Here I am thinking that I had just read a mildly grim, thoroughly engaging if inexorable but self-contained mini comic, only to discover that it’s part of something called the “Graduation Day” universe. See, this is what I get when I gravitate to the small comics at CXC in the (completely vain) hope that I can maybe not spend all of the money that I allotted for the con while still checking out lots of new stuff. In case you were wondering, this year, as always, I spent more than that. I blame the completely unexpected new Marc Bell book from Drawn & Quarterly, but it was more than that. Anyway! Christ, there’s a comic right in front of me I’m meant to be talking about. This is about the friendship between Kaylee and… the unnamed main character? Maybe I’d know it if I read the other book(s) in this series. They’re getting ready for their confirmation, so if you went to Catholic school you know all about that. They’re inseparable, and have a crush, purely hypothetical, on a boy with bangs named Skyler. After the narrator gets talked into going to a show by Skyler’s band, he ends up taking an interest in one of them which, if you know anything about how best friends could behave in the early teen years, came with disastrous consequences. Or maybe not disastrous so much as inevitable, as the “loser” pulling away from their friend in jealousy is exactly the kind of thing that blew up so many friendships in those years. It’s a mildly heartbreaking story, but it’s honest, down to the utter bewilderment of the “winner” in the situation, and how once the crush was seen in reality and not from a romantic distance, the dude kind of fell apart. Check it out, but maybe get the other books in this universe too for context. Don’t be a cheapskate like me! $5
