“Bully Wars” is an all-ages comic from Skottie Young and Aaron Conley. What are the Bully Wars? Who will be involved in them? The answers to those questions, sadly, are not after the break. But, our review, and some spoilers are, so please read on!
Written by Skottie Young
Illustrated by Aaron Conley
Colored by Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Lettered by Nate Piekos of BlambotI HATE FAIRYLAND and Deadpool writer SKOTTIE YOUNG and artist AARON CONLEY (Sabertooth Swordsman, Rocket Raccoon & Groot) team up for a hilarious all-new, all-ages ONGOING SERIES! Rufus, the biggest bully in Rottenville since kindergarten, suddenly goes from bully to bullied on the first day of high school. He’s forced to make a shaky pact with his favorite geeks: Spencer and his twin sibling besties, Edith and Ernie. Together they’ll have to find a way to survive the Hunger Games-like contest known simply as the BULLY WARS—where the winner will rule the school!
The first page of “Bully Wars” does a great job of setting up exactly what this series is going to be. The first panel is an establishing shot of a sign leading into the town of Rottenville, with what looks like some kind of blood spattered across it. Down at the bottom of the page, we get the first look at one of the book’s protagonists, Spencer, carrying a stack of books that is literally larger than him. From this page, you know exactly what you’re getting with “Bully Wars.” Neither the writing nor the art is going to be subtle. It’s going to be as over the top in your face cartoony as possible. When it sticks that landing, it’s a ton of fun.
Aaron Conley’s art does a great job of creating the town of Rottenville, which is exactly as extreme as the town’s name might suggest. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Conley’s work before, but he is able to create a fantastically cartoony aesthetic for this story. The character designs themselves are great. Every inch of the characters looks tells you something about them, and everything about each one of them is so unique. It’s great to see a comic that has such a wealth of different body types and shapes, even if those shapes are pretty exaggerated.
On top of Conley’s art, the colors in this book by Jean-Francois Beaulieu make Conley’s cartoony figures vibrant and full of life. The colors in this issue help bring the setting and mood of the story into focus. The shift from the more natural lighting of the everyday world to the interior of the school, where everything is bathed in a green light that rests somewhere between lime and puke, helps bring the reader into how it feels for these characters on their first days of school. But everything is still kept bright in a way that makes the whole issue pops. The small things, like the purple of one of the main characters crazy mop of hair, or the slight yellow of the bully Rufus’s teeth, help make every panel of this issue a visual feast.
One of the strengths of Beaulieu’s colors are that they help to highlight all those tiny details in Conley’s art. Conley has packed so much visual detail into these pages. When I say that the art is cartoony, that doesn’t mean that it’s simple. There is a level of visual detail in some panels of this issue that are almost overwhelming. Which, for the most part, is a good thing. It makes the world of “Bully Wars” feel jam-packed and extremely interesting visually. But, there are a few places where the art pushes past just being full of details and does become almost over stimulating. There is just so much to see on every page, that sometimes in the crowds of this issue, it can be hard to pick out what the vocal point should be.
For the most part, though, the art is just wonderful, and really helps sell the world of “Bully Wars.” Skottie Young’s script matches the art quite well, though I don’t know if all of the jokes land quite as well as the art does. Part of this, though, might just be that this is an all ages book. There are a couple of places here where I know it didn’t quite work for me, but I could see giving this to one of my younger relatives and having them be laughing out loud.
Continued belowThe story itself is interesting, as the character that Young seems to be setting up to the be issue’s antagonist ends up spending much of the issue as the main vocal point. The book starts with a group of kids, Spencer, Edith and Ernie, being accosted by their bully, Rufus, as they’re waiting at their bus stop for their first day of high school. At first, the issue seems like it’s going to be about this group of friends dealing with their bully in the new territory that is high school, but once everyone arrives, it quickly becomes clear that Rufus isn’t actually going to be the big man on campus. I have to admit, there is something cathartic about seeing a bully getting stuffed into his own locker by someone who absolutely dwarfs him. And after this point, the issue follows Rufus, as he deals with being bullied instead of the bully for the first time.
“Bully Wars” is a book that I think a lot of kids will really love. Just the aesthetic and cartooning that is on display in this issue is really great to look at. While the plot itself might not do all that much for some of the older readers in the audience, I think that this book will be a lot of fun for younger folks.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – “Bully Wars” is a lot of fun, and worth checking out for younger audiences.
