Rian Sygh

this is stranger things, but for theatre kids and also queer. and then it get QUEERER. the art is super gorgeous, punchy, bright and the characters all have great enthusiasm and exuberance. i love this so much.

i only wish the adult's reactions in this volume made more sense lol.

I'M SO MOVED. I WANNA CRY. ugh. my precious lil gay babies. i love them all.

So fun!

Camp, cheeky, colourful. The characters jump right off the page. I love when comic creators lean into the silliness of a comic concept and really go with it. Lots of representation and more than anything: a seriously good pace.

So many vol. 1's of comics are slow to build up, with the promise of something more in the next volume, but this was great.
Loved, loved, loved.

The writer continues to explore the fantasy elements of this story to the detriment of the characters and high school theater setting. It's almost as if the whole thing were just a gimmicky pitch for a new cartoon series. I'm hoping now that they have the first adventure storyboarded for potential TV producers, the creators will slow down and actually give the characters time to develop some real personalities.

I was happy to see some more female characters were added, but became disenchanted show more when they matched up so obviously to the male cast. They were each literally labelled in the book's backmatter as "Opposite [insert male character name here]." Lazy and insulting much?

I'm on the fence as to whether I'd read a third volume if I saw one sitting on a library shelf sometime in the future. show less

I got this via NetGalley, it says it's a sample of [book:The Backstagers, Vol. 1|32898210], but it's really just the first issue, so I don't think I should write the review for the whole volume.

And. I really don't have much to say. It is wonderful and I love it! I've seen Backstagers described as "Lumberjanes but with boys", and that seems to be very accurate, but in the best way possible.

It's set in an all boys high school, but the protagonist isn't super fond of being there, and he triiies show more to join the drama club, but ends up having an adventure in the super weird magical-monstery world under the school with the backstage kids, who are a fluffy bunch of very queer coded nerds and I love them. If I had to choose I a favourite, it would definitely be Sasha, who is very much the equivalent to Ripley in Lumberjanes. But honestly they are all great.

While the absence of girls could end up being a problem (think: anime that seems great as long as no girls appear, but horribly sexist as soon as they do), that is not what I'm expecting from what I've read. Instead, I think this might end up being a wonderful exploration of nonhegemonic/queer/feminist masculinities.

With a cute color scheme and very cute monsters. I am so sold. show less