Sometimes a party can feel like the end of the world.
Creative Staff:
Story: Curt Pires
Art: Jacoby Salcedo
Colors: Mark Dale
Letterer: Micah Myers
What They Say:
When his parents go out of town for the weekend, Mexican-American high schooler Javi decides to throw a party–one that’ll launch him and his buds into popularity! Or at least get them noticed by some girls. But when things take a turn for the worse, Javi and his friends are thrust into a situation and future they could have never possibly prepared for. For fans of The Nice House on the Lake and What’s the Furthest Place From Here? or other comics with really long titles and cool high concepts.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
It’s been a few years since I last read a Curt Pires series but I really enjoyed both Pop and The Tomorrows when they came out a few years back. Getting back into their writing is definitely a lot of fun and this series offers up something that’s certainly in their wheelhouse but with some delightful twists. For this series, Jacoby Salcedo is on board for the artwork and with Mark Dale’s colors it definitely hits a sweet spot with the script as everything feels like it’s just perfectly paired in style and presentation. Salcedo’s designs are spot on and the look and feel of it capture the intent of the story so well that it’s a near-perfect blending.
The premise for this is a lot of fun as it goes along, though the opening page shows us something much darker to come. The book spends the majority of its time here just giving us a look at the lives of a few high school kids, the types that are generally overlooked by most and in that middle of the road kind of way. With it centered on Javi, we see how they are a good found-group that has come together where one of them, Scott, spends some time with the cool kids, while another, Adam, is on the outs with a lot of terrible students because of his autism, making him an easy target. Javi and his friends are basically pretty standard teenage boys that hang out, game, and masturbate to porn through Javi’s gay while trying to handle some of these interactions with his friends. He’s more wound up about it himself than others, though.
What ends up giving the guys a chance for a night of their lives moment is when Javi’s parents go away for the weekend and he manages to convince his sister to let him throw a party – mostly by dangling Scott in front of her as she’s got a crush on him. It’s a pretty fun party that grows and seeing the dynamics involved as it plays out, but the problematic terrible guys end up showing up out of boredom in their basement of confederate garbage that they end up at the party. It’s something that unfolds as badly as you’d expect, especially with Javi reinforcing that he’s no hero, but it all takes that wild turn you’re waiting for where the world goes white and some sort of cataclysmic event has happened that has thrown them all over the place. It’s just the stringer at the end but it’s certainly intriguing to see as you wonder what happened that could cause this particular kind of catastrophe.
In Summary:
There’s a lot to like here just in a teenage slice-of-life kind of way in wanting to follow the story of how these kids live, but we know some strange stuff is going to be coming down the road with the end-of-the-world aspect. A teenage wasteland of a very different kind. Pires’ script definitely captures a lot of it really well and the designs and layouts from Salcedo delivers a strong experience that makes it even easier to connect with the characters. Though it’s going in a different direction than what most of this issue is, it’s an important setup piece for what’s to come and is thoroughly engaging throughout. I’m excited to see what’s next.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: December 7th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
