| Title | : | Clubbing |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1401203701 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781401203702 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 176 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2007 |
Clubbing Reviews
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Oh, I dearly wanted to love this. The writer, Andi Watson, is a friend (and let me just say, the person who says he "should be shot" in her review is lucky she's not saying that around me--god, I hate the kind of unthinking hyperbole the Internet has created) and I'm eic at a publisher that has published many of his comics. And I have to say, I really did enjoy the writing in the beginning of the book. I thought it was going to be the story of a goth girl from London getting into some trouble and then getting "sent down" (as they called it in Regency England) to gain some perspective in the country and, hey what do you know, solving a local mystery while she's there. In so doing, she would learn that not everyone has to conform to her code of cool to be worth knowing, and she would return to London a more broad-minded girl. No one but Andi could write a story like this and make it work well, I thought about halfway through the book.
And then it took this bizarre supernatural turn at the end (Lottie's friend being named Howard Philips should have been a clue to me), and a horrible truth is revealed with equally horrible and depressing consequences! Holy crap, I thought. If I found out [horrifying truth about much-loved member of family not to be specified here], I would be devastated!
And then Lottie kind of shrugs if off and says, "Oh hey, I'm going to Japan where things are really cool!" and I'm sitting in the bathtub with the book in my hands kind of stunned and "What the hell?" feeling.
Well. I love Andi and his work, but I guess we can't love everything about everyone. But, really, I can feel what kind of book this could have been, and my heart aches for it. That version of the book would have had to be drawn by Andi, too, because, as much as I wanted to give Josh Howard a chance, I really did not like his art. Lottie looks like a Bratz doll, over-sexualized and in ridiculous clothes, even for a "city goth"--tiny, tiny skirts and stripper boots. Howard made a name for himself by drawing cute girls for a young male audience, and he doesn't seem to understand that is not the audience for this book. Plus, his draftsmanship is questionable. He seems to have only one "cute chick" head--only the hair is different. And Lottie's head seems to keep changing size and her mouth moves around on her face a lot.
Plus, what's with that top photo on the cover? Who are these blond girls in jeans? They have nothing to do with anything as far as I can tell. If they had shown some goth girls in what appears to be in a goth club, that would have worked. But they must have had only one picture of a club in the stock photo site Minx uses, and who needs a cover photo that has anything to do with the book, right?
Gosh, this has gotten kind of silly on my part. It's just that--well, you know how it is when you really look forward to something and want to love it and you're let down.... Fortunately, Andi has a library of other books that I do love, so my heart's not broken. -
I picked this up on a whim at the library - maybe I missed having a thing for goth chicks when I was a teenager. Anyway, Clubbing was one of DC Comics' ill-fated Minx imprint, a line of alternative graphic novels targeted at girls, which got cancelled after a couple of years because their marketing sucked and the market for graphic novels in general (particularly girl-friendly ones) just wasn't that good.
The "clubbing" is a pun, as Charlotte "Lottie" Brook is a spoiled, privileged London teenager used to going out clubbing with fake IDs, until she's caught and gets sent to stay the summer with her grandparents at their golf country club in the country, where she tries to go hiking through cow pastures in $300 platform boots.
Lottie was amusing - of course she comes in with the cliched "snotty big city rich girl all prepared to look down at the bucolic yokels" attitude, but underneath her affectations and her privilege, she's not a bad girl, and she actually likes her grandparents (even while displaying the expected teen dismay at OMG having to hang out with grandparents!!!). She's smart but not very wise, makes dumb and believable mistakes for a teenager, she's kind of cute, and as it turns out, she has a wicked golf swing.
So, I would have liked this book a lot more if the sinister schemes Lottie imagined had stayed a product of her imagination and all the classic British literature she's read (she's a fan of the Brontes and Thomas Harding). It would have been funny if she was a modern-day Catherine Morland (from Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey), which is where I thought the author was going with the story. Unfortunately, nope, the story goes full Lovecraft at the end, which I thought was just dumb.
I don't how how much this book would appeal to the supposed target demographic, teenage girls. I guess they are supposed to identify with shopaholic Lottie and her overactive imagination and ten-inch waist, but it seemed like kind of an arbitrary way to lure girls into reading about shopping and boys and OMG it sucks being a teenager and then suddenly ELDRITCH HORRORS FROM BEYOND THE STARS!
And the execution of that twist was just... meh, considering who the real villain turns out to be, it broke my suspension of disbelief and my sympathy for all the characters. Still, mildly entertaining. -
2,5 stars.
This was better than I expected, and the idea of it wasn't bad at all, but the execution was. The art style was interesting at times, ridiculous in others (especially the obvious Bratz/ My Scene early 2000s influence), and the writing was uneven. Feels like the writer loved setting everything up, but then was kinda done with it by the end, and just wanted to finish it already. -
Interesting graphic novel involving some murder, some mystery, a touch of romance and a lot of golf. The illustrations were cute and I really liked the way the goth chick was drawn - nearly like Gloomcookie. :)
-
The rural goths are dicks that become teens that love golf.. and polo shirts.. like i dont even get the sudden 180. ugh.. idk being a rural goth.. I took that personally lol. I don't remember much just that I found it terribly odd. For some reason. Idk teen angst is weird.
Its bland.. -
This story went all over the place and had a slow build up. It ended up being a mystery and very anticlimactic.
-
I picked this up second hand and am glad I did. It was fun! I enjoyed how bratty the heroine is, and felt the book was a loving send-up of a certain precocious overprivileged set that I'm oddly pleased to see cast as protagonist instead of 2-dimensional antagonist. I'm not sure how to write that in a way that makes sense. But basically I liked Lottie's flash-goth hyper-femininity and how that's part of her personality and that's okay. I liked seeing her baking for the Women's Institute. I liked seeing her interact with her gran and look forward to befriending another woman based on the fact that she knows how to apply eyeliner. These were all positives for me.
Also this book contains some Coleridge. A++.
Where it lost my interest was the sped up super-supernatural resolution and how pat and emotionless it was. The bits I loved most in this book were when Lottie was really thinking or feeling -- when something was clearly penetrating her supercilious behaviour and forcing her to acknowledge something real. When she received those bangles as a gift, or found herself warming up to Howard, or various other small real-life moments. Those were great.
Basically I think this could have been a great slice of life comic, or a great supernatural mystery thing, but the mixing of the two (while something I usually applaud) did not work out too well for it. But I still genuinely liked it and will probably re-read it and recommend it sometime. -
Minx, the new graphic novel line for girls, is really not trying at all. The first one,
The Plain Janes, wasn't well written but had a decent plot & art style. This second release? The writer should be shot. There was no plot set-up and scenes were unpredictable at best or out-of-the-blue at worst, and the main character was so completely stereotypical that she had no depth whatsoever. The art is decent, but very similiar to Kim Possible.
C'mon, DC Comics. Do better than this, please. Otherwise the American female comic market is never going to touch the appeal that Japanese & Korean mangas have. With this kind of crap being released, how can you expect any sort of loyalty from your readership?
I have
Re-gifters enroute right now and high expectations for a rebound; Mike Carey, the author, already has book cred with me for a previous comic. If even HE can't pull something decent out of his hat for this imprint, I wash my hands of it and will begin composing a letter to DC Comics offering my editing services because they are obviously in need of someone who can find better authors than dime-a-dozen hack writers. -
With DC Comics’s new Minx line, the closest the imprint seems to get to a trade dress is having covers be a mixture of photographs and drawn art. Looking closely at Clubbing, the book mixes the London club scene with the pastoral hills of England’s Lake District. It’s a bit of a mish-mash of a cover, the two pictures and the piece of Josh Howard art not working very well together, looking like it’s trying for several different feels and not succeeding at any of them. And, unfortunately, that’s also a pretty good synopsis for the book itself.
[
http://www.readaboutcomics.com/2007/0...] -
I haven't finished a book in a while, or read a graphic novel in a while, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. Dave brought it home for me, so it wasn't one I would have necessarily chosen myself...a whiny, privileged piece of goth eye candy spends the summer at her grandparents' country club and ends up solving a murder mystery involving a celestial dragon (wha??). Eh. By the end I was mostly interested in the way the shading was drawn on the characters' faces.
-
After reading Plain Janes, this is one of some graphic novels mentioned and it sounded good.
So while reading this, I kind of liked it, loved the art style and of course some of the outfits. Plus the art reminded me of that show Danny Phantom.
Then it got a little weird, near the end, sort of but still it was a fun read. -
When I picked up this book at a used book store the first thing that caught my attention is the art work by Josh Howard. I am a Huge fan of his book "Dead @ 17" so picking up this book was an easy choice. The art work is really good with simple lines and light shading.
The story on the other hand is a disappointment. It starts on a really positive note spending plenty of pages setting the mood and establishing the characteristics of the main character Lottie and some of the supporting cast. However, when the actual mystery starts it is 'meh. It has no real clues or development. It is boring with very little logic. The ending comes out of left field and feels underwhelming. -
Charlotte Brook is in big trouble because she got caught trying to use fake ID to get into a club. Her parents have exiled her to her grandparents, a golf course in the countryside. She was sent to the country to keep her out of trouble, and to punish her. Soon this Goth girl shopaholic is trying to solve a murder.
The MINX line of comics was supposed to feature strong female characters, to be a premier series of comics for girls and young women. They achieved that as the 5 I have read so far have all been excellent books that I would be proud if my daughter would read when she was older. This is a story of a strong female character, yes she gets in trouble. But basically she is a good girl. These are excellent books. Well written and illustrated. What is best about this series is that almost all the books present a different culture, or ethnicity, yet together they present strong examples of good character, and strong females trying to find their way in the world. As well, they are entertaining enough that almost anyone can read them and learn from the stories. -
I didn't like the main character at all, so I DNF'd. When a character has a snotty attitude on the outside but is not necessarily that way on the inside, they're interesting. When a character is snotty on the inside, I have no interest in hearing that character's story.
-
Not too bad. A murder mystery, with an alien and a conspiracy. Andi Watson puts a nice sense of humor into her writing, with a twist of self-deprecation. Josh Howard's illustrations are detailed and nuanced. 2007, huh? I'll have to look these two up to see what they got up to in the last 15 years.
-
Kinda didn't like the ending. It also felt like there should have been a longer story.
-
I guess the overwhelming feeling for me on this book was meh. I should have really liked this since I was a teen in the 2000s and I would have probably identified with a bookish Goth girl who was still cool enough to go partying with her friends. But Lottie is spoiled and kind of annoying. Maybe because I’m reading this at 25 rather than at 15, I find her just plain rude rather than funny in most cases.
The story is okay. It sets up to be a murder mystery which normally, I like. I watch the BBC mystery series all time and Agatha Christie is one of my favorite authors. But this one isn’t even solvable for the reader because the ending comes out of nowhere. It’s not even a satisfying ending either. Charlotte returns to her parents as if nothing happened at her grandparent’s golf course at all, as if the whole story never occurred.
I rated this book 2 stars! This isn’t the worst comic that I have ever read but its far from the best. There are better comics for girls elsewhere, I mention this because this book was aimed at getting teen girls more interested in reading comics.
Sailor Moon, Vol. 1 is a far better choice so are several other manga series; like
Fruits Basket, Vol. 1 or
Cardcaptor Sakura, Vol. 1. However, you might enjoy this book for nostalgia reasons (so many early 2000s references) or if you like stories about Goth girls or stories set in England. -
I saw this in the back of a few other Minx books, and could tell that it was going to be as disappointing as the rest. Decided to pick it up anyway, though, and was surprised at how much worse it turned out...
The dialogue was clunky and unrealistic - I was willing to chalk that up to a lack of familiarity with the culture, but it's not like the 21st century has given us any dearth of exposure to other countries, especially in the UK. Maybe that's just me, as an American, but the conversations never felt like they involved actual people - just sound bytes pulled from the glossary.
I disliked Lottie as both a narrator and a character. She focuses on herself primarily, and this does not change by the end of the story. Like, she burns down a golf shop, and almost nothing more is said of it after that. She runs around swinging and smashing when confronting her grandfather, but it's ok, because he might be a murderer. Actions have no consequences, and she is not a real person.
Her relationship with Howard was inconsistent - sometimes they were like "summer lovers," other times they were just partners in crime. I really couldn't tell where Watson was trying to go with this until the end, when they become kind-of's.
The narration/text boxes were awkwardly written and placed: at some points, they cut off what would seem to be the middle of a conversation. Watson just kind of writes a thing, then shoves off to write the next thing. They need to connect.
Another example would be "It was very weird," which describes Lottie and Howard's finding of a corpse. I'm sure it was more than that, and her response did not match the situation at all. (I'm sure that finding a dead body is at least comparable to her reaction when she thinks the local Goths are Satanists.)
Which, speaking of Satanists, that was the worst ending that I've read in a long time. "The murderers are the townspeople" is an often-used trope, but this has literally no explanation. They try to sacrifice Howard, they fail, a giant beast appears, and everything blows up. The End.
I don't know what Watson wants us to think at the end of the book. Lottie hasn't learned anything. There was a half-assed mystery that, despite a technical resolution, left more questions than answers. What are their motives? What's the mythology of their sacrifices? We could have at least gotten something from the grandmother, the most developed of the sacrificers, but she just disappears with the rest of them. It was as though Watson needed an ending in a pinch, and, lacking ideas, made everything explode, leaving no trace for the reader. -
Overall Rating: B
Synopsis: CLUBBING is an original graphic novel written by Andi Watson (Geisha, Paris, Skeleton Key) and illustrated by Josh Howard (Dead @ 17) and done in the manga format (size, style, etc.). The story follows Charlotte "Lottie" Brook, a rich kid who lives in London, is into goth music, and platform shoes who lives a life of luxury. Then she gets caught with a fake i.d. and is "exiled" to her grandparents country club in the middle of the English countryside, which is to say, the middle of nowhere as far as Lottie is concerned. However, everything is not as it seems, as murder is afoot at the country club. Will Lottie save the day? Will she fall in love with the groundskeeper?
Murder mysteries involving golf courses would normally not interest me, but the cover of the book drew me in. I'm a sucker for goth girls, and I love Andi Watson's writing. CLUBBING is also the third book from DC's female-friendly
Minx> line of comics, and I was interested in seeing what it was like. So, I flipped through the book a little, and decided to pick it up.
The book is a fun read, and worth the cover price if you enjoy all things gothic. The humor value of a club kid out in the English countryside is hilarious enough, but throw in the satanist goths she meets out there, her hapless grandparents, an evil cult, and you've got a pretty good book. Unfortunately, the story is a little too predictable, but if you're not looking for something too deep, check it out.
For more manga and anime reviews, please check out
Hobotaku. -
Clubbing is on the now-defunct Minx imprint, which published black-and-white young adult comics. Pretty much everything Minx looks like it's worth checking out, honestly, and the books are pretty cheap. So Clubbing—and the title is deliciously punny, as it works on several levels—concerns Charlotte "Lottie" Brook, a seventeen-year-old London Goth chick who likes to go, well, clubbing. But she gets caught with a fake ID, and as punishment, her parents banish her to stay with her grandparents for the summer at their stuffy country club. As if! (Note: the phrase "As if!" does not appear anywhere in the book. What does appear, however, is a shitload of British slang, most of which is helpfully defined in a glossary in the back.) Lottie is generally likable, despite being spoiled and stuck-up about her new environs. She makes for a fun narrator.
At first, the story is simply about Lottie having to deal with country life, but then she stumbles into a murder mystery that she investigates with the help of the "gorgeous groundskeeper" who she's totally not crushing on, totally. The plot moves along swiftly, and 140 pages later, you're done, having enjoyed your little adventure with Lottie.
Josh Howard's art is great, stylized but crisp and clean, making every line and shadow count.
Clubbing is just as cute and fun as I hoped, with bonus [spoiler] at the end. -
Lottie got in some trouble with the coppers and her parents shipped her off to her grandparents for the summer. There she has to adjust from being in the city, to the great open country. It's not as boring as she thought though. When a mysterious murder happens, Lottie knows that she can solve it. She may lose some sleep, but with some help she might be able to uncover the strange happenings at the golf course.
This was certainly an interesting read. Not what I was expecting at all. The ending was a bit over-the-top outrageous! Lottie was not a like-able character at all. I found myself wanting to cuff her over the head on more than one occasion. She was very into herself and her "goth-ness". Howard seemed like a swell guy though. I really hope that someday Andi Watson might come out with a sequel to this. There is a bit of an opening for another story at the end of Clubbing. It was an entertaining read and I recommend it to girls who love graphic novels.
First Lines:
"The girl there, gabbing on the Razr, the one who looks like a silent movie star wearing dissolution lip gloss? That's me."
Favorite Line:
"It's all very odd, very Clockwork Orange."
Read more:
http://www.areadingnook.com/#ixzz1b8y... -
It's not a bad story, and the ending is a surprise, but I really didn't like the protagonist. I suppose it doesn't help that there is so much British slang in here they had to include a dictionary-to-American (which is annoyingly places before several pages of preview stories for the Minx line, so you have to bookmark 10 pages from the end, and HOPE when you get stuck that they explain it- because they don't explain everything.) I should also point out that I read plenty of British authors and watch BBC shows, so when I say the slang is heavy, it's not mainstream stuff either.)
I've read some of Andi Watson's other stuff (though not in a while) but I didn't like his portrayal of Lotte. She is a spoiled, narcissistic brat at the beginning, and doesn't learn anything. She's like the Paris Hilton of Goth. She gets away with whatever she wants, and has no repercussions. So while her story is entertaining, it's pretty vapid. I can't say more without spoilering it, other than to say there is NO WAY anyone would walk away from her situation unscathed and unaffected. Unless it was Paris Hilton. In which case, I'm disappointed in the author and humanity. -
Things are not going well for Lottie. She's been shipped off to the country to spend the summer with her grandparents due to her wild, teenager ways. They don't have cable, they only have dial-up internet, and she can't even get a signal for her mobile. Don't even ask about the tiny village (with NO cool shops) and how "right down the road" translates into miles of hiking in high-heeled boots. And worst of all, gran wants to set her up with this geeky golfer boy named Howard. Things start to look up when Lottie discovers that Howard is a writer and he's way into legends, witches, and hauntings. When something very strange starts to happen in town, she knows that they'll have to figure it out... before it's too late.
Another great addition to the MINX line of graphic novels.
Readalike suggestions: Gingerbread and others by Rachel Cohn for another sassy goth-ish girl. For more tales of supernatural intrigue in small-town, try The Midnighters trilogy by Scott Westerfeld. -
The art was ok. The writing was ok. I could barely stand the main character who I felt was far too flippant and too privileged to get any sort of sympathy from me. Oh, BOO HOO. She's RICH and she has to SUFFER by getting shipped off the the private golf club home of her RICH family. Oh. BOO HOO, she actually has to WORK.
She's also judgmental and obnoxious and clearly looks down on the locals. She doesn't care how much she inconveniences them or wrecks the things they enjoy/love. The only important thing is that she gets what she wants or enjoys.
It's one thing if she changes over time, perhaps learns from her obnoxiousness. But she doesn't. Some might call her an irreverent ode to, I don't know, sassy world saving heroines. Throughout the entire story, I found myself having to fight down the urge to punch her in the nose a few hundred times.
I was glad when her rich parents sent her along to her next adventure courtesy of their bags of money. She's gone, and if there's ever a sequel, I don't intend to follow it. Weakest out of all the MINX titles that I've read so far. -
Lottie is a rich, bratty, brand-obsessed London teenager who dresses (and is drawn) like a goth porn star. When she is arrested for trying to get into a club with a fake ID (has anyone, in the history of ever, actually been arrested for this?), her parents pack her off to the grandparents in the Lake District. Naturally, she has utter contempt for the locals and their town, and recoils in horror at the prospect of being a salesclerk at a small golf store.
When a local lady turns up dead in a golf course water trap, with a possibly occult symbol on her arm, Lottie somewhat inexplicably suddenly decides she's Nancy Drew. Unfortunately for the reader, the mystery is somewhat clumsy, and the red herrings far too obvious. And when things take a turn for the supernatural, the book spirals into out of control silliness. The art is fairly simple and mundane (unless you're a 12-year-old boy), and Lottie is completely annoying as a protagonist. Can't recommend this to anyone. -
Part of the late, somewhat lamented Minx imprint - a misfiring attempt to get more young women into comics, which nevertheless produced some good work and can be seen as a preparatory step for the readership's recent improvements in gender balance. This is by no means Andi Watson's best work - the set-up and cast are straight from central casting, the culprit in the mystery is obvious from the off, and the title pun is painful (a young London goth gets in trouble at a nightclub - and as penance ends up exiled to her grandparents' rural golf club! Where they play with clubs! LOL!). Still, as a snapshot of mid-noughties teen life it has a charming nostalgia value (remember when Livejournal was still a thing beyond a small band of die-hards, and Russians?), and Josh Howard does a wonderful job on the art, making lead Lottie alluring without being porny, and rendering her country captors in suitably broad and comical fashion.
-
Greg has a very, very comprehensive review of this book already on GoodReads.
Overall, I was quite disappointed in these creators' work. Andi Watson has written some great comics, in both English and American settings. Josh Howard's
Dead@17 was entertaining enough. But their powers don't combine to form a giant robot, planet-saving force, or good comic book. It would be quite well suited for the Disney Channel.
Clubbing follows a goth-ish girl exiled from London to the rainy British countryside to hang with her grandparents and the local kids. The fish-out-of-water tale turns into a mystery, which turns into a supernatural horror story (a little). The whole thing feels very rushed, very demographically-minded, and not very great.
Watson did write some good scenes and dialogue, but the whole thing feels a bit too rushed to be at all memorable. -
Minx is a new line of graphic novels from DC, but until reading this one, I'd got the wrong end of the stick and thought they were American manga. In fact they are more DC-does-Oni. This is a slight but entertaining story of dark deeds in the country, as investigated by a cute goth girl drawn in a nice funky style. I was about to say that the title is a bit misleading, but typing that made me realise why it wasn't (the story takes place around a golf club - duh). I can't imagine this changing anyone's life, but that doesn't make it any less entertaining. I tried to avoid saying that it's a distaff Hot Fuzz... but didn't. Finally, watch out at the end for Lottie's Lexicon, which will provide much hilarity to British readers.
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i want to say, first off, that Vertigo's new MINX imprint is the most wonderful thing to happen for me with comics in years - it's just really good young adult fiction with outcast heroines, but done as tiny affordable manga-sized graphic novels with accessible, cool artwork. these things are fantastic, and addictive.
but, 'clubbing' was kind of a dud within the minx universe. it was not 'plain janes' or 're-gifters'. was it still fun? yes. absolutely. who doesn't want to watch a sassy goth british teenager fight a weird religious cult in the english countryside.
i will still buy every single minx book until i die or minx is no more.
