The Devil's Panties: The High School Years vol 1 & 2 by Jennie Breedan
by William the Bloody
The Devil's Panties, because I know you're about to ask, is an online comic strip. I bought the two comics that cover the high school years, which were never available online and serve as a prequel to the online stories. Basically, it's a semi-autobiographical tale about Jennie in high school and her two friends.
The Good: The humour is open and honest and feel very true-to-life. Ah, the angst, the cynicism, the uncertainty, the frustration, and of course the hypocrisy of certain school policies (re: "So now my skirt is too short and Mr. Hicks finds fishnets offensive." "Here's a list of inappropriate dress so that we can avoid this in the future." "So should I start handing out potato sacks to the cheerleading squad now or after lunch?"), Breedan is unafraid to present and tackle them all. Everything from the school play, to the lameness of school dances and pep rallies to Jen's friends finding her brother hot. I really like and admire all of this, and it of course is all very funny.
The bad: Her art is... okay. The lines all seem thick and untidy. In fact, the books themselves feel like they were rushed and hastily put together. Book one has a double page spread in the middle of... blank pages. I'm not kidding, two plain white pages, There really should be no reason for this, as she does pad both books out with cute little paper dolls at the end and fake "Hostess" advert, so extra material would have been easy. And it also has one comic duplicated. You read the four panel comic, turn the page, and there it is again. There are also many, MANY horrid grammatical errors all over the place.
All in all, it may look sloppy and unprofessional, but it's completely funny and very real. The whole experience feels like she put it all (wrote, drew, and compiled into mini-books) together herself, and that can be a daunting task, but I would really recommend she get herself and editor, STAT. The art isn't terrible, just a little chunky, and if you can get past that then I invite you to laugh at Jennie's life again and again.
B+
Like I said, the high school stories are NOT available online, but if you want a peek at her college life and what came after, check her out: The Devil's Panties.com