MAKING FRIENDS by Kristen Gudsnuk
One of the multitude of graphic novels set in middle school about friendship and finding yourself, I read them all and while I tend to enjoy them, I'm kinda not the demographic. This one blew me away though. Dany, starting 7th grade and struggling with finding new friends, finds a magic sketchbook in the great-aunts attic that makes anything she draws real. She starts off by drawing a character from her favorite TV show, basically a Sailor Moon knock off, and ends up with the disembodied head of Prince Neptune, a preening (but cute) supervillian who dispenses with bad advice and generally gets her in trouble. From there, she creates Melanie, a cool girl who will serve as her guide and BFF through the trials and travails of middle school.
It's all kinds of amazing. The characterization is much deeper than I expected, Dany is your average kid trying to fit in and makes all kinds of bad and selfish choices, while Melanie, who is not only cool and hip but kind, supportive, and courageous, realizes she's just a prop in Dany's life and starts going through a serious existential crisis. The humor is sharp as well as silly, and the story, while going all kinds of directions at once (there are some big loose threads that never get developed), ends up being very satisfying with a tropey Magical Girl climax that still fits the offbeat sensibilities of the book. Though not particularly edgy, the story has lots of adult appeal. The art is loose and colorful with a Manga-influenced style, and it ends up feeling very substantial and meaty