This was okay. Read a little like geeks slapping themselves on the back for being geeks and laughing at those that laugh at them. That's probably good for teen geeks, but a little overly simplistic in real life - could have used some slightly more nuanced character definition. But that would have made it a different book, and this one is fun enough. The art was pleasing, but wasn't quite up to the big scenes.

Brian, Brad and Matt are best described as lovable perpetual losers. They're good guys who just lack direction and are all too happy to be enjoying that lazy time after high school. Their favorite thing to do in life is to play video games, eat junk food and kick around the suburban town they live in. All of this tranquil laziness is interrupted when Brian, Brad and Matt discover that the new girl Amber (of whom Matt is sweet on) is going to that night's big local rock show with Richard, the bully football jock. Determined to steer her away from Richard, the boys are launched off of their lazy rears and forced into a grand adventure. Chased by an irate football team, a vengeful troop of Girl Scouts and a stalking evil cat that may actually be possessed by Satan, our heroes are thrust into a giant rock 'n' roll video game adventure. ( )

I am so not the target audience for this graphic novel. The protagonists are kind of cute, but only because it's not scratch'n'sniff. Slacker boys adrift between adolescence and whatever comes next (they certainly haven't a clue) engage in stupid shenanigans and end up with the hawt girls despite their idiocy.

I'm passing this on to my kids to see if it's just that I'm too old for this, or if it's as bad as I think it is. ( )

So many elements here--post-high-school angst, girl troubles, bully troubles, lack of direction, video-game geekdom, a dog who thinks only of pooping and a cat who may be possessed by the devil. It's quick and fun but not particularly lasting. ( )

http://lampbane.livejournal.com/631014.html

"Even if the genre existed before 1994, 'slacker' was totally defined by Clerks and its stamp seems to be found everywhere. Or maybe it's just that everyone watches the same movies. This basically plays out like an updated Clerks and/or Mallrats, which a bunch of young men who work menial jobs getting in trouble with some of the local color and having wacky hijinks. They even have their own Jay and Silent Bob.

It's not a complete cut-and-paste job; the female characters have a bigger presence in the book, and we definitely get a 'tour of the town' which reminds me of say, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (though this book predates the film but not the novel). But there are some fuzzy spots here and there. The characters seem to have just graduated high school, and none seem to have college plans, but one of them has his own apartment. Maybe I just don't understand Connecticut that way.

Despite the name, the book has some, but not a lot of video game references in it. It's not dense in the way Scott Pilgrim is. That's good in that the book won't date as much, but at the same time, the cover promised something the interior doesn't deliver.

That all said, I really enjoyed the book. I just wish that comics creators would stop presenting geek comedies that are really just Clerks Lite." ( )