Brubaker & Martin's New Spin on the YA Genre (Friday #1 Review)
FRIDAY #1
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Marcos Martin
Colorist: Muntsa Vicente
Publisher: Panelsyndicate.com
Rating: 10/10
It's been weeks without any new comics coming out. While that leaves plenty of time to read older stuff or catch up, there's still a huge hole left in most comic book fans lives. But last week all of us were given a reason to be excited again. Ed Brubaker and Marcos Martin, with Munsta Vicente on colors, came out of nowhere and dropped their new book. Not even a hint that this was happening.
It’s available to purchase via Panel Syndicate, with that platform’s pay-what-you-like system. It leaves no reason for anyone to check out this amazing project. With a lack of any new books, many of us have been eager for new content. The fact that its Brubaker and Martin, makes this even better. It's no secret to anyone that follows us here at The Comic Lounge, we're HUGE Brubaker fans. There was no way we wouldn't be supporting this book.
When you think of Brubaker, you usually associate him with Sean Phillips. So the fact that this was with Marco's Martin made this even more intriguing. The fact that this was digital almost made me pause. As a fan of print, I never buy digitally but this was one I couldn't sit around and wait for.
This is a project we dont usually see from Ed, it's not really a crime book but at the same time has that "Brubaker" feel. As always he never skimps the reader on extra material. He dives right into why he decided to do a book like this, and why Martin was the perfect one to do it. He talks of his youth reading YA novels and how he had revisited them later in life. He wanted to do something "grounded, like a post-YA book, where the kids that solved mysteries and confronted ghosts and monsters also grew up and had the same problems we all do". If that sentence doesnt make you want to pick this up I dont know what will.
Our main character, Friday Fitzhugh, is everyone's favorite teen detective amalgamated into one. Her last. Ame is even a nod to the author of "Harriet the Spy". But at the same time she's an adult now and has resembles her adventurous past while also living more of a "grown-up" lifestyle.and the more adult world she now inhabits. Her best friend from her youth, Lancelot Jones, and her pulls her back into a new mystery.
The art in this story is breathtaking and sets the design work is flawless. Martin and Vicente paint a visual image of the town of King's Hill, that adds such character. They dont overdo the 70s aesthetic to point of distraction, so the story never feels dated.
The character designs, the coloring, everything about this just works so well.
This doesn't feel like your typical Brubaker book, and that's not a bad thing. It just goes to show you that he always has another trick up his sleeve and can always surprise us. FRIDAY is is a bright light and something to look forward to in these otherwise uncertain times.
Here's the solicit for anyone interested:
Friday #1
Writer: Ed Brubaker Artist: Marcos Martin Colorist: Munsta Vicente Publisher: Panel Syndicate Price: Pay-what-you-want.
Friday Fitzhugh spent her childhood solving crimes and digging up occult secrets with her best friend Lancelot Jones, the smartest boy in the world. But that was the past, now she's in college, starting a new life on her own. Except when Friday comes home for the holidays, she's immediately pulled back into Lance's orbit and finds that something very strange and dangerous is happening in their little New England town...This is literally the Christmas vacation from Hell and neither of them may survive to see the New Year.
Release Date: AVAILABLE NOW