We Can’t All and Some of Us Don’t

    (Lovely Monkey, 2006)
™ and © Lovely Monkey

This one–shot comic book involves a chance meeting between a teen–age boy and a flighty teen–age girl. The girl teaches the boy to “stop and smell the roses.”

Yan Wu’s art is weird and flighty—much like the girl—and the lettering looks like calligraphy. Tara Heusner’s script is solid, but, as the title suggests, it’s pretentious. That’s a shame, because she may alienate readers who would otherwise read her comic book.

While it would be great to see more work from this creative team, they may want to focus their efforts more. New creators sometimes buck conventions because they are formulaic and ruin the story. However, some conventions of the comics medium are pragmatic and help the reader better understand.

A clearer title would go a long way to help. It’s not that this title can’t work; it’s just an uphill battle, since comics fans spend only seconds scanning the rack. This needs a title that can present the work in a matter of seconds.

— Tony DiGerolamo
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