Signal Watch Reads: Power Lunch (by J. Torres and Dean Trippe)

Power Lunch
First Course
by J. Torres & Dean Trippe
lettered by Ed Brisson
designed by Keith Wood
edited by James Lucas Jones

So, one tough thing about running a comics blog is that sometimes we are asked to preview materials and write a review.  And sometimes we read something and we try to be as fair as possible, even when we know that the item we're reviewing isn't something we'd normally read because of genre, topic, etc...  or worse, sometimes its something we didn't like.

I'm happy to say that I just don't have that problem here in any way, shape or form. I just straight up dug this fun, well written, well designed/ drawn all-ages book. 

Before I get too far down the pipe, this books is a stab by Oni Press (who I want to salute for taking this project on) to get involved in the kids' comics world.  I do think this book skews a little more towards kids than something like Uncle Scrooge, but its a matter of degrees, and keeping the audience in mind here is important just as it is when you read, oh...  Encyclopedia Brown (do kids read that?  I read the hell out of Encyclopedia Brown.  And Henry Reed, Inc.  And The Mad Scientist's Club.).


The story follows a young gentleman named Joey who has just arrived at a new school where he is found pondering a poster asking kids to come join the soccer team.  In the cafeteria, he meets a young man (Jerome)  who points out "you're the new weird kid.  I'm the old weird kid."  Which made me laugh.

Jerome has spunk, telling off the school bully when Bug starts picking on him, but dooms himself to the promise of an after-school beat-down.  After school, Joey and Jerome are avoiding Bug, when Joey reveals the secret that's meant he's had to move schools a number of times and what keeps him from having too many friends:  when he eats anything not colored white, he gains super powers.  Like, good powers such as superspeed.

In the wide, wacky world of superheroes, that's a pretty great and unique idea, and I salute Torres and Trippe for their creativity (its weird like Arms Falloff Boy, but not completely unhelpful/ insane). 

The story is actually about bullying, friendship and other kid-firendly topics.  I'd guess that the characters are supposed to be about 3rd of fourth grade as they still play with toys, but they're on the verge of that awkward period where kids start picking friends based on more than who lives on their block.

the fateful meeting

 No doubt, half the fun of the book stems from Trippe's artwork, a brightly colored world of cartoon-style comics, of stylized characters and representative objects, food, etc...  that has a feel of a kids' approach to their environment in dealing with, say, and apple in an almost iconic fashion.

Torres manages to imbue the characters with real issues and motivations without beating his audience over the head.  Jerome is thrilled to make a connection (especially one that will help him avoid a beating) and Joey needs to not feel confined by his odd specialness/ restriction and to be able to live like other kids.

The book is almost a great Superman homage.  Joey and Jerome are clearly named for Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, creators of Superman.  Joey sports a look somewhere between Clark Kent and Dean Trippe himself.  And Jerome emulates the look, if not the spunk, of Jimmy Olsen. And, of course, its not too hard to see the influence of the multi-powered Ace of Action working through our Joey.

Its not hard to imagine that J. Torres and Dean Trippe have a mythology of some sort mapped out to take us through a few more books, and I look forward to seeing them.  I'm definitely picking this one up for the bookshelf when it hits stores in October.