I'm not really into video games, and definitely not into online gaming. But during my short time with a failed dot-com, a frequent activity in the offices were games of Quake on the company's local area network (hard to believe the company tanked, isn't it?). I would get my ass royally kicked, but it was an interesting diversion as we awaited the collapse of our employment. My point is that Kurtz does a great job of capturing a rather unorthodox workplace environment, and he had me laughing out loud a couple of times. The PvP are light fare, but they're diverting and entertaining.
Francis, the 15-year-old staff writer at the gaming magazine, is shocked to discover that he has been displaced as the No. 1 ranked Quake player online, and he's determined to oust the upstart -- "Devilfish" -- who bumped him down the list. The task proves to be far more onerous than he expected, though, but things get really complicated when he discovers that Devilfish... is a girl. Teenage awkwardness and middle-aged nostalgia for meals gone by ensue.
Kurtz's simple designs tell the reader just about everything s/he needs to know about them. Francis's youth and awkwardness is clear in how he's depicted, as does Marcy's bookish appearance. My favorite visual in this book, though, is the most surreal one: Skull, the monster who hangs out at the magazine offices. He's the most expressive of all he characters, and his hefty frame always dominates any scene in which he appears. And the image of him in a fez is priceless.
I can relate to the lax professional environment that serves as the setting for this propety, but I can't help but wonder if Kurtz loses some readers with it. He's reaching out to generations X and Y here. He scores with the latter with the video-game elements, but I wonder if lost others. Despite the changes that have arisen in the workplace in recent years, most people's careers take them to conventional workplaces, from offices to garages, from restaurants to delivery bays. I wonder if there's more common ground that Kurtz could bring to this book.
There are outrageous gags had me laughing, but the real humor lies in the more down-to-earth examinations of adolscence, pop culture and adult nostalgia for what may seem like simpler days. It was easy to relate to Francis's confusion about how to act around his female counterpart, and to some of the other characters' cynicism. PvP isn't exactly cerebral fare, but it's consistently fun, just as a comic strip should be, as Kurtz notes in the back of the book.
