Tag Archives: Teens

Review: COADY AND THE CREEPIES #1 (of 4)

COADY AND THE CREEPIES #1

Here is a comic with a twist on Scooby and the gang. Instead of a bunch of ghost-hunting teenagers, what if one of those meddling kids was already a ghost? Writer Liz Prince (Tomboy, Will You Still Love Me If I Wet the Bed?) and artist Amanda Kirk team up for this four-issue comic book series, COADY AND THE CREEPIES, published by BOOM! Box, an imprint of BOOM! Studios.

In this first issue, we are introduced to a triplet sister band, The Creepies, with Criss, Corey, and Coady Castoff. They are all involved in a tragic van accident that scars Corey, leaves Criss in a wheelchair, and kills their tour manager…and, unbeknownst to them, actually kills Coady. She’s now a ghost, you see, although not fully aware of it at the start of our story.

Page excerpt from COADY AND THE CREEPIES

A fun part to this comic is that this is not your typical pop band scene. Instead, Prince went with a punk scene and plays with that harder edge. It’s all about attitude and keeping face. The guys in the band, The Boneheads, are especially competitive–and obnoxious. Check out the energy in Kirk’s drawing, reminiscent of Gary Panter. This comic packs a lot of power!

This is an inventive and engaging supernatural/band on the run mashup. And there’s plenty of local flavor too. Just as Coady is getting a handle on not exactly being alive anymore, everyone must deal with the ghost of La Llorona who haunts the Santa Fe River. That definitely conjures up a Dia de los Muertos vibe. Lots going on for a first issue. In terms of a rating, I give it a full four stars.

Coady and the Creepies #1 is available as of March 15th. For more details, visit BOOM! Studios right here.

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Filed under Amanda Kirk, Boom! Studios, Comics, Comics Reviews, Ghosts, Liz Prince, Supernatural

Review: DARK PANTS #3

DARK PANTS #3 by Matt MacFarland

DARK PANTS #3 by Matt MacFarland

I am a big fan of Matt MacFarland’s DARK PANTS series. You can read my review on the previous two issues right here. The third issue is now out and it follows Phil, a teenager in Silver Lake, California, circa 1988. As Matt described to me in an interview, each new issue focuses on a different time and place in the Los Angeles area. The motif is a mysterious pair of black jeans and the sexual awakening they trigger in whoever wears them.

Page from DARK PANTS #3

Page from DARK PANTS #3

For our hero, Phil, life has been hell as he struggles with his sexuality. Phil is navigating in a very oppressive environment. The last thing he wants to consider is being gay. But, once his fate crosses paths with those alluring dark pants, he gains enough confidence to explore his options a little bit. MacFarland is relentless in his depiction of Phil’s inability to be true to himself. It seems as if his embracing his truth is filled with nothing but pain. Gradually, MacFarland hints that Phil may ultimately find pleasure but it sure won’t come easy.

Reading DARK PANTS #3

Reading DARK PANTS #3

The easiest thing that Phil can rely upon is his imagining having sex with teen heartthrob John Stamos. It’s a pretty funny and sobering fact. Phil thinks about it and he knows he likes it. But he’d rather hide. Things come to a head, so to speak, when Lisa, his supposed dream girl, lures him away to a bedroom. It’s his big chance to prove he’s not gay to his confused and frustrated self but all he can think about is…John Stamos. As for Lisa, she will have her day. It looks like she is the subject of the fourth issue set in Eagle Rock, California, circa 2016.

No matter how empowering those dark pants are, they are no match for an awkward teen. Phil is simply ill-equipped to harness his new raw power. He makes some progress but not quite what he might have expected. MacFarland’s drawing and writing is highly accessible. He immerses the reader in the inner turmoil that his characters are going through. With just the right touch of humor, MacFarland offers us stories of missteps of the heart that will stay with us.

Matt MacFarland Los Angeles

If you are in the L.A. area this weekend, be sure to see Matt MacFarland on Saturday, July 16th, from 5-7pm at the Los Angeles County Store in Silver Lake. Find out more right here.

Find Matt MacFarland and DARK PANTS right here.

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Filed under Alternative Comics, Comics, Gay, Independent Comics, LGBTQ, Los Angeles, Matt MacFarland, Sex

Graphic Novel Review: Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang’s IN REAL LIFE

Comics-InRealLife

“In Real Life” is one of this year’s most intriguing graphic novels as it raises questions not asked often enough. A New York Times bestselling graphic novel written by Cory Doctorow and drawn by Jen Wang, it is the story of Anda, a gamer, who discovers a black market system through the friendship she makes with, Raymond, a poor boy in China. The focus is on what exploited people must do in order to survive and what can be done to help them rise up and out of their circumstances. But it’s also about the avatars we use to hide from the world. As is clearly depicted here, Anda has problems with the real world and her place in it.

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Filed under Comics, Cory Doctorow, First Second, Games, Geek Culture, Graphic Novel Reviews, graphic novels, Jen Wang, Orbital Comics

Graphic Novel Review: ‘Will & Whit’ by Laura Lee Gulledge

Will-Whit-Laura-Lee-Gulledge

Do you think it’s hard to find comics that you can relate to on a human scale? Hopefully, that’s not the case but, for a lot of readers out there, it may seem confusing. Well, the comics medium offers such a vast and wide assortment of possibilities. Consider the story of Wilhelmina Huckstep, “Will” for short, who is a talented and beautiful young woman who has one Achilles’ heel. She’s sort of afraid of her own shadow. More specifically, she’s afraid of the dark.

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Filed under Comics, Graphic Novel Reviews, graphic novels, Young Adult, Youth Culture

Review: THE WOODS #1

The-Woods-Boom-Studios

If you’re looking for some good all-ages comics that teens, and anyone for that matter, can relate to then “The Woods” is an excellent choice. Everything in a teenager’s life can seem like it could trigger the end of the world. And then, one day, that world literally ends. That’s the premise of “The Woods,” a new comic by Boom! Studios.

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Filed under Boom! Studios, Comics, Comics Reviews, Horror, Sci-Fi, science fiction

Review: LUMBERJANES #1

Lumberjanes-Ellis-Stevenson

“Lumberjanes,” published by Boom! Box, is a comic with repeated allusions to the third eye and offbeat pop culture references. I can understand Joan Jett. But Bessie Coleman? As one of the precocious characters here would ask, “Just what in the junk is going on here, anyway?”

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Filed under Boom! Studios, Comics, Comics Reviews

WATCH: ALIEN DAWN on Nicktoons, Fridays, 10 PM EST/ 7 PM PST

alien-dawn-nicktoons-2013

Comics Grinder recommends a new show on Nicktoons that has it all: skateboarding teens in NYC who share one big problem that will require a huge leap of faith. You see, one of them is missing their dad. The only way they’re going to find him is to carefully study for clues through the pages of the comic book series he created. And this involves extraterrestrials in a very big way.

Yeah buddy, somebody’s dad is missing. You don’t think these guys are going to do whatever it takes to find him? Of course, they are. Even if their lives turn into something from “The X-Files.”

Press release follows:

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Filed under Comics, Nickelodeon, Nicktoons, science fiction, Television