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tealeafbooks's review
3.0
3.5 stars
It grew on me. Set a few years before I was born. Some in 1991 with most in 1994. I'd never heard of BBSes (dial-in bulletin board systems), though I gather they probably weren't mainstream.
It grew on me. Set a few years before I was born. Some in 1991 with most in 1994. I'd never heard of BBSes (dial-in bulletin board systems), though I gather they probably weren't mainstream.
sophiahumber's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.75
pantsreads's review against another edition
3.0
2.5/5
This graphic novel is part love letter to the early Internet, part coming-of-age story for three kids who don't quite fit. The art is understated but excellent, but the story itself left me a little ... unsettled? (I wanted there to be paranormal aspects, but there were none. And the story was just getting started when the book ended.)
Full review to come, but you can check out a mini-review on the Forever Young Adult Instagram.
This graphic novel is part love letter to the early Internet, part coming-of-age story for three kids who don't quite fit. The art is understated but excellent, but the story itself left me a little ... unsettled? (I wanted there to be paranormal aspects, but there were none. And the story was just getting started when the book ended.)
Full review to come, but you can check out a mini-review on the Forever Young Adult Instagram.
powisamy's review against another edition
RTC
When I saw the opportunity to review this graphic novel and I jumped at the chance. Although I love graphic novels I don't get the chance to review them a whole lot and the interesting nature made me super keen. Overall, I did enjoy Incredible Doom and I definitely recommend it.
So the graphic novel when published will be two-toned and although I only got a little sneak peek into this, I really liked it. The blue also worked super well and added to the overall feel of the novel and the nineties setting.
The art style is also a big part of graphic novels and although I thought that it was good, it was not really anything new. Sometimes I don't think it does, it just has to serve the story which it does.
The story is also unique and I loved seeing all the different character stories come together especially towards the end. Also, the characters all had diverse lifestyles living in poorer situations to parents who were not the best.
In the beginning, I was really invested in the story and the characters so I read it really quickly, which is a credit to the writing which is a forgotten part of graphic novels. The pace of the story is fast and it never has a dull moment. This is also partly a credit to all of the stories that combine and bring interest in their own rights.
All of the characters were interesting in their own ways and I think they all bring different parts to the story. This is especially the case with Allison and Samir. I liked their blossoming romance and friendship near the end of the book. The friendship between Richard and Tina was also great and complicated too.
The setting has to work for the story and I think the nineties work. I also liked seeing the Internet and old computer chat which made me feel old as some of it I didn't understand. I liked the details and the feel of the story.
Basically, it was a really good first part and hopefully, I will be able to pick up the sequel when it comes out.
The Verdict:
Incredible Doom will give those who grew up in the nineties major nostalgia and for anyone else, it's an enjoyable graphic novel.
When I saw the opportunity to review this graphic novel and I jumped at the chance. Although I love graphic novels I don't get the chance to review them a whole lot and the interesting nature made me super keen. Overall, I did enjoy Incredible Doom and I definitely recommend it.
So the graphic novel when published will be two-toned and although I only got a little sneak peek into this, I really liked it. The blue also worked super well and added to the overall feel of the novel and the nineties setting.
The art style is also a big part of graphic novels and although I thought that it was good, it was not really anything new. Sometimes I don't think it does, it just has to serve the story which it does.
The story is also unique and I loved seeing all the different character stories come together especially towards the end. Also, the characters all had diverse lifestyles living in poorer situations to parents who were not the best.
In the beginning, I was really invested in the story and the characters so I read it really quickly, which is a credit to the writing which is a forgotten part of graphic novels. The pace of the story is fast and it never has a dull moment. This is also partly a credit to all of the stories that combine and bring interest in their own rights.
All of the characters were interesting in their own ways and I think they all bring different parts to the story. This is especially the case with Allison and Samir. I liked their blossoming romance and friendship near the end of the book. The friendship between Richard and Tina was also great and complicated too.
The setting has to work for the story and I think the nineties work. I also liked seeing the Internet and old computer chat which made me feel old as some of it I didn't understand. I liked the details and the feel of the story.
Basically, it was a really good first part and hopefully, I will be able to pick up the sequel when it comes out.
The Verdict:
Incredible Doom will give those who grew up in the nineties major nostalgia and for anyone else, it's an enjoyable graphic novel.
lisakimmence3's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyed this one and being immersed in the past when computers were just catching on. The graphics in this were amazing and I love the blue and black ink. Well done.
rbreade's review
Sign me up for volume two! Bogart shows how rich a world can be created with a minimalist art style and a palette of white, black, gray, and a pale, cool blue. Two storylines set at the dawn of the internet--dial-up and BBS!--gradually converge as one set of teens flees an abusive father and the other pair a hostile school and a relentless bully. The city-, street-, and rural-landscapes he draws are perfection itself, and he's mastered both the cinematic use of wordless panels and dramatic irony.
helpfulsnowman's review against another edition
3.0
Is the punk house a thing anymore?
You know, the house a bunch of kids live in, and it's disgusting and doesn't really work, and eventually it gets bulldozed, and like 5 people are upset about it, but by the time they're 25, they're like, "Eh, that was probably for the best"?
Punk house life is probably at the top of the list of things that sound great during a specific part of your life, but you age out of them pretty quickly.
In fact, I think most alternative living situations are this way:
Van Life: Seems great, definitely built on the premise that you could wake up and be in Yosemite tomorrow! Lots of great Instas where someone is working, back doors of the van open, and they're sitting at a laptop in a beautiful setting. The problem comes in when you realize that you'll still be working 40 hours per week, and doing so out of a van fucking sucks. I mean, it's great to be somewhere else, to do some traveling, but a part of what makes traveling fun is that you're usually not working while you're traveling. For me, editing web pages or whatever is no more fun if I'm doing it in a van in a great location, and what I'd prefer is to do it in a house with a toilet that you press a lever and everything just goes away. Plus, it's not all going to be Yosemites. You'll be in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Idaho at some point, freezing your balls off, really thinking about your life choices.
Couch Surfing: It seems like movies love to show an itinerant lovable loser who's crashing at someone's house, but then realizes the dude has a family and can't just party all the time, and the lovable loser's presence is causing marital friction. I think for me, couch surfing sucks because it's hypocritical: I don't want to get a job and be a part of the system, man...but I DO want to have a place to live, so long as someone else is doing the work part, and I'm 100% okay with that person being my friend.
Communes: The problem is, eventually your kids grow up and realize how much of a sex thing this was.
Life on Mars: This I could be a sucker for. Remember that thing a few years ago where they were having weirdos send in videos to be part of a Mars colonization project? Whatever happened to that? I was tempted, I'll be honest, but then I realized that the applicants were all either A) Former drama kids who would be SO annoying after a decade, or B) Old guys who had basically no life and figured they may as well commit a sort of suicide by going to Mars with no way of returning home. Seriously, there were A LOT of these in the videos. Which, don't get me wrong, I will be that depressed old guy in a few years, once I can rightfully be called old, I've got nothing against them. But I think I'd prefer not to spend my life between those two groups. Plus, I was like, "There's not one fucking dentist on this crew. Shouldn't there be one dentist?"
You know, the house a bunch of kids live in, and it's disgusting and doesn't really work, and eventually it gets bulldozed, and like 5 people are upset about it, but by the time they're 25, they're like, "Eh, that was probably for the best"?
Punk house life is probably at the top of the list of things that sound great during a specific part of your life, but you age out of them pretty quickly.
In fact, I think most alternative living situations are this way:
Van Life: Seems great, definitely built on the premise that you could wake up and be in Yosemite tomorrow! Lots of great Instas where someone is working, back doors of the van open, and they're sitting at a laptop in a beautiful setting. The problem comes in when you realize that you'll still be working 40 hours per week, and doing so out of a van fucking sucks. I mean, it's great to be somewhere else, to do some traveling, but a part of what makes traveling fun is that you're usually not working while you're traveling. For me, editing web pages or whatever is no more fun if I'm doing it in a van in a great location, and what I'd prefer is to do it in a house with a toilet that you press a lever and everything just goes away. Plus, it's not all going to be Yosemites. You'll be in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Idaho at some point, freezing your balls off, really thinking about your life choices.
Couch Surfing: It seems like movies love to show an itinerant lovable loser who's crashing at someone's house, but then realizes the dude has a family and can't just party all the time, and the lovable loser's presence is causing marital friction. I think for me, couch surfing sucks because it's hypocritical: I don't want to get a job and be a part of the system, man...but I DO want to have a place to live, so long as someone else is doing the work part, and I'm 100% okay with that person being my friend.
Communes: The problem is, eventually your kids grow up and realize how much of a sex thing this was.
Life on Mars: This I could be a sucker for. Remember that thing a few years ago where they were having weirdos send in videos to be part of a Mars colonization project? Whatever happened to that? I was tempted, I'll be honest, but then I realized that the applicants were all either A) Former drama kids who would be SO annoying after a decade, or B) Old guys who had basically no life and figured they may as well commit a sort of suicide by going to Mars with no way of returning home. Seriously, there were A LOT of these in the videos. Which, don't get me wrong, I will be that depressed old guy in a few years, once I can rightfully be called old, I've got nothing against them. But I think I'd prefer not to spend my life between those two groups. Plus, I was like, "There's not one fucking dentist on this crew. Shouldn't there be one dentist?"
tobyyy's review against another edition
4.0
The first volume of a series about teens in the early ‘90s making life-altering choices thanks to the worlds opened up to them by the early internet.
I was never involved in BBS/IRC chat rooms, but my partner did and he talks about it often. My parents did get a Mac back when they cost multiple grand (1997/1998) and we got dialup pretty early on. I remember the early days of perusing message boards as a teen, the bloop bloop bleeeng bleeeng ka-boop ka-boop of dialup Internet, and the excitement at connecting with people outside of my tiny (&very isolated) sphere of influence. Kinda miss the simplicity of those days — no photos aside from teeny avatars that were not personal photos, no videos, just text and maybe smiley emoticons if you were lucky! The preMyspace days.
I loved the artwork and the different shades that differentiated past and present. Definitely cannot wait for volume 2.
I was never involved in BBS/IRC chat rooms, but my partner did and he talks about it often. My parents did get a Mac back when they cost multiple grand (1997/1998) and we got dialup pretty early on. I remember the early days of perusing message boards as a teen, the bloop bloop bleeeng bleeeng ka-boop ka-boop of dialup Internet, and the excitement at connecting with people outside of my tiny (&very isolated) sphere of influence. Kinda miss the simplicity of those days — no photos aside from teeny avatars that were not personal photos, no videos, just text and maybe smiley emoticons if you were lucky! The preMyspace days.
I loved the artwork and the different shades that differentiated past and present. Definitely cannot wait for volume 2.
smashley_rr's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Interesting take on handling the rise of technology and the early days of internet. I feel like I would have liked to see the stories a little more fleshed out, and I don't think it would have hurt the overall mystery and connectedness of the stories.