Customer Reviews

SideScrollers

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Like most Oni Press comics, Sidescrollers has a style of its own. Not just Matthew Loux's unique(yet amazing) art style, but the great story that goes from nerds going on an adventure to a showdown between good and evil. One of the few comics I have literally had to set down to allow my laughter to pass, this book is great for comic fans and nerds in general.

SideScrollers is a great indie comic, especially for geeks and gamers. It's dialogue was humorous and filled with nerd humor involving video games and cereal box characters. The situational comedy was like that you would see in a classic comedy film. I would definitely recommend it for anyone into indie comics and who also digs old school gaming or just knows what it's like to just hang out with your friends and just have frivolous conversations about nothing in particular.

Brian, Brad, and Matt just graduated from high school and are spending their summer days lounging around playing video games and eating Slim Jims and candy. Their peaceful laziness is interrupted by Amber, the cute new girl in town that Matt has an intense crush on. She's dating the school bully, Richard (not so lovingly referred to as Dick), and the guys decide to get off their butts and try to get her away from him. This leads to a hilarious adventure involving vicious girl scouts, a ketchup fight in a mall food court, a cat possessed by the devil, an indie rock concert, and a lot more.
I thought that Sidescrollers was an excellent graphic novel because of the natural, quirky dialogue and the way that the pictures and the text work together perfectly. There is some mature content, but nothing that an average teen couldn't handle.
The slacker protagonists seemed like people that I would want to hang out with and their awesome conversations (like which breakfast cereal mascot would win in a fight) made me laugh so hard I was snorting.

It's clear that this book wishes to be funny. It's not. Most of it's jokes fall flat. The tranny gag gave me a chuckle but that's about it. The book is cheesy, corny, derivative, and stereotypical. Even it's video game references seem extremely forced and the girl scout bit had me rolling my eyes. This book wishes it was O Malley's Scott Pilgrim series but lacks the humor, style, and originality. I got the book for next to nothing and I can't say it was a complete waste of my time so I'll give it two stars.

The one part of Sidescrollers I really liked was the two subtlely creepy drawings of Boots, the Demon Cat, when he's first glimpsed under the table. But that's it. While many graphic novels are fun for all ages, skip this one if you're not a teenaged boy.

I don't know who is writing book reviews at Publishers Weekly but this book is anything BUT wholesome. Who cares if there is an anti-drinking message when, on the 5th page of the book, our characters are discussing which cereal character is "the pussiest." Liberal sprinklings of the "f" word, constant use of "a-hole" to describe others, crude sexual references, and a depiction of our protganists vandalizing a car by covering it with crude, sexually oriented graffiti. I'm not shocked by the book itself but I am TRULY shocked that a PW reviewer would say this was a "wholesome" choice. I would not recommend this for anyone under 17.