Missed Catuchup Item: "Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong", Shen and Hicks
Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong (Prudence Shen, Faith Erin Hicks) (2013). At one point posted online, the graphic novel follows the high school robotics team and the cheerleaders in their Prisoner's Dilemma quests to fund their respective obsessions. For people who are familiar with Shen's fannish works, some of her favorite, usually entertaining tropes pop up: arrogant, socially oblivious Nate and his unlikely strong-and-silent associate Charlie, the bridge to the cheerleaders; Nate's band of snarky robotics fanpersons; friction with authority figures; Charlie's superficial conformity to other people's desires as a coping mechanism. Hicks' black and white art is on a similar level: enthusiasm and energy carrying the reader over some of the weaker plot points.
One thing that did stand out was the switch from conflict to reluctant alliance between the robot club and the cheerleaders. The plot seemed to be gearing up for a classic scorched-earth battle to the death for student government presidency and control over student funds, when... bam! Adults slap all parties down! Cooperation is necessary for anyone to get what they want! It's not what I was expecting from the high school YA genre, and I liked the surprise.
This entry cross-posted at http://ase.dreamwidth.org/618686.html, where there are
comments.
One thing that did stand out was the switch from conflict to reluctant alliance between the robot club and the cheerleaders. The plot seemed to be gearing up for a classic scorched-earth battle to the death for student government presidency and control over student funds, when... bam! Adults slap all parties down! Cooperation is necessary for anyone to get what they want! It's not what I was expecting from the high school YA genre, and I liked the surprise.
This entry cross-posted at http://ase.dreamwidth.org/618686.html, where there are
comments.