Carly UsdinRezensionen

Volume 2 delves much more into all of the characters. Each chapter kinda had a focus on one of the characters, so they're much more fleshed out now

I don't normally read comic books, but something attracted me to giving Heavy Vinyl a chance and I'm glad I did. The art style is beautiful and works for the story. The characters have the potential to be great. And the premise is interesting and a nice subversion of the girl gang trope. I'm glad I checked this out.

I liked the colors of the cover, reminded me of Easter. Also, two females on the cover? Sold.

The storyline was cute, I’m all here for females trying to better themselves. Not sure how long the series is but if I see #2 I’ll pick it up. Although it was cute, I found the storyline to also be very cliche and campy. The characters far seem very one dimensional. The main character seems angry and moody but we haven’t found out why.

The colors in the artwork are very vibrant and the characters facial expressions match the dialogue. I like this artist a lot.

Cheesy, over the top, and a weird plot. I wish this had more issues, I am sure it would be 10x better if the author was given more time to flesh out the plot. Maggie and Chris are still a cute couple.

I was staring at this comic while I was browsing the shop. I was only looking to buy single issues as I was low on funds but the staff member on the floor talked highly of it. Once she said how diverse and queer it was, I had to buy it. I don't regret my purchase since I always want to support anything LGBTQ related. Also, its published by BOOM! Box a division of Boom which published the Buffy comic which I loved. Needless to say I was looking forward to reading this today.

What I liked: The LGBTQ representation. The main character Chris is a lesbian who is crushing on Maggie. All the main characters are female which is refreshing! The nostalgia feeling I got while reading this. Since it takes place in 1998 a lot of the music references are from that 90's era and I was here for it! A bunch of vigilante chicks fighting evil doers is always okay in my book. The character Chris was my favorite, I enjoyed her awkwardness and her crushing on her coworker.

What I didn't like: This 1998 seems to be hate free which is extremely unrealistic. Nobody batted their eyes at Chris being openly gay, Maggie having 2 dads, or anything else. The plot seems a bit much. A bunch of record store employees are in a fight club, fighting the evil music industry? The last issue felt rushed and nothing is resolved. Why was the code put on the album? Whats going to happen next?

Artwork: Was amazingly drawn! It was neat and clean.

I'll probably buy Volume 2 if it ever gets released but I really want to see more relationship development between Chris and Maggie. I also want the plot to be a bit more clearer on who the villain is.

Yeah, this was still fun. But the last minute spoiler had no room to breathe. That was a whole new dynamic with no room to explore!

Grades 9-12 Transfer student Charlie is content to not get too involved at her new college, but determined, aspiring actor Liv will stop at nothing to get her to join her start-up basketball team, the Avant -Guards , even if it means she has to recruit the rest of the team members to subtly—or not so subtly—persuade her. Despite her reservations, Charlie finally agrees, and the team is surprised to learn at their first game that, hey, they’re not that bad! Amid all the basketball action, Usdin drops in plenty of backstory for the other team members and cultivates warm personalities through their comical interactions. Hayes and Nalty’s dynamic artwork in bright colors matches the cheerful tone and does a fantastic job of depicting the teammates, who are refreshingly diverse in skin tone and body shape. The figure designs nicely play up the personalities of the characters as well, and the basketball scenes are drawn with clear-cut action. This lighthearted ensemble story with a glimmer of romance is ideal for fans of John Allison’s Giant Days comics or Ngozi Ukazu’s Check, Please! (2018). -- Sarah Hunter (Reviewed 7/1/2019) (Booklist, vol 115, number 21, p46)

I received this a copy of this via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I've been reading graphic novels from Boom Box for awhile now. I love Giant Days, The Backstagers, Lumberjanes and Goldie Vance. All of these books stand out to me because of their diverse representation, strong female characters, and interesting storylines.

The Avant-Guards is no exception! I enjoyed the story, the illustrations and the cast of characters. I can't wait for the next one to come out!

Before we jump in here, I'm going to be honest about a couple of things. First off, I'm a child of the 1990's, so I was about the age of these characters during the Spice Girls and Portishead etc. I wore these clothes and watched these shows and a lot of my love of this comic is likely tied up in seeing myself in this book.

The main character, Chris, is a queer teenage girl with a crush on another girl who may or may not be queer. (She is, it's a romance, it's adorable!) I'm trying to think of a piece of happy media that featured queer girls that would have been available to me as a teen and I have nothing. Books in which queer adults die miserable? Plenty of those. Books with queer teens just hanging out and fighting the patriarchy? Nooope.

Chris is the newest employee at a record shop. She's also a teen who does teen things like attend school, do homework, develop a crush on a friend, and so on. The shop is scheduled to host a special show by her favorite band, Stegosaur, when suddenly, the lead singer goes missing! It's then that she's inducted into the "secret teen girl vigilante fight club" based out of the shop. The plot then follows Chris as she tries to figure out where she belongs within this group, deals with her feelings for Maggie, and solves the mystery. The characters in the fight club are a Black girl, Kennedy; a Puerto Rican girl, Dolores; and two white girls, Chris and Maggie. The leader of the gang is also white, but I'm not sure if she's a teen since she's the manager of the store. (I assume she's an adult.) The comic does the thing a lot of media has fallen into lately, where the group is diverse by having "one of each," rather than incorporating the reality that marginalized people usually hang together. I've forgiven it here because it's a group of employees, not a group of friends at school, but I did want to point out that I'm seeing it more and more in comics.

This was initially promoted as a 4 issue arc with a complete story, but the ending here is clearly leaving room for more story. I don't want to spoil the ending, but there's no way you could perceive it as being finished. The series also started under the name "Hi-Fi Fight Club," so I feel a bit yanked around by the series overall. What's your name? Are you a one-off or are you an ongoing series?

The art is really cute. The throwback 90's clothes, the backgrounds, the color palette. All good. Vakueva does a great job capturing the pure awkwardness that is the "is it a date?" stage of a crush, plus some action scenes. She has a style that's both distinctive and approachable, and it's a great fit for the series.

Overall, this is a fluffy queer romance story with a feminist music-loving punch-the-bad-guys bent. I really like it as a piece of YA fiction, even if the story ends in a way I wasn't expecting.

*Received via NetGalley for review*

A serviceable graphic novel about a transfer student rediscovering her love of basketball and making friends. I had a slight issue with the characters looking too young for college, but they're well drawn and colored.

I read the individual issues but can't be bothered to rate them each on their own.
It wouldn't matter anyway, I loved every issue. Got teary while reading 2 of them. Laughed at something in every one of them. This series is great for everyone who just want to read some wholesomeness. Every heavy topic is dealt with the gravity it deserves but it is never gloomy.
Perfect for readin after a hectic and busy workweek.

***THOUGHTS DIRECTLY AFTER FINISHING***
Oh. This is why I like going in blind. It was so short but I feel very satisfied. And smiley? Which is weird because I had a very long day/week.
So when I came home I just changed in my huispak (is there an English expression for clothes you only wear at home? A home suit? I don't think that's a thing?), made some tea, opened up my bag with my favourite liquorice and sat behind my computer with a warm blanket. So normally when I need my brain to power down I read.

But today I was browsing comics. I actually wanted to see if I could complete a different series but got distracted. Being distracted and being impulsive goes hand in hand for me. So I bought this instead.

So with a 'busy' brain, very unfocused, a bit crappy, tired but not enough to actually sleep, I started.

I loved it. It actually made me laugh. And smile for many pages. The last page was heartwarming. I actually think this one comic could be a stand alone. But I'm really glad there are more!

***WHY I WANT TO READ THIS***
Here's something about me. For some of my teen years I was a massive shoujo manga reader (but when I watched anime that was mainly shounen? Weird).

One of my favourite tropes were when a girl wanted to play sports so much that they would do anything for it. Even disguise as a boy (didn't always liked that aspect, felt very confining to me. Dude what's wrong with short hair and pants?). One of my all time series is [b:Girl Got Game, Vol. 1|271321|Girl Got Game, Vol. 1 (Girl Got Game, #1)|Shizuru Seino|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391911913s/271321.jpg|263037]. So when I read the blurb and say the drawing on the cover I was like MINE MINE MINE.

What can I say? I have very poor impulse controle when it comes to books.

So here's the thing. This could've turned out very creepy.

Instead it was lovely. And it showed all the different characters personality traits? At least I think so.

Even though sports isn't my thing everything else in this comic was.

A lot of unexpected things happened. Unfortunately none of it made sense to me. The reason why I don't give it a 1 star is because the art style is gorgeous and the characters have their moments.
But don't read this for the story.

Also it does feel like the author had an checklist for the diversity aspects. Even though I like seeing people from different walks of life, nuance matters.

So disappointed to see this enjoyable series come to an end. A fine conclusion is offered up, but it is certainly left open-ended enough for the women's basketball team to get a second season (please, please).

An underground all-girl vigilante fight club? YES. This was so much fun. The characters were great. The premise was delightfully out there but awesome. And the plot was interesting. Given the somewhat cliffhanger ending, I really hope there's more.

I'm still loving this. A diverse group of women finding themselves, playing basketball, being friends, and doing college. It's great. I'm in on this comic, for sure.

Funny and cute, will happily read more.

The first collection of issues of the comic The Avant-Guards, which follows the members of a newly formed women's basketball team at an arts college. I immediately fell in love with all of the characters here (especially Charlie and Liv, who the comic seems to be focused on, at least for now), and I love the diverse representation of races, sexualities, and religions. This gives me a little bit of a Giant Days feel, and I'm really glad to have something to look forward to reading as that series finishes up.

While there is a little less snap than in the first volume, this title remains a pleasant read with its diverse cast, LGBTQ storylines, attractive art, and unique women's college basketball setting.

Charlie is a transfer at the Georgia O'Keefe College of Arts and Subtle Dramatics. Liv and her friends recruit Charlie to be on the school's first basketball team in a new college division ("NCAAA Div IV"). Charlie is hesitant, given her past in the sport but ultimately gives in. The team is free-wheelingly diverse: gay, bi, non-binary, shades of brown, even a witch. Entertaining and affirming reading for the 21st century teen.

wow holy heck this is adorable!

a teen feminist vigilante fight club, set in the 90's in a record store. it feels a little bit like josie and the pussycat dolls or scooby doo but like, refreshed and modern. (even though it's dripping with nostalgia, which is part of what makes it great!)

almost !!! everyone !!! is gay !!! or queer !!!! i love this song !!!!

going to read the second volume for sure.

A cute and amusing story about the formation of a women's basketball team at an art school. A good book to read while waiting for the next volume of Giant Days.