So, my last couple posts have discussed what urban fantasy is and what it isn’t. Now that your curiosity is piqued, some among you may be wondering: Where can I find works of urban fantasy?
Everywhere, really.
Just to encompass how versatile urban fantasy is as a framework for storytelling, here’s a brief list of films, books, video games and comics that can be defined as urban fantasy.
The Tenth Kingdom (the first episode, at least)
Kingdom of Landover series (sort of)
Any Marvel or DC product with magic in it
Any Scooby-Doo movie where the monsters are real
The Shadow Over Innsmouth (most of H.P. Lovecraft’s works, actually)
And so many, many more.
Urban fantasy is vast, so expansive in scope that it can serve more as a thematic foundation for different types of stories than a specific genre in and of itself. After all, Dracula and Night at the Museum are very different, but both meet the criteria for urban fantasy. One is horror, and the other is comedy.
Urban fantasy is a genre, but it is also a theme. It is flexible enough to encompass virtually any story you can imagine.
I’ll leave you with a visual representation that I think captures the spirit of urban fantasy very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX6vSOAPAF4
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Jake W. Powell 