Reviews

The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys: California Library Edition by Shaun Simon, Gerard Way

dahliagreenleaf's review against another edition

5.0

GERARD WAY I FUCKING LOVE YOU

I like to think im a comic book enjoyer. I read a lot of Star Wars comics last year, and I have always enjoyed reading the comics in the newspaper every Sunday. But over the last few weeks, my interest in comics has grown. Because of American rock band My Chemical Romance.

Gerard Way is a very interesting person who I relate to a lot. I've watched so many interviews of him, and whenever he brings up his love for comics, I think about getting back into them. So I went on hoopla and started reading The Umbrella Academy (I had no clue Gerard wrote that until I was watching a video about MCR lol). And then I listened to Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. Danger Days is my favorite MCR album, so naturally, I picked up this comic(by pick up I mean download on hoopla lol). And wow was it beyond amazing. This is probably my favorite comic book of all time now, and I NEED a physical copy!!! Gerard is an amazing storyteller, I love all their work so much. Ok now I got to go finish Umbrella Academy lol byeeeee

yodamom's review against another edition

2.0

Fabulous illustrations and a medicore story. The story was rambling and I just couldn't put it all together. It seemed very juvenile for this type of comic. Perhaps if I had read the previous series ? I did enjoy the colorful artwork enough to finish out the book but don't plan on continuing.

akkalabuns's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

romantiques's review against another edition

4.0

"because at the end of the day, when the lights go out and your friends go home, when the radio dies before the world ends, when the stars call out in pain. there is a road that you can always walk to help you find your way. but it's not where you end up or where you started that matters. it's the pavement in between."

sydneykaye's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

what happens after the rebel heroes are dead? multiple story-lines: follows a young girl, a man who is a slave to the system, and two artificial women who want to escape. watch My Chemical Romance's "Na Na Na" and "Sing" music videos first to get the backstory.

itacuz's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

As far as comics about a band's concept albums go, this wasn't bad. It helps that Way has his hands in comics outside of his music, but if it weren't for My Chemical Romance, I don't know that this would have gotten made.

Would love to see someone write a comic about their concept album that doesn't have to do with music at all. Just a straight up comic that exists within the world their music describes without making bands a sort of mythological entity. This one comes close, but you can still feel the importance of writing music in the storyline, and it ultimately fails to shake the cheeseball allegations. 

chaptercharms's review against another edition

4.0

My Chemical Romance was really important to me as a teenager and I can't believe I didn't read this before now! I especially used to love Danger Days as it came out at the height of my love for them so reading this and getting to revisit that era and the story of that album was really great and I really enjoyed it.

I loved all the references to the album and the music videos and I loved how it connected all the story together. My favourite characters were definitely Red and Blue and I could have read a whole comic purely based on their story. I didn't know that it had LGBT+ representation before going in and it was an amazing surprise. More books need lesbian robots!

cosmo_junk's review against another edition

4.0

i read this back in 2019, skimmed through it today for references. i really like val velocity, even tho the whole fandom hates him lol. i find it really interesting how almost the entire fandom supports poison and hates val for doing... basically the same thing. i mean, not that this universe is fleshed out enough for us to explore that. it's a much better concept for an album, not so much for a comic. but i liked it!

minadelrey01's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

brobeccks's review against another edition

5.0

i would definitely recommend reading this after listening to my chemical romance's "danger days" album.

this comic is set after the killjoys died to protect the girl (who later turns out to be destroya, which actually makes a lot of sense).
to my surprise i really loved the story plot and all the plot twists.
as a my chemical romance fan myself it was lovely to get more 'lore' and to get answers to some of the questions i initially had.

the art is so beautifully made and i honestly have no complaints on this comic. everything was just great.