Killjoy #1
Who out there went to camp when they were a kid? If so, you may get some a serious blast of nostalgia from reading this. I went to a couple, but nothing that was an much fun as this one looks, and that’s even with the awkward social interactions. I’m mostly basing that on the abseiling (basically repelling yourself on a rope from a tall structure, although I think I’m thinking of a word other than “repelling.” Whatever the word is for “bounce down a wall like Batman did in the old tv show while holding a rope, which is also being held by an adult to prevent injuries”) and the construction of shelters. Anyway, that wasn’t the theme of the comic, that was just a taste of the nostalgic blast I got from it. This is about a young boy (of around 8 maybe?) being dropped off at camp and not really knowing anybody. There’s an embarrassing moment when he doesn’t know the slang being used for going to the bathroom, a moment of pure panic before he starts abseiling, being falsely accused of wrecking the structure of some other kids, and coming across the instructions for condoms in the woods. But lest you think that this was all about camp drama, I should point out that Robert was much more interested in showing the camp experience itself, and he does a fantastic job of laying that out, all the way down to the look on his face as he gets in the car to go home. His introduction was also damned entertaining, as he detailed the very few reasons why somebody would get their hands on a copy of his book, and I’m just going to flat out copy and paste his explanation for why he hasn’t been too productive with making more comics over the last five years: “…intent is frequently nullified by a toxic compound of doubt and indolence.” Yep, that nailed procrastination for sure. There are two more issues of this to review so I’m curious to see where it goes from here, but this issue was thoroughly entertaining.
