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‘Karate Prom’ TPB (review)

Written and Illustrated by Kyle Starks
Published by First Second

 

I love Kyle Starks, both as a writer and as an artist.

Everything that he touches turns out to be fantastic, no matter what he is doing (either original work or an IP at a bigger company).  He also has one of the more unique point of views that I have seen in comics in the more recent years. No matter how violent or crazy his work might get, it always has a tongue-in-cheek feel.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that he was doing a book for teens! I was sure that if anyone could pull it off, he can so I immediately dove headfirst into this fun and engaging book.

The main characters in this book are two teens who are both into karate and who are high school students at the crazy and out of control Benjamin Harrison High School.

One of them is Don Jones, and the other one is Samantha Steadman. They are both looking for a shot at winning the local karate tournament that seems to be a big deal in this town. Suffice to say, the two of them have to face off against each other.

The battle between the two of them doesn’t go so well for Don as Samantha defeats him. Don then does something that you wouldn’t expect from him after losing. He goes and he asks Samantha out on a date.

Then, something even more unexpected happens.

The two of them connect on a level that neither one of them ever expected as possible. Life becomes very joyous for the two of them. They are both enjoying each others respective company. All seems good. They decide that they should go to prom together. And that is when all hell just happens to break loose.

Don has an ex-girlfriend who isn’t too thrilled with his current situation. She doesn’t like that Don chose Samantha to go to prom with.

Her name is Astor Violenzia, and she is not to be trifled with. The prom happens and all seems good. Don and Samantha are pretty happy, all told. But there is an after party happening. That is when Astor decides that it is time to make her move and get her man back.

This leads into some downright berserk moments that happen at the after party. Needles to say, the lives of both Don and Samantha may never be the same again.

Can their relationship survive?

The structure of the story is broken up into three acts here. A lot of the action happens off the page (or “offscreen”) and I sort of wish it didn’t. Maybe they could have made the book longer to get some of those missing moments into the story.

Still, it does play a lot like a story from the 1980s both in style and in tone. And that’s not a bad thing. Starks has always worn his influences on his sleeve and this book is really no different.

A lot of this is also very reminiscent of the Scott Pilgrim books both in style and in humor. But I am okay with all of that because it is so caringly and lovingly executed. I love that it feels very excessive and it certainly does get exceedingly excessive as the story progresses. By the end, it feels like you have had quite an experience as a reader.

And let’s talk about that ending, shall we?

It is pretty great. A lot of the fighting happens off the page, as I said earlier. But all of the emotion is definitely on the page. The main characters really find themselves by the finale and it leaves everything open for a really tight ending. It is definitely strong and well thought out.

Kyle Starks keeps creating these little gems for us to consume. Every book he does is completely different from the last one. I love that about him as a creator. He creates these unique worlds that always have a lot of flavor to them. He does that again here to great effect. I enjoyed this book very much and I look forward to seeing where Starks goes next with his career. This was a joyous book that all ages can appreciate.

RATING: A

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