The Adventures of a Comic Con Girl #1
Story – Matt Spradlin & Dana Braziel-Solovy
Art – David Beauchene
-A review by request and donation from Scarlet-
It was only a matter of time before someone thought it would be a good idea to make a comedy/slice of life comic about the lives of convention nerds. Making the lives of nerds entertaining is not very easy as nerds tend to lead boring lives, I know because I am one. The Adventures of a Comic Con Girl is an over the top story that follows Dana a buxom nerdy girl who wakes up after having a crazy party to find out she pooped her pants, yes I am serious. After getting cleaned up she finds out that her signed copy of Werewolves vs. Ninjas vs. Zombies #1 has been stolen. Thus begins her crusade around the convention to find out what happened to her book.
The writing has some problems starting with our lead character Dana. She not a very likable character and that does tie into the resolution of the story, but it doesn’t make you relate to her troubles in any possible way. To add to this she spends most of the comic talking to herself and she even makes a comment about that early on in the story. This could have been avoided with simple thought bubbles. The second problem is the use of pooping as a running joke. It isn’t funny and as it is the first joke of the comic it gives the reader a very negative first impression of Dana. Third the ending is rather convenient considering all the drama that had occurred during the story. Finally, all male characters are written as dimwitted losers who will do anything a pretty girl tells them to do. The one thing that this comic did get right is the little nerdy references that appear here and there in the story usually as background jokes.
The art is equally flawed as the writing. The character designs are crisp, but bodies are recycled for most males and all females. It is hard to take a line about Dana’s weight seriously when she is just as waif thin as the other girls in the story. Not only that but, all these women have model bodies that do not really reflect the diversity of body shape at conventions. The majority of the male characters are drawn in a way to make them fit with how they are written as stereotypical nerds. The backgrounds are plain, but at least blobby bodies fill the space which works with the convention theme. On the good side there are some nice referential costumes that can be seen which adds to the atmosphere of the event and the color palate is passable.
This comic has some problems. It is clearly trying to be a comedy, but most of the humor falls flat. They try to build a realistic atmosphere, but no one really acts like a real person. The characters are too one-dimensional and are difficult to identify with. This makes it hard to sympathize with the struggles Dana faces. There is potential in a concept based on the drama that comes from conventions. However, this book failed at doing that type of story. To make matters worse this is the first part of a three part series and we know nothing about Dana or her friends giving us little reason to want to see more of these characters. There are far better stories about nerds out there and there are plenty of better comedies. The only reason why anyone should even look at this comic is for morbid curiosity and even then there is very little to make this a memorable title.
Bottom Line:
1 out of 5 – Don’t let the girl on the cover fool you this is a story about poop