The characters were well-drawn and the detailed cityscapes were exceptional. With comic art this good, who cares about the storyline? ( )

Evidence of male author bias in graphic novel construction: everything from female posture to irresistible straight bad boy to vacant-minded female protagonist. I regret that this was the last book to pass my eyes in 2016. ( )

This is another one of the graphic novels I won from bookriot.com on their giveaway for comic book day.

This is the story of a young college age woman in NYC learning about life for the first time. She ends up with a virtual boyfriend, a few in-the-flesh friends, and an older sister she's just getting to know.

There's more to come; not sure if I would pursue reading a sequel, but I was intrigued by the tantalizing clues about the photographer roommate.

And, I realize this is 2008. People still had cell phones, even if it wasn't the current latest and greatest smartphone. So why is it only Riley has a cell phone (a Blackberry, it looks like) and is the only one texting??? Everyone seems to think she's so rude as she's glued to her phone, but people have been texting for quite awhile now. Would it really be true she'd be the only freshman in NYC to carry a cell phone and text all the time?

I did like the NYC 101 tidbits about the city. They were great. ( )

This little OGN from Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly almost got a fifth star, but little things kept yanking me out of the story, namely the little guidebook/status updates. At first I thought they were cute ("New York 101: Broadway & Houston Streets... If you pronounced it like Houston, Texas, you are most likely a tourist. Say "house-tin" instead") but by the time they were explaining what a spider roll is, I was rolling my eyes and feeling condescended to, and annoyed to have my eye and thoughts diverted from a story that stood very nicely on its own. It concerns an NYU freshman, a young woman whose parents overbear, whose sister is estranged but newly in her life, whose friends are counting on her to come through with a place to live, and who is being secretly wooed via text message by someone who snuck his email address into her pocket at a show. Wood does a lovely job of ratcheting the tension to the breaking point and exploding it nicely, and Kelly's character designs, crowd scenes and cityscapes are all a comics fan would wish for. That the book is a nice little digest-size (fits in the pocket) and tells a compact, stand-alone story makes me consider it almost an American manga. It's a pretty darned good read. ( )

The latest in the new Minx series of graphic novels targeted at teenage girls and created by (straight bio) men. The state of comix tempts me into gender essentialist critique. I guess the real question is why don't publishers like DC Comics hire more women graphic novelists? More on this later. ( )