Prudence Shen

A fun, perfectly paced little story of high school rivalries, robots, and industrial-strength weedkiller. Faith Erin Hicks just gets better and better—the art is so emotive and partners beautifully with the text (with a great balance of textual and visual jokes).

I felt that the ending didn't wrap up the story as cleverly and effortlessly as I'd have liked, but all in all I loved the heck out of it.

Most of the comic books I read are published by Marvel so I always appreciate the chance to check out something new and original. Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong is an fun, quirky graphic novel for YA readers set in your average Southern high school.

And I thought it was absolutely fantastic.

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong follows two very different groups of high school students as they battle for limited resources and are ultimately forced to work together to achieve their individual goals. In show more one corner, you have the cheerleaders. Popular and determined to get student council funding to pay the $5,000 they need for new uniforms and equipment. In the other corner, you’ve got the Robotics club. Nerdy, brilliant, and quirky, all t hey want is the money to travel to a robotics competition to show off their prized robot – the beast. And caught in the middle of it all is Charlie Nolan – an easy going basketball player whose former girlfriend is a cheerleader and whose childhood friend is the president of the robotics club.

His friend Nate decides to run for student council president to make sure robotics club gets the money… and the cheerleaders decide to run Charlie against him. Unfortunately things get a bit too out of hand and the school refuses to fund either group. So they pool resources and decide to enter a robot fight club competition in Atlanta with the hope that they can overcome their differences and win enough money to pay for both groups’ goals.

Meanwhile, in the background, Charlie finds himself forced to deal with the real life concerns that come with divorce and fitting in with different groups of friends.

This was such a cute story. I think everyone should give it a read if you can find it handy. It definitely exaggerates some of the old high school stereotypes but it also shows how they don’t really matter any more than we make them matter. I liked how the kids came together and worked together. Plus I really liked Nate and Charlie’s relationship. They’re long time friends that went different directions but who still put up with one another. Another thing I liked was how it showed that even us nerds can sometimes be douchebags and the stereotype slinging doesn’t go just one way. We’re not always the victims and when everyone forces stereotypes on one another it’s no fun for anyone.

I mean, c’mon. Robot fighting is so freakin’ awesome. Everyone should be allowed to love it and enjoy it no matter who they are or were in high school. And I was brought near to tears at one point with the cheerleaders and Joanna – the robotic club’s token girl.

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong is a cute, coming of age story that I definitely recommend. Get your geek on, people!

You can check out the majority of the comic at the series’s website (it originally began as a webcomic) or support the artists by buying the full, completed story next month. show less

Charlie, an affable pushover who excels on the basketball court, and Nate, crafty, ambitious and in charge of the robotics club, make for unlikely friends. Neighborhood proximity trumps stereotype, however, as the jock and nerd grow up together remain friends and carpool buddies even in high school. But when Nate's scheme to win the class presidency and thus control student counsel funds prompts Charlie's terrifying cheerleader ex-girlfriend to enter him in the race as a figurehead show more candidate, things turn messy fast. The school doesn't take kindly to vandalism, even if it is political, so both factions find their funding hopes dashed. Unless, of course, they can find a way to pool their resources to win a Thanksgiving battlebot competition, hours away. Light hearted, and defiantly refusing to force any of its characters into stereotypical roles, this freshman outing for Prudence Chen boasts snappy dialogue, an outrageous - but not unbelievable - plot and a deep cast of lovable, well-developed characters. The strength of the partnership, and the trust between writer and author is clear; Faith Erin Hicks delivers with vividly expressive art that tells half the story in perfectly paced silence. Writer and artist both appreciate the power of the pause. Pairing Chen's writing with the experienced Hicks' art creates a fresh vision of high school and overcoming rivalries to reach a common goal by destroy robots with chainsaws. show less

Great fun. I haven't read Prudence Shen's work before, but Faith Erin Hill has become a new favorite. These two made a good team for this humorous story of a rivalry between a robotics club and a cheerleading squad, and the basketball player who's stuck in the middle.

The humor was just my type, with a couple references to SF pop culture that made me laugh out loud. My favorite is when the robotics club approaches the head cheerleader's mansion of a house to propose a truce. One of the kids show more looks up at the house and says, "That's no moon."

So if that made you laugh, give this a whirl. The writing's funny and there's visual comedic timing as well. And there's a sense of humanity and goodness beneath it all that sets it apart from the average story playing with these stereotypes. show less