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A review by mschlat
Street Angel: Deadliest Girl Alive by Brian Maruca, Jim Rugg
4.0
"Orphaned by the world... raised by the streets... Jesse Sanchez is a kung fu master... and the world's greatest homeless skateboarder. In Wilkesborough, Angel City's deadliest ghetto... she fights ninjas, drugs, nepotism, and pre-algebra as... STREET ANGEL."
Rugg and Maruca's creation is basically the Chuck Norris of her world --- nothing can defeat her. She's a middle schooler with a huge appetite, a bad attitude, and insane skills. And her stories are fairly gonzo. In one of my favorites from this volume, not only do the baddies come introduced with trading cards ("Throws, Bats, Knifes, Shoots: Right"), but Jesse brings a tiger from a rival gang into their lair and it has its own trading card ("Saved from a poacher's bullet as a kitten..."). Added to all this are day-glo graphics and full page spreads from Maruca, who mixes up art styles from gritty urban landscapes to super simplistic supersuits to corporate advertising for robot ninjas. (There's a remarkably effective Christmas story told --- much to my astonishment --- in thickly inked black and white.)
Still, at their heart, these are stories about a middle school girl, and they work on that level. Jesse spends time with her friends, ending up fighting a creepy boy at her school, befriends a lost dog, and sneaks into a "take your daughter to work" event. It's just that the somewhat normal appears in the midst of the absolute crazy.
[A more capitalistic note: these are reprints of short stories that were (mostly) published by Image separately as hardcovers that never seemed worth the price. This is a much more economical package.]
If you like [a:Jim Mahfood|61339|Jim Mahfood|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s stuff, like what [a:Paul Pope|61230|Paul Pope|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1394339449p2/61230.jpg] has done with his YA graphic novels, or are interested in kickass girl comics, pick this up.
Rugg and Maruca's creation is basically the Chuck Norris of her world --- nothing can defeat her. She's a middle schooler with a huge appetite, a bad attitude, and insane skills. And her stories are fairly gonzo. In one of my favorites from this volume, not only do the baddies come introduced with trading cards ("Throws, Bats, Knifes, Shoots: Right"), but Jesse brings a tiger from a rival gang into their lair and it has its own trading card ("Saved from a poacher's bullet as a kitten..."). Added to all this are day-glo graphics and full page spreads from Maruca, who mixes up art styles from gritty urban landscapes to super simplistic supersuits to corporate advertising for robot ninjas. (There's a remarkably effective Christmas story told --- much to my astonishment --- in thickly inked black and white.)
Still, at their heart, these are stories about a middle school girl, and they work on that level. Jesse spends time with her friends, ending up fighting a creepy boy at her school, befriends a lost dog, and sneaks into a "take your daughter to work" event. It's just that the somewhat normal appears in the midst of the absolute crazy.
[A more capitalistic note: these are reprints of short stories that were (mostly) published by Image separately as hardcovers that never seemed worth the price. This is a much more economical package.]
If you like [a:Jim Mahfood|61339|Jim Mahfood|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s stuff, like what [a:Paul Pope|61230|Paul Pope|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1394339449p2/61230.jpg] has done with his YA graphic novels, or are interested in kickass girl comics, pick this up.