Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellugucci and Jim Rugg ::
by William the Bloody
Jane Beckles used to live in Metro City. Back in Metro City, Jane was an attractive, teenage girl with the popular clique who was having trouble in math. Then IT happened. Jane was downtown and walking past the cafe when it suddenly exploded. She was knocked down by the blast, but otherwise unhurt, unlike the man a few feet from her, who wound up in a coma, with no identification, just a sketchbook which read: Art Saves. This whole ordeal thrust Jane into an existential crisis. She cut off and dyed her hair. She started dressing differently. Most of all, she started to consider the words on the cover of John Doe's sketchbook and turned to art, hoping that it would save her. Jane's mother, on the other hand, took to saving Jane in a far more practical and real sense. The family moved out of the city to Kent Waters, a small suburban community. Jane's mom bought her a cell phone and calls her before and after school and any other time her daughter is out of her sight to make sure she's safe. At Jane's new school, she is immediately offered the opportunity to sit at the "cool girls' table" but turns it down. She's different now. That's not who she is anymore, even it means sitting alone, she won't be the popular girl here. It is then that she finds the "NOT cool girl's table" and couldn't have been happier about it, only they don't want anything to do with her. Jane knows she needs to prove herself to these girls (Jane, Jayne, and Polly Jane) if they're going to acknowledge her existence and finally finds a way to appeal to each of their ideals. She shows them her plans for a vacant lot which will be the site for a new strip mall and the girls all sneak out one night, gather up all of the rocks and crud in the lot and build some pyramids with a sign: the pyramids lasted for thousands of years; do you think this strip mall will? They leave the signature P.L.A.I.N., People Loving Art In Neighborhoods, and they've got the whole town talking. Now the Janes are the most popular clique in school, only no one knows it, and they spend their evenings adding soap bubbles to the town fountain or putting hats and scarves on fire hydrants all the name of art and the hope that it will save.
The Good: I was unfamiliar with either member of the creative team on this book, but was eager to give DC's new MINX line a go, so I bought it anyway and was quite pleased. The Main Jane of the book is very well written concerning her mini breakdown following the explosion, as well as in various normal "teen girl" type moments, as in her moment with Damon after driving all night in the car and her hating him for not agreeing to take her somewhere even though it was impossible and their subsequent make-out session despite that fact (sometimes life is just like that...). The art was different, but still nice to look at and all of the Janes have different body types and language which is refreshing. I really enjoyed Main Jane's attempt to use art to not only save herself, but also her community, no matter how reluctant the community was to accept it. Every expression of art in the book was of non-permanent artistic vandalism (such as an arrangement of stuffed animals outside the humane society encouraging pet adoption or hanging messages in bottles from a tree) which can be easily removed but still put forth a powerful statement. They're like a "Banksy-lite" for kids.
The Bad: The Janes (with the possible exception of Main Jane) all seemed to fall into over accentuated stereotypes. Brain Jane feels like she's straight out of a 1980s teen movie for crying out loud! Just because she's smart doesn't mean she knows all about every subject or begins sentences with "by my calculations..." Come on. Who ACTUALLY says that?! And Sporty Jane is of course relatively boyish and has a unibrow! Seriously? A unibrow? I knew sporty girls who were muscular but did not have weird facial hair. Sigh.
All in all, it wasn't awesome, but I liked it more than I didn't like it. The concept was neat but it kinda faltered a tiny bit in the execution somewhere. I can't even quite pinpoint it, but it's there. I'm really into the idea of an art girl gang and maybe any future adventures of the Janes would be even better, if there are ever going to be any.
B
