Minx Reviews: The Plain Janes and Janes in Love

So I was going to review a different Minx title this week but I was so distracted drawing my own graphic story (which I'll share with you at a later date) that I forgot to re-read it! D'oh! So to make up for it I'll review two other Minx graphic novels in one go: The Plain Janes and Janes in Love written by Cecil Castellucci and illustrated by Jim Rugg.

The Plain Janes is all about...uh...Jane, a popular girl who is caught in a terrorist explosion. Jane survives but afraid that next time she might not be so lucky her parents relocate from the city to the safe suburbs of Kent Waters. The explosion really gets Jane thinking and she realises she wants more in life than being popular. She redesigns herself and instead of sitting at the cool girl table on her first day of school she sits with the 'rejects', a group of girls (and one guy) who all happen to be called variations on the name Jane. Jane wants to channel her feelings from her bad experience into making the world a more beautiful place and together with the other Janes create art installations in the dead of night (think Banksy or Knit Bombing) however not everyone can see the art in P.L.A.I.N's (People Loving Art in Neighbourhoods) art and will do anything to stop them from defacing Kent Waters any further.

 

Janes in Love continues the activities of P.L.A.I.N with Jane realising the only way she can continue to make Kent Waters more beautiful is to make her art legal however whilst she's applying for an arts grant the other Janes are flaking out on her as the Leap Year Dance (their school's Valentine's Day ball) is coming!

 

The Janes books are some of the more positive books in the Minx series. You know that whatever the plot suggests things are going to turn out okay for Jane and her crew. This is great if you need a lift on a miserable day but not so good if you want some gritty realism. A more subtler positivity that the books contain is the concept of turning something ugly into something beautiful. Jane believes deeply in her cause - a project that will not only help her work through her trauma of the bombing but also change for the better the lives of everyone around her - and works at it doggedly no matter what fate throws at her. When you think of the more popular Young Adult heroines such as Bella Swan and Clary Fray such selflessness and dedication puts Jane head and shoulders above them as a positive young adult role model.

 

The other Janes are more stereotypical which is fine in the first book but a little lazy in the second. Each Jane is known as their thing eg Theatre Jane and Sporty Jane and that's pretty much as deep as they get. There is the odd twist to their stereotyping eg Sporty Jane though very unladylike is the first to bag herself a boy in Janes in Love but it's rare. Clever Jane's quirk is that her parents are two gay men which though unusual and refreshing isn't really about her, is it? Then there is James, the only gay in the village...er...I mean Buzz Aldrin High (best name for a school ever). We know he's gay because his face is drawn differently from all the other male characters and he only ever hangs out with girls. He is most definitely stereotyped by his sexuality which is sad as I know that wasn't the intention. I really wanted him to find some straight / gay male friends so that he could explore aspects of himself that he couldn't with a bunch of straight girls.

 

The most developed of the other Janes is Theatre Jane which is ironic as her speech patterns are the most unbelievable (she talks like a male Shakespearean actor). This development happens in Janes in Love where she goes to meet her crush (theatre actor Rhys) on the same day Jane goes to her arts grant pitch. Theatre Jane goes from being a stubborn drama queen to showing a gentler, more nervous and fragile side as well as displaying very endearing resilience.

 

Janes in Love definitely has the stronger narrative (The Plain Janes' overarching story is very basic - succeed at spreading art - leaving lots of space to explore Jane making friends, spreading art, understanding her feelings, getting an art crush on a guy in a coma and winning bad boy Grant) but the 'girls falling in love' part of it is much less original. Maybe it's because every slice of life Young Adult book aimed at female readers involves at least one obligatory romance or maybe it's because the other Janes don't really expand beyond their characters established in the first book that it feels unimaginative. I mean if you're going to do teen romance you really need to put a new spin on it. Theatre Jane's visit to Rhys does have that spin and there is a suggestion of a lesbian encounter but apart from that it's all pretty much paint by numbers stuff. Luckily art is not completely forgotten in the second book and Jane's attempt to continue P.L.A.I.N is enough to carry the book through (though you are never in any doubt about how the art grant will go). 

 

Apart from James not looking like anyone else in either of the books (this is particularly apparent in Janes in Love where his eyes are just dots) the art, as usual, is first class. Jim manages to combine bold lines with wispy shading. The characters (apart from James) have large eyes that really do act like the doors to their souls. I could honestly stare at main Jane's eyes all day. The characters and backgrounds, though not always 100% realistic have so much beauty an emotion to them. They feel like art which I suppose makes them perfect for books about the beauty of art.

You'll like The Plain Janes / Janes in Love if you like:
Rookie, Art School Confidential (and the art class scenes in the Ghost World movie), The Gilmore Girls, It's Kind of a Funny Story, The Perks of Being s Wallflower and knit bombing

Also by Jim Rugg:
Street Angel, Afrodisiac, One Model Nation, and The Guild.

Novels by Cecil Castellucci:
Boy Proof, The Queen of Cool, Beige, Rose Sees Red, Grandma's Gloves, First Day on Earth, The Year of Beasts and Odd Duck.

Cecil is also an indie rock musician releasing music as Nerdy Girl and Cecil Seaskull. Maybe I should do Friday Feature on her music. What do you think?

Minx Reviews: Water Baby

This week's Minx review is the graphic novel Water Baby by Ross Campbell. I think Ross Campbell is epic however I promise to be subjective with this review (mostly).

 

Water Baby is a story of two halves. The first part focuses on surfer chick Brody's recovery from having her leg bitten off by a shark. She is plagued with nightmares of a mutant version of the shark which attacks not only her but also her best friend Louisa. Just as Brody starts to get used to her loss another shark enters her life: ex-boyfriend Jake. Jake is a total douchebag and is ruining Brody and Louisa's peaceful existence. When he trashes their apartment Brody decides it's time to send Jake packing. This is where Water Baby enters phase two and becomes a road story. Instead of just ejecting Jake, Brody takes it upon herself to drive Jake back. At a service station he meets Chrissie. They say bad people attract each other and this is very much the case and before Brody and Louisa know what is happening Jake has invited Chrissie along with them. Chrissie's boyfriend apparently abandoned her and it becomes obvious why as she systematically tries to destroy the trio's already strained relationship.

As far as I remember Water Baby was my first Minx graphic novel and though, by no means perfect, it was enough to get me hooked on not only on the Minx imprint but also Ross Campbell.

I'll talk about the art first. It's faultless. If you like the slightly moody and decaying style of Wet Moon then you will be at home with Water Baby. When Brody shaves off her hair she very much looks like Mara. The story too has a very Wet Moon-ish feel to it (it was written between volumes 2 and 3). It is definitely the most grown up of the Minx stories. Brody's accident and nightmares are very graphic and the characters have very mature relationships with sex and sexual fluidity.

The first part of the story is very much the strongest. Because you start with Brody and Louisa a few minutes before the accident you already feel like you know them and their relationship when it happens. You are much more invested in Brody's recovery than if you had started a few seconds before the attack or just after. Louisa takes a lot of crap from Brody but because you know how close they were you want to see their relationship recover too. Then there's Jake. He is a trigger for the nightmares and causes some good extra tension but he is such a selfish, ignorant, douchebag that whenever he pops up he really sticks out. Everything is so nuanced and subtle and inferred then Jake comes along and does something dumb because he is an irredeemable idiot. You could say that maybe his stupidity is cute but he is also a chauvinist so unless you like guys who treat women as little more than put on the earth for their gratification he is not cute. I guess what I'm saying is he's a little bit too much of a jerk. I most definitely would not have offered to drive him home - but then that is also part of the story - Brody realising that you don't have to tolerate or pander to jerky exes.

The second part of the story is the road trip. It is very standard fare. It is here we meet Chrissie. Chrissie is cute but poisonous. I knew a girl exactly like her at university and maybe we all know girls like Chrissie but if you don't you'll probably find her a bit of an evil seducer stereotype in a book that is otherwise very liberal. I think because the book is so open to all sorts of ways of life if feels strange to have such an obvious 'villain' but like I said...girls who look cute and use their cuteness to do incredibly destructive things do exist. I suppose it doesn't help that Jake really is such an idiot and falls for her sly ways so easily whilst Brody and Louisa know there is something up and want as little to do with her as possible. I think because the books is a single volume and a big chunk is devoted to Brody's recovery there is not much space to develop Chrissie as much as the other characters. Though it is not intended she has a tendency to come across as bad because she sleeps around rather than bad because she is generally out to cause trouble.

Water Baby desperately wants to be two different stories but if you're willing to overlook the meandering plot there is a lot still to enjoy, notably the naturalistic dialogue, Brody and Louisa's relationship and Ross' beautiful art. It is also refreshing to find a male writer who can actually write good female characters and isn't afraid to write a less than perfect male. It gets very tiring seeing male writers mouth off about how great they are at writing strong females when in reality though their characters are not the 1950s housewife stereotype they are still no way near dimensional enough to be 'real' (yes there is a difference between 'strong' and 'real'). Long live Ross Campbell's obsession with deep, gutsy girls!

You'll like Water Baby if you like:
Wet Moon, Ghost World, Kakera: A Piece of Our Life, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, female road trip movies such as Boys on the Side and grungy surfer stuff.

Also by Ross Campbell (writer and artist):
Too Much Hopeless Savages!, Wet Moon, The Abandoned, Resurrection (v2), Shadoweyes and Shadoweyes in Love

Also by Ross Campbell (artist only):
Spooked, House of Mystery #1: "The Hollows", Hack/Slash, Fraggle Rock (v2 #2), Glory (#23-34) plus a load of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle stuff.

Friday Feature - Graphic Novels for Female Readers 3: Wet Moon

This week is my last (for now) graphic novel for female readers, Wet Moon by Ross Campbell. Wet Moon is a series of graphic novels set around the eponymous college town featuring the trials and tribulations of the young adults (mostly female, mostly into alternative cultures) who live there.

Though Wet Moon features an ever widening ensemble cast much of the action rotates around eighteen year old Cleo Lovedrop. Cleo is still getting over ex-boyfriend (and ultra broody love of her life) Vincent when she bumps into screamo chick Myrtle. They quickly become attracted to each other and Cleo must work out if she is gay, bi or just going through a phase whilst still trying to get over Vincent. Things start to get complicated when Cleo's sister falls pregnant by someone very familiar, Myrtle turns possessive and Cleo realises she'd much rather have a relationship with childhood best friend Mara. Then there are the 'Cleo Eats It' posters posted all over town, the mysterious almost magical Fern, the FBI guy with the monkey, a mysterious slasher, a masked vigilante and the weird stain on Cleo's bedroom floor.

Wet Moon's a little like a sub-culture soap opera. Every character has a story, no matter how grand or small, and whatever happens ends up being everyone else's business. My friend compared it to a load of gothic girls being bitchy about each other...and it kind of is...but then that's what teenage girls do. What she means is Wet Moon is as much about creating characters and an atmosphere as it is telling a story - its focus is much more on dialogue and the everyday life of the town than it is fast moving storylines. It will appeal much more to young women already into or accepting of sub-cultures than someone who isn't as to be 'normal' is to be the odd one out in Wet Moon.

The best thing about Wet Moon for me is that Ross Campbell never exploits his characters. It would be so easy for a graphic novel about gothic girls to be aimed squarely at over-sexed male readers looking for a quick you-know-what but instead he rises above it and creates a world anyone open to it can enjoy. His cast is all encompassing - characters come from all races, all sexual orientations and all body shapes. Some are inherently cool, some are geeks and some are complete mysteries. Campbell doesn't take the obvious root of making his gay characters' storylines about being gay - refreshingly (apart from Cleo) the majority of the gay characters' storylines are those anyone could go through with being gay being as incidental as the colour of their hair. Ditto for body shape. Characters such as Fern and Zia are disabled but Wet Moon never becomes a freak show and they are depicted as so much more than their missing limbs. The same goes for curvy Audrey - she could easily become 'the fat girl' - but is instead a radiant, gentle, blabbermouth and moral compass. Indeed it is because Wet Moon is a town where unique is the norm that so many of the characters' beauty is so easily accessible. I am especially fond of main character Cleo. She is by no means perfect - she can be two-faced and flaky - but we share the same body shape (short and curvy) which I can promise you is not what your average comic book heroine looks like!

Of course we would not know what Cleo and here friends looked like without the art. Campbell's style finds a wonderful balance between detail and decay, embracing the grayscale of the indie graphic novel medium. All his characters are gorgeous without being gratuitous. I'm not going to lie - I find his style one of the most unique and beautiful I have encountered - I truly find it a feast for the eyes. I really hope one day I'll be lucky enough to write for him!

Campbell starts the first few volumes of Wet Moon in a more realistic style then between volumes three and five become more cartoon-like (Cleo's eyes in particular become very large) and in volume six he returns to his original style. Despite the change in style neither to me is better than the other. As a Batman reader I'm used to characters being drawn in multiple styles and though I must admit I prefer Campbell's more realistic work I completely appreciate the effort and love put into his more cartoonish style.

Wet Moon is the perfect place to go if you're searching for someone to relate to as there really is someone there for everyone. I only ever read Wet Moon in the bath. Bath time is my escape from the stresses of the real world. Likewise Wet Moon is the place I go when I want a relaxing escape. I can spend hours exploring its strange streets and breathing its originality in...well until the bath water goes cold and it's time to face the real world again.

You can find out more about Ross Campbell, Wet Moon and his other works here.

Everyone in Wet Moon likes Bella Morte so here is a song by them!

Next week: We return to music with La Sera!

P.S. - did you enjoy this series? Would you like to see more recommendations? Are there any graphic novels in particular you would like to see featured?

Velma Dinkley: lesbian or just too classy for you? | Glasses

I was writing about Nancy from The Automated Heart yesterday and thought I'd slip in a Velma from Scooby Doo reference. I went onto Velma's wikipedia page and saw that the section about her debated sexuality is bigger than her character description and background combined!

Basically, because Velma's not conventionally beautiful (like Daphne), is intelligent (unlike Daphne) and doesn't need constant rescuing and reassurance from a man (like Daphne)...she must be a lesbian...according to some other men. God forbid she just be shy or might actually have enough self respect to not want to put herself around or act like a bimbo for the sake of fulfilling not only a gender but also a sexuality stereotype. Another part of their argument is the fact that she is not overtly heterosexual in the cartoons, which is a completely spurious argument as Scooby Doo is aimed at children and nobody is overtly sexual in it. It would mean Daphne is also a lesbian...which could never be...she's far too pretty...

I have no idea if Velma is gay and I don't care either way but what I do care about is why it matters so much to certain people that she has to be labelled at all. Why is it so unimaginable that an attractive woman might be gay? Why must a more masculine / reserved / independent woman be hiding a sapphic secret? It makes me think of the scene from But I'm a Cheerleader where Jan realises she actually is straight and no one believes her because she's the butchest one there. It is like, because a woman makes herself unobtainable to a certain type of man, he must instantly make her unobtainable to all men so as to help his own insecurities (though please note I am only referring to a certain type of man). In the end it just becomes offencive to both straight and gay women by a) suggesting being smart is less desirable than being stupid and more conventionally attractive, and b) by suggesting than because of this she must be a lesbian.

The one thing that is for certain is that however you see Velma (lesbian, geek, introvert, know-it-all) she's still damn cool and the Scooby Gang would be a bunch of goners without her...and if I'm being honest...I think glasses and knee socks are way cute.

In fact here are some other famous real and fictional female glasses wearers to try and change your perception:

Marilyn Monroe in How to Marry a Millionaire

Anne Hathaway

Enid from Ghost World

 

Dr Harleen Quinzel aka Harley Quinn

 

Daria Morgendorrfer

 

Hell there are loads...take a look.

 

And I guess because it's only fair seeing as I'm talking about girls in glasses...here I am in my new glasses, also proud to be a specky four eyes:

 



Maybe another time I'll do a post about men in glasses. I think they're super cool (sexy) too! Though just in case I forget...here is one of my all time fave glasses wearers (I'm sure you can't guess who...)

Yeah...any excuse...

Valerie and Gemma

Continuing with my series of posts about work I finished before I started this blog, here is the first ever film I made! It was completed as an exercise during my first semester at the NFTS to help me understand what happens to my scripts after I write them. As part of the exercise I not only had to write the film but also direct, edit and partially produce it. I am very proud of it!

To watch the film just click the picture!