Penny & Aggie

So, to start the revamp off, I'm going to start with Penny & Aggie. Aggie is a hippie at heart, a bit of a rebel, though one with a concious. Penny is more-or-less her precise opposite: a girl who considers her popularity to trump all else, and is proudly fashion centric. What starts out as a girl vs. girl rivalry escalates into a school wide battle, and beyond.

This series caught and kept my attention for it's honesty. While it occasionally goes over-the-top with things, it's decidedly candid about high school. Through the course of the comic, it touches on a great many issues that are historically shied away from with mainstream publications. It does remain a coming-of-age story, but it doesn't feel like everything is definitely going to work out perfectly for everyone (stories that, from the get go, feel like everything will be okay in the end aren't interesting to me).

The artwork is clean, and almost always black and white (some pages/covers are done in color). This can occasionally make it difficult to identify the multitude of different female characters, but they distinct personality each possesses usually gives, quite quickly, away who they are. The layout varies noticeably (though not intrusively) with this series, with the size of each page being the only true constant. Art is done in a simple style, with vague backgrounds and clean lines giving detail without being overly detailed.

Alright, so, here's the first of many posts, I imagine. I'm aiming to update twice a week, possibly three times. The artistic half of the review needs a lot of work, as I'm not very artistically inclined, and so describing it as much more than "the art is clean and simple" takes a lot of work for me. I would love to hear feedback, comments, input, and series you'd like me to review. =]