Gabi Mendez: Lemonade Summer

[asri]

This softcover contains seven short and queer comics about young characters. To some degree the stories vary in length and style. For instance, „Sk8er Grrl“ consists of a double page cover, three pages of story, and a page of character art. It‘s the shortest story in the collection (several others have about 20+ pages) and its style follows some manga conventions. „Strays“ uses thicker character line art and a different colouring technique than „Treasure Hunting“. Each comic sticks to a limited and distinct colour palette. While this gives each short story an individual flair, the book nonetheless retains a consistent feel overall. And although each story tells a short, self-contained story, some characters in the last three stories are related or show up in more than one story, which created a satisfying build-up and reward for me. My favourite stories are „Ro & Ella“ and „Aventurera“. And since I‘m a fan of silent comics, the wordless pages in the „Witching Hour“ are a particular highlight for me, too.

Cow House Press, 2018