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BLUE MONDAY LOVECATS
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Oni Press
Writer/Artist: Chynna Clugston-Major
Letters: Bryan O'Malley
Editor: Jamie S. Rich
Price: $2.95 US |
Other than having the Cure's "Lovecats" stuck in my head for about an hour every time I look at this title, I don't have anything to complain about where Blue Monday: Lovecats is concerned. Clugston-Major has an impressive grasp of comics pacing, as her work is equally interesting if it's shorts (such as the ones from Action Girl),
mini-series or one-shots. This one takes a look at the phenomenon of the school
dance, from the point-of-view of the kids who mock such an institution even as
they indulge in it, and it has a surprisingly sweet romantic story for two
characters who I didn't think had any sweetness in them.
In the beginning, I sometimes found the characters in Blue Monday hard to
distinguish, but as time has gone on, I've come to enjoy all of them and
especially enjoy the unusual friendships that bond them together. Given how
inseparable Clover and Bleu seem now, it was a lot of fun to see how that
friendship began, with the flashback to the school dance where they met. The
friendship rings true, as I knew plenty of kids in high school where coming off
as more intelligent than the rest of the unruly mob was all you needed to form a
bond. Each of the characters also has a distinctive speech pattern, and the
phrases and words that they use in their language gives a sense of the
characters as much as the music that forms the "soundtrack" for the story.
Of course, while
Clugston-Major's characterization is solid and based squarely on believable high
school mentality, the antics of the characters come more out of movies based on
high school. The comedy of errors that is Victor's introduction to Clover is
hysterical, almost painful to read given how embarrassing it is but very funny.
The humor comes through in Clugston-Major's artwork as much as in her dialogue. Clover's violent temper, Victor's clumsiness and Bleu's power ballads are all much funnier with the exaggerated movements in the artwork. And the detail on the fashions, the band posters and other background elements helps to convey the style and the era that Clugston-Major is going for, a major component of Blue Monday.
What surprised me about this book was how sweet it was at the end. Blue Monday has certainly had its share of sweetness, whether it's Bleu's happy ending in The Kids Are Alright or the sparks generated in the date at the end of Absolute Beginners, but I always
expected Victor and Clover to sort of be on the outside of these kinds of
stories. The finale of this issue is a touching moment, as well as a bit of a
change for these characters, and I can see why Oni decided to release this one
on Valentine's Day.
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