7 April, 2002
Blue Monday: Absolute Beginners
Chynna Clugston-Major
2001
128 pp
This is the follow-up to Chynna Clugston-Major's first Blue Monday miniseries, The Kids are Alright. This outing is about dire teenage incompetance in love and courtship, in all its manifestations. We have Bleu, who's absolutely oblivious to the attraction her friend/rival Alan Walsh has towards her; instead, she's completely wrapped up in schoolgirl crushes on people like Adam Ant and Mr. Bishop, the handsome history teacher. Then we have Alan, who along with his co-conspirator Victor Gomez secretly videotapes Bleu while she's taking a bath, then proceeds to share the resulting material with half the school. Apparently, he thought this would be a great prelude to asking Bleu out on a date! As for Victor, he's easily convinced by manipulative Erin to pursue Bleu himself (instead of Clover, who he's really interested in), and sabotage his best friend's efforts.
One of the reasons why I enjoy the previous Blue Monday collection so much is that, in it's own way, it's good, clean fun. The boys and girls have their little rivalry, and they play some dastardly practical jokes on one another, but nobody really gets hurt, or permanently damanged, so it's okay to laugh at it. That's where Absolute Beginners falls short, in my opinion. The pranks are a lot crueler and unfriendly, which makes the whole thing a lot less fun for the reader. (I mean, making a naked video of a high school girl, and distributing it around to all your friends? That's not a joke-- that's child pornography!) Not to mention, the addition of the Harvey-esque giant otter was just a little too weird for me.
That's not to say it's bad. There are still plenty of funny bits such as Clover's hooligan-rules soccer match, arranged to avenge Bleu's honor, and the bit in the girl's bathroom ("If this were in color, you'd see those were pink stonewashed jeans. This happens."), and the art is still good. It's just that the overall nastier tone results in something which is less fun than the previous installments.