Janes in Love

Today was a miserable comic book day for me, so I decided to make my own happiness. In addition to Previews, and the first issue of the new Vixen Mini, I decided to pick up Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg. I recently talked about the Plain Janes in another post. Unlike that volume, which I borrowed from the library, I actually paid for this one with my own money and get to keep it without having to pay fines.

It was a quick read, but a good one, and certainly worth the 10 bucks I paid for it. These are good comics. Not 'Good comics for girls' or 'good comics if you are a young adult', but good comics that are also apropriate for a young adult audience and that look at the world from a young female perspective. I guess every few posts I have to say that I love Jim Rugg. He's a great artist and seems like a nice guy from the two shows I have encountered him at. I consider anyone who can stand in front of me while I am babbling on and be nice about it to be a nice guy.

We get the same characters from the first book moved forward just a bit in time to around early March. There are some tensions regarding boys, or the lack of boys, some stress about the continuing activities of P.L.A.I.N. and a bit of a sad parallel plot piece about Main Jane's Mom not leaving the house after an old friend of hers is killed in an anthrax attack. Jane hears back from the man in Poland whose life she saved, and whose sketch book she had held onto in the last book. He is a poet, and he is a friend to her from a distance. He also provides her with an idea that she uses to further the scope of P.L.A.I.N.'s mission.

During this book, feelings are hurt, Jane's are arrested, people stand up for the cause and relationships blossom while others are re-defined or re-affirmed. It's good stuff, I recommend that you buy it. It's too late for us to save Minx, but it's not too late to enjoy a good read.