until we begin to fund beyond our goal. And that money goes right back into the book! So it’s exciting to see that happening. 

Christie Porter: I’m extremely proud of this book, and we put a lot of work into it — but you never know if your book is going to resonate or if people are going to “get it.” So to see people show up and support it is super heartening. 

Thornley: So for our readers who may not have visited the campaign yet, how do you pitch She Comes With Magic?

Sevy: It’s a NSFW Epic Fantasy that follows Maeve, an arcanist who channels magic through orgasm, as she sets off on a quest to save the world. It’s very adult, but fun, sexy, silly, exciting, and big. This is explicit, epic fantasy. For those who want spicy fantasy with actual spice.

Thornley: What’s the appeal of doing a no-holds-barred fantasy comic?

Porter: For me, I love building fantasy worlds. I love building magic systems and exploring the endless possibilities that fantasy provides. Not being beholden to any limits or requirements, there is no part of life and humanity and relationships and connections that we can’t show, if we feel it’s important. It’s a very big sandbox to play in, grounded in the characters we love and the journey ahead of them. But without constraints, the world is limitless. 

Thornley: How did the two of you develop the story?

Sevy: We’ve been working on several stories for years. When I had a break in my schedule last year, we finished up a pitch for a miniseries and sent it around to publishers. But early 2025 was a bad time for the creator owned market, so a lot of publishers were not picking up new books. I’d also been wanting to develop a series to take, issue at a time, to Kickstarter as we’ve had friends who’ve done that and it looked rewarding. Well, we kicked around the idea of bringing our miniseries to Kickstarter, but realized it was the wrong material for the market of KS. And one day I was lamenting “If we only had a queer, NSFW, dark fantasy idea…” Those are genres that KS really embraces. And within a few minutes I texted Christie “What if we did a story about a wizard who gets her powers through orgasm?!” And we were off to the races. It was too good an idea that both integrated character, plot, and sex together seamlessly. 

Porter: With that central idea, it stood to reason that the next thing we needed to develop was Maeve, our protagonist. We needed someone who could support the weight of the story and drive it forward, while also making this sexy magic channeling ability feel like part of this world. So we ultimately settled on a main character who is earnest and self-possessed enough to own her powers who cares deeply about this world enough to want to save it. And everything grew from there. 

Sevy: I think in fantasy we take the choice of the protagonist to save the world for granted. It’s usually the driving factor that starts an epic. But I’ve read more than a fair share of books that rely on our assumptions instead of giving us someone to root for who makes active choices that make sense and propel the story forward, and then deal with the consequences of those actions. I love a main character who drives the story against all odds and conflict. And we did not want a character who is in the backseat for the book while all the people around make choices for her. 

Thornley: Obviously creating something like a comic is a team process. For this book, it’s kind of unique, because I understand the two of you are co-writers and Phillip is the line artist.

What is the creative process like creating the story?

Porter: Once we had our big idea and our character, we talked out broad strokes, themes, tone, the look and feel of the story, and from there we started to find the shape of the first issue plot. Phillip is fantastic at really hammering an outline into place, and then at that point, we pass it back and forth where, as we flesh it out, I’m asking questions, scrutinizing our choices, to see if there are stronger, better ways to accomplish what we want to do. I think Phillip described it best when they said they see themselves as a hammer and I’m more of a chisel when it comes to story creation. 

Sevy: I take a first pass at the outline and then later, script. I love figuring out the plot beats and making sure they’re character driven and surprising. Christie has an incredible brain for the complexities of the world and finding unique and logical ways to explore them. Every time I come up with a “Wouldn’t it be cool if–!” idea, they’re really good and thinking through if that actually makes sense for the world and character and asking “Okay, yes, but how does that work?” So the rough and blocky portions I start, then they do an incredible job refining. Then I’ll take a pass. And back to them. We both love dialogue, so we’re constantly writing down any snippets that come up in conversation and saving them for later. 

Porter: While Phillip handles the layouts and pencils and inks, I review everything to make sure it’s in line with what we want. Initially, they started drawing Maeve a little too much like a muscley superhero, when we had talked about her being a softer character. So there were some tweaks to get her right. I’ve cosplayed for years, and we spend a lot of time talking about character and costume design. The whole process is very collaborative. 

Thornley: One thing I liked about this first issue is that even though this is very much an erotic fantasy, there’s strong emphasis put on both parts of that sub-genre, where many would only focus on the former.

How important was it for you to make sure this fantasy world was well developed and interesting before you got to the … well … smut?

Porter: There wasn’t really a stage where the smut wasn’t a part of the world. Maeve’s journey on this fantasy adventure is inextricably intertwined with her magic — therefore inextricably intertwined with sex. Balancing those two things was very important to us. 

Sevy: One of the things we’ve talked about over the years is that stories with plot and sex struggle to exist in the same space because if they’re not perfectly balanced, one feels like a distraction from the other. Your plot feels like an excuse to string along sex scenes together. Or your story keeps getting interrupted with sex. Finding the balance where those two aspects reinforce each other was a lot of fine tuning and work, but it was our goal from the beginning. 

Thornley: What was your favorite part of that development visually? How about lore-wise?

Sevy: I loved that we’re starting fresh on an entire new world and lore. And we get to design everything. And anything that sounds fun or exciting or cool — we can do! There’ve been a few characters I’ve drawn as throw-aways that Christie has walked up and been “What’s their deal? They look cool. I wanna know more about them.” So then we started developing them and making them integral. I’ve already got designs I’m working on for characters showing up in issues #2, #3, and #4! It’s so much fun. 

Porter: With the first issue, we’ve really only scratched the surface on how magic works in this world. In order to make the first issue work, we had to develop a lot of history and deep lore on the backend that you don’t get to see. And I’m excited to be able to reveal more of that going forward. The way the magic works in this world really connects a lot of our characters including our villain — Syphon — who is bound to Maeve, in a way. But also, my lips are sealed as to all that…for now. 

Thornley: One of my favorite things that I saw was that your characters are very much attractive and sexy individuals. You also made sure they each had an engaging visual flair, particularly with a hook for each, like Maeve’s tiefling-like appearance. What’s the process you take for developing these characters?

Sevy: As I’ve spent time in comics, I’ve very much become a proponent for the visual aspect of comics. Why does this idea need to be a comic? Is it just a rejected screenplay or novel? It needs to be a comic. And with that, your main characters need to be visually cool and distinct. You need characters that people want to cosplay, that they want the action figure, that they want to draw. If you don’t have that, then why does this idea need to be visual? So, that’s one of my top considerations when I design characters. During the development of this book I relied on lots of feedback from Christie, who has cosplayed for years. Does this outfit make sense visually? Could you cosplay it? I want fans to be building Maeve and Ryle costumes from day 1. From there, I want to make sure the cast of characters are diverse — racially, body types, height, etc. I don’t want same face/same body in comics. And with an endless combination of diverse attributes, we’ve got so many places and people to discover in this book. 

Thornley: Who’s emerged as your favorite so far?

Porter: Not every fantasy story needs a weird little guy — except it does. And our weird little guy is Voz. And I love him. We developed him a little later in the process, so we had to do some rewriting to make him fit into this story, but I’m so glad we did. Visually, he is colorful and adorable and just the most distinguished little gentleman. And I love how Phillip’s art has brought Voz to life. He also provides an important contrast to Maeve and Ryle with his discretion and fastidiousness, but he aligns with them in at least one very important way — sharing their goal to defeat Syphon. Plus, he’s perfect and I would die for him. 

Thornley: After a debut that’s both sexy and action packed, what would you like to tease readers with to keep them coming back?

Sevy: The last page of the first issue really sets up the quest of the entire series. And it’s a pretty big quest. We’re structuring the series as standalone adventure issues (each oversized at 32 pages of story — which is like 60% bigger than a standard Marvel/DC comic) that feed the larger plot. We want it to feel like a great RPG session. Each issue will be accessible and tell a sexy, funny, and sometimes intense story. In addition to the beginning, each issue will begin to peel back the layers of Maeve and the land’s history and lore, fleshing out how we got to where we started and why. It’s a big tapestry adventure story that still will stay grounded in character and exploring themes of freedom, autonomy, intimacy, and our relation to all of those. 

Porter: With any fantasy epic, we have a cast of colorful characters that we’ll encounter along the way (and ours get to be sexy). As Maeve continues on her quest, her adventuring party will grow and gain all sorts of your new favorite characters. Did I mention they’re sexy? And we’ve got an anarchist, punk bard in issue #2 … who also happens to be Maeve’s ex, so stay tuned!

Thornley: What’s next up for you, both in the world of creator owned and for hire comics?

Sevy: She Comes with Magic issue # 2!!! Christie and I have a good chunk of it outlined and figured out. After San Diego Comic Con, we’re gonna start scripting it. In work for hire land, I’m one of two artists drawing Boom Studios’ new Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series with writer Marguerite Bennett! I’m working on my third and fourth issues of that series, and it’s been a blast!

Porter: We’re gonna be at San Diego Comic Con, and I might be working on a cosplay of a certain pink-horned hero … And also She Comes With Magic #2!

She Comes With Magic #1 is currently funding on Kickstarter. Check out the campaign page, including more art and information about the series here!