920London

by Remy Boydell, Remy Boydell (Artist)

Overview

North of London, 2005. A doomed romance between an emo kid and a scene kid. More than friends, less than lovers, they're trying to grow shrooms before the world ends. Send help.

Solo graphic novel debut from REMY BOYDELL (THE PERVERT), fully painted in watercolor.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781534315044
Publisher:	Image Comics
Publication date:	06/16/2020
Pages:	136
Sales rank:	100,174
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	16 - 18 Years

Editorial Reviews

04/27/2020

The first solo graphic novel by Boydell (The Pervert) presents an intimate slice of alternative LGBTQ culture. In a London suburb, two trans girls room together, go clubbing together, and sometimes hook up. Hana, a quiet goth, plans to self-medicate her mental issues by growing shrooms in the bathroom; Kiki, a brittle scenester kid, scrambles for music stardom after her ex-boyfriend’s band makes it big. The characters are drawn as gently cartoony anthropomorphic animals—Hana and Kiki have Snoopy-shaped faces, while Kiki’s ex looks like a goth Garfield—which adds an unsettling edge to all the sex, drugs, and young-adult despair. “Happy people don’t start believing in the end of the world,” reflects Hana, but she and Kiki seem forever poised on the brink of an indefinite personal apocalypse. Boydell’s soft but bright watercolors infuse the angst-ridden narrative with unexpected beauty, and the settings—clubs, house parties, the cluttered apartments of hip, broke 20-somethings—are packed with well-observed details. The book sometimes feels like an extended dual character sketch rather than a narrative, but its easy, meandering pace evokes the protagonists’ fumbling search for direction. Raw, darkly funny, and deceptively lovely, it’s an enjoyable work from an up-and-coming artist. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Boydell imbues the tale of two extremely 2000s scene kids with a timeless relatability—920London touches on the uncertain anxieties of adulthood and the delicate balance of shifting relationships with sincerity and empathy.” —GamesRadar

“The stories in 920London aren’t about hopelessness but about how richly meaningful those dreadful empty years in transit can be. It’s art like this that can give all of us hope, and, for some of us at least, a comforting place to dwell.” —The Comics Journal

“Marks a significant step forward in Boydell’s evolution as a visual storyteller. Boydell moves away from a set six-panel grid to bring greater variation to the book’s pacing and create more immersive images, and bold choices with watercolor shades and textures intensify the expressive qualities of the coloring.” —The AV Club

From the Publisher