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Paul Pope

Battling Boy Hardcover – October 8, 2013

by Paul Pope (Author, Illustrator)

101 ratings

Book 1 of 1: Battling Boy

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The adventure begins in the new graphic novel by comics legend Paul Pope.

Monsters roam through Arcopolis, swallowing children into the horrors of their shadowy underworld. Only one man is a match for them - the genius vigilante Haggard West.

Unfortunately, Haggard West is dead.

Arcopolis is desperate, but when its salvation comes in the form of a twelve-year-old demigod, nobody is more surprised than Battling Boy himself.

IT'S TIME TO MEET AN ELECTRIFYING NEW HERO.
An NPR Best Book of 2013

Reading age

10 - 18 years
Print length

208 pages
Language

English
Grade level

7 - 9
Lexile measure

GN390L
Dimensions

6.35 x 0.7 x 8.76 inches
Publisher

First Second
Publication date

October 8, 2013
ISBN-10

1596438053
ISBN-13

978-1596438057
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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up–With the death of hero Haggard West, Acropolis has become defenseless against vicious gangs of monsters and demons. Fortunately Battling Boy, sent here from another world to complete a rite of passage and become a hero, reluctantly offers to save the city and is immediately thrown into battle. But unlike other superheroes, Battling Boy struggles with a plethora of other, more subtle problems, such as an overbearing superhero father unwilling to help him; a city council that creates an embellished image of him; and uncontrollable superpowers from his magical T-shirts (yep, magical T-shirts). Action scenes are intense and well plotted, as when Battling Boy must jump from rooftop to rooftop in an effort to avoid a giant car-crushing monster. Although short on exposition, the story is well balanced with tongue-in-cheek humor and epic battles, but heartfelt sincerity and humility when the dust settles. Pope perfectly matches the over-the-top and fantastical tone of the piece with gritty 1980s-style artwork, toxic coloring, and jagged inking. The side story featuring Haggard's vengeful daughter, Aurora, trying to take her father's place is far less compelling than the main story, but will hopefully be fleshed out more in the upcoming sequel to this amazing epic.–Peter Blenski, Greenfield Public Library, WIα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Comics’ sci-fi rock-god Pope synthesizes the mythologies of Superman, Batman, and Hercules and sends them crashing into a monster-infested dystopia in this rollicking blast of adventure, the first part of a larger tale. When Acropolis’ protector, Haggard West, dies in a battle with child-snatching ghouls, Battling Boy is sent down from the Olympian lightning cloud for his trial of manhood. His apparent defeat of a rampaging monstrosity gets him caught up in local politics, puts him in the sights of the hideous ghouls, and gains him the ire of Haggard West’s daughter, who is looking to establish her own heroic credentials. Pope offers a latter-day superhero mythology that is also a glorious homage to shojo and, in fact, to heroism throughout history. This is a sophisticated tale for younger readers, but Pope manages to both grant full-scale wish fulfillment and acknowledge the limitations of young boys with equal aplomb. His art, meanwhile, looks like nothing else in comics, with ropy, sinewy figures, dynamic action, and gritty urban design all captured in panels that have the rough, subversive tone of classic punk album covers. Indeed, Pope’s visuals might demand a larger canvas than the elegantly compact format First Second has afforded it. Grades 5-8. --Jesse Karp

Publisher ‏ : ‎ First Second (October 8, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1596438053
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1596438057
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 10 - 18 years
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ GN390L
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 7 - 9
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.21 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.35 x 0.7 x 8.76 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,461,159 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,219 in Teen & Young Adult Superhero Comics
- #10,760 in Teen & Young Adult Science Fiction
- #12,352 in Teen & Young Adult Action & Adventure

Customer Reviews:
101 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		76%
4 star		8%
3 star		9%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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S. Robert Katz

Cool premise, fun to read, best art on the planet... But not quite a story

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2014

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First things first, Paul Pope is my favorite comic book illustrator of all time. The visuals are excellent, and I think that's the selling point for literally his entire audience. His writing has a particular charm to it (more on that later), but we're here to watch the man draw. His work is as kinetic and energetic as ever, and this book has been a long time coming. If there's one thing to complain about on that end, it's the size of the book, which is quite a bit smaller than a standard graphic novel. Personally, I'd like to see his art blown up as big as possible. The art really doesn't suffer, and I don't miss the extra page space as much as I thought I would, but it's just odd that you have the best artist in the business working at a reduced size.

Pope's writing style is very simplistic and (particularly when it comes to his dialogue) has a certain naivete. I used to consider it a weakness, but I've grown accustomed to it. It's very direct and simple. Characters say what they feel. There's a lot of shouting. There isn't much nuance to it. If you didn't know better, you might think this was written by a very bright middle schooler. But it works. There's a marriage of story and art here that I can't honestly say would be improved by a more sophisticated script.

The area that could really use improvement here is the plot. I'm not usually very concerned with plot, but it's sort of a problem here. I don't get the impression that this was some meticulously planned opus, but rather that Pope more or less wrote the story as he went along, based around a loosely framed outline. The story jumps from scene to scene. It's very fragmented. There's not much in the way of segues. By contrast, Adam Warren's series Empowered is also a one man show that has sort of an improvisational feel to it, but as you sit and read it, it just flows. Every panel has a purpose. It feels like if Warren had all the time in the world to plan it out it would have pretty much turned out the same. That's not the case here. Most importantly, though, this isn't a proper story. It's barely a proper setup for a story. It's fun to read, but at the end of the day it feels like a series of loosely connected scenes that would have benefited from more thorough planning. I know there's at least one more volume on the way, and maybe more after that (though hopefully Pope has the restraint to keep the story finite, given his sluggish pace; I'd like to see the end of it), but it would have at least been nice to see one concrete, cohesive story arc here to set up future volumes, and this book fell just short of that.

Cool premise, fun to read, and the best art on the planet, but it's not quite a story.

6 people found this helpful

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Giovannny p.

Amazing artwork and great storytelling

Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2020

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Paul Pope shines bright with this book battling boy is a coming-of-age story about a child that can't quite make it to the legendary status of his parents who are gods it's a fun tale and Paul Pope shines so great with his art and the energy and chaos that's inside of it it's definitely formatted more towards the people who like action and can deal with that adrenaline rush it's not bad story-wise either I remember reading a review and strands and it's what compelled me to check out Paul Pope he is an Eisner award-winning comic book artist and is amazing definitely should give this a read also check out his other work in blade runner dune Star wars hoth Apollo 12 Batman year 100 marvel aquam heavy liquid DKNY greatest hits and of course battling boy

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Henry Abrams

Interesting concept, Poor execution

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2019

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Battling Boy has some really unique ideas. A kid who is super strong and has t-shirts that give him different powers, a rich, semi-1920's setting, legitimate monsters, corrupt politicians, and a really great opener that jumps straight into the action. It's far more unique than the average comic, but the gritty, at times admittedly awful art, in combination with no clear narrative throughline really bring it down significantly. It also ends on an awful cliffhanger that is far more interesting than what preceded it, which is saying a lot. The world is excellently crafted and well thought out, but without an interesting story or main character to hold one's attention, it gets dull in a hurry. This still doesn't have a follow-up other than the prequel series, and not to be overtly mean, but I can understand why.

One person found this helpful

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Matthew JLD Rice

Battling Boy fisticuffs it up; pounds monster butt!

Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2013

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Modern day comics master Paul Pope delivers yet again, this time with an all-ages friendly multi-volumed storyline. Typically veering toward the mature and self-gratifying tales of the bizarre and futuristic, Pope reigns in his talents this time in order to tell the story of a young demi-god who must prove his worth by coming to Earth and do battle against the horde of monsters that have now apparently plagued the planet. Armed only with a unique arsenal of weaponry, Battling Boy soon realizes the task is much bigger than he thought as he catches the attention of the one person on the planet that just might end up being his greatest asset (which is all set up at the end for a second volume). More or less an origin story, this volume provides a whimsical tale with fast-paced action energy crackling to life with Pope's every ink-brush stroke. The tone is definitely youth-friendly despite plenty of creepy monster activity and action-packed fight sequences. While this isn't quite Pope's BEST work to date, it very well could be by the end of this story, which is only just getting started.

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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OscarV

All-ages Superheroics

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 27, 2014

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I have to begin by saying that I've never been much of a fan of Paul Pope's distinctive art style. It's definitely unique, but after seeing (and reading) some of his other work like "The one true rip-off", it just never really struck a cord with me. Which is also the reason why I wasn't planning on buying "Battling Boy" at first. However after having read the good reviews and recommendations this comic has gotten so far, I decided to give it a shot. And I'm glad I did.

The premise is pretty straightforward: a super boy is sent to another world to combat a large number of monsters who are terrorising a futuristic city. Pope takes this premise and runs with it though.The way battling boy's powers work is cleverly done, and as already shown in this volume: it will make him have to think twice how to approach his enemies, and in turn should lead to more interesting encounters for the readers. Some settings and characters are introduced which I can't wait to see fleshed out in future volumes. I hate being spoiled in reviews, so I'll keep it at that.

As for the art: I don't know why, because the style itself hasn't really changed from his other work, but somehow it totally works for me here.The artwork is indeed "high-energy" if I may steal the description from the back of the comic.But while the action scenes do look exceptional, the rest of the comic looks just as amazing in my opinion. I loved the scenes where he arrived at Arcopolis for the first time. I guess he lives up to his name, because I have been converted by Pope.

If I had to compare this comic to another, I'd say Jeff Smith's "Bone". Not because their storylines are simmilar (because they aren't, although both deal with characters being dumped into a 'new world') but simply because both can be read & enjoyed by children and adults alike, and both do the all-ages thing so well. It remains to be seen if Battling Boy has the longetivity of Bone, but I already know that the 2nd volume is going to be an instant-buy for myself.

Diarmuid Synnott

great book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 21, 2013

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battling boy is a beautiful well written book full of pulp sensibilities and mythical glamour. I wait eagerly for the next volume to see how battling boy gets on in the new and confusing situation he finds himself in.

Kelvin Craig

Surprisingly excellent!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 8, 2014

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Wasn't expecting this book to be as good as it is. Maintains a great sense of humour and never takes itself too seriously despite having great emotional moments.

Berjo

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 12, 2015

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Well done Mr. Pope!

Quilici Riccardo

Da avere assolutamente !

Reviewed in Italy on September 29, 2016

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Preso per uno sconto random di amazon, il fumetto si è rivelato splendido ! I disegni di Paul Pope sono autentiche opere d'arte, magnifici ! Così sinuosi e curvilinei, ma soprattutto i colori... I colori di questo fumetto sono meravigliosi ! Ti immergono dentro il fumetto e non ti fanno più uscire, ha un utilizzo del segno e della linea che è al di sopra di tutto e tutti.
Senza parlare della storia, che si rivela essere tutt'altro che banale, e che anzi, trova un metodo per essere qualcosa di più, e diverso rispetto al panorama "action" fumettistico, fatto principalmente di supereroi. Una storia avvincente, così semplice e altrettanto particolare che non ti fanno staccare più gli occhi. In più, l'edizione è ottima, cartonata, rilegata e con sovracopertina, vale tutti i soldi spesi. L'inglese, in tutti i casi è comprensibilissimo anche per un principiante, quindi non siate timorosi, da avere !

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