Romance novel, written by Faith Erin Hicks in 2019.
Now, J-P, I hear you ask, why have you read a romance novel? You are, as we all know, the very manliest of men! Yes, my child, I am indeed, but it is foolish to think of romance as solely women's literature, and it is more foolish to think of women's literature as something to fear.
There were two ways I was convinced to read this novel. First, it's written by cartoonist Faith Erin Hicks, creator of excellent graphic novels like "Friends with Boys," "Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong," "The Adventures of Superhero Girl," "The Nameless City," "Pumpkinheads," and many more. It's Hicks' only novel, so far, and there's a darn good chance that if she writes or draws something, it'd be well worth your time to check it out.
Second, it's about comic books. In fact, it's about how comics have turned into comics entertainment, with more focus going to superhero movies than regular comics, and about how too many comics creators have been cast out of the industry because they dared to want to be paid for coming up with the characters and stories that big megacorps have turned into multimillion-dollar movies, TV shows, and video games. It's about Jack Kirby vs. Stan Lee, DC Comics vs. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, DC vs. Alan Moore, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe vs. almost every creator of their characters.
So how's the story? Well, the tale is set in Canada, that most romantic of nations, in a small town called Sandford. Our main characters are Miriam "Mir" Kendrick, a local teenager with a high IQ and low funds who'd love to escape this dead-end town and see the world, and Weldon Warrick, wealthy teen bad boy who's been temporarily exiled to Sandford by his Hollywood exec father. They have a meet-cute (Weldon visits the comic shop Mir works at, then Mir chases off a bunch of local toughs who attack Weldon for stealing their car), they feel an attraction -- and then -- well, there's the rub.
As it turns out, Mir is the granddaughter of Micah Kendrick, and Weldon is the grandson of Joseph Warrick. Decades ago, they created the TomorrowMen, one of the most popular comics in history, and later had a falling out, as Micah Kendrick sold his rights to the characters for a pittance, and when the series grew into a multimedia empire, spent years in court suing his former friend for more of the money he felt he was owed. Now, while not impoverished, Mir and her family have to struggle to make ends meet, and Weldon is the heir to the TomorrowMen empire, which will soon debut the big budget premiere of the TomorrowMen movie!
Is there any future for two people on opposite sides of one of the biggest schisms in the history of comics?
The book gets a big thumbs-up from me. I loved the back-and-forth chaos of the romance plot, I loved the way the comics references hit on real-world comics controversies without saying so out loud, I really enjoyed the dialogue and the criss-cross of relationships between the characters, I loved the pure Canada of the setting, and I loved the way the setting addresses both the good parts and the bad parts of living in small towns.
There's a lot to love about this book, and possibly the biggest is the absolute glory of the characters. Mir is incredibly smart and awkward -- and also absolutely terrified, because she wants to leave her hometown, and that means leaving everyone she knows, and she has no idea if she has that much courage. And Weldon is a child of privilege who's deeply unhappy about that and almost everything else about his life, so he acts out with risk-taking and petty crimes.
The supporting cast is grand, too. Mir's dad Henry is a joyous kook who loves dad jokes and hilariously goofball stories. Her mom Stella loves painting her father's characters Skybound and Skylark, embraces a back-to-the-land lifestyle, and is still fiercely proud of the TomorrowMen, while feeling deep unhappiness about the way the legal battles disrupted her father's and her own life. Weldon's mother Emma is a former C-list actress who once dreamed of playing Skylark on the big screen and now struggles with her mental health and her frustration with her stalled career -- but who still loves and supports Weldon as best she can. His father David is maybe the least fleshed-out character in the book, dominated by his desire to get his father's comic book made into a movie and to avoid the distractions of his son's behavior.
Mir's friends in Sandford include Evan, a childhood pal with a lot of joy in his heart but not a lot of self-confidence who hits on the idea of writing a script for a new TomorrowMen comic, and Raleigh, Mir's best friend, who has apparently chosen her new, genuinely awful boyfriend over Mir's friendship.
I loved the heck out of this book, and I think you'll love it, too. Go pick it up!