keenspot 2019
Written by Mike Rosenzweig & Jason Swoboda
Illustrated by Remy “Eisu” Mokhtar
Lettered by Mike Rosenzweig
Travel back in time to 1995, when Netscape was how you navigated the internet (if you'd heard of the internet), Nintendo was just Super, and American high schools were anything but a bully-free zone. It's a perfect world for Marceline, an angry gamer girl way ahead of her time. She's about to bully her motley crew of classmate colleagues into helping her make history.
I absolutely enjoyed the heck out of this! So while flashing back to the 80’s has been so in trend as of late so it’s rather fun to see the 90’s take centre stage again. There really is something about seeing kids who’ve gone from those John Hughes films to more along the lines of Hackers or Edge of Seventeen. Harder grittier and full of attitude and yet still vibrant and full of life that’s pretty much an unexplored era in comics that just screams out for attention.
The flashback to seeing AOL and accounts for minutes well that’s something kids today would never believe, mainly because no one does much to show them. The computer age allowed for a few aspects of what we now call geekdom to arise and combine a few genre’s beautifully. You could not go from closet Dungeons & Dragons table top to computer games of the same ilk. Now aside from the kitsch factor that the past brings there is a wonderful story here. Mike and Jason really put something together here that is strangely fascinating and utterly compelling.
The characterisation here is phenomenal and each person that we meet here feels like a completely fleshed out individual. Also of note here is that Auntie steals ever scene she’s in much a great character actress does on screen. The wide variety of personalties here are sensational in that you feel as if this really does represent your own circle of friends now or in high school. That instantly makes this much relatable to and enjoyable in my opinion. Plus having lived through this era as an adult I find the realness of what we see not just cringe worthy but that oddly train wreck, can’t take your eyes off it, while enjoying the hell out of it sensation as well. It truly is something that fits into the whole teenage and up readers category.
I can’t tell if this is hand drawn, see pencil and paper, or computer generated. It feels like it could be either but if it’s the latter then a real disservice has been done. I miss the utilisation of backgrounds they really expand the moment, add character and show off a size and scope to the book so it’s a shame we don’t see them used in the majority of the book. However that being said the individuality of these characters much like their personalities shine here. Again the diversity we see is excellent. I don’t know if I am buying the clothing choices but okay and then to see them as the Street Fighter characters was fabulous! The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the angles shows a nice eye for storytelling. The colour work is solid and I like how we see the way light sources are utilised in terms of shading. Oh and once again Auntie steals the damn show so thank you for that it’s freakin amazing!
I am not so sure about this thing with the Vice Principal but from my personal experience with a Vice Principal I will applaud this if Marceline gets the better of Gertrude. The conflict this is supposed to generate is unclear and the Magic 8-Ball says try again later. So I guess I have to come back and see what transpires. This is one heck of an example of how comic books can alter your mood, lift you up and put a smile on your face whether your down or not. The joy exudes from the pages and it is an experience you’ll love having and want to share.