I read the Italian version of this book, the first in the Cherry Bomb book collection by Bao. The collection is curated by Zerocalcare who’s the most successful comic book writer in Italy in recent years, and there’s an interview with the authors on Bao’s youtube channel.
The original is French, so I’m happy to read a translated version (compared to e.g. english comics which I can read in the original), and it was published in multiple volumes, so this book is pretty massive, at 400+ pages. It feels like ~20€ well spent, and as ZC mentioned, you can also use the book to clobber someone if you ever need to.
The story starts as what one might feel as comic pastiche of The Wire, with drug dealers and gangs fighting for control in a generic Philadelphian neighborhood.
Still, this is done nicely, the cutesy art style and the contrast between sweet naïf characters and raw ultra-violent ones is a good idea.
Then, about half-way through the book, the story spins out in a completely unexpected direction and turns into a near future dystopia a-la Black Mirror.
And then it ends. I mean, it’s not like it doesn’t have a good ending, it does, it’s just sudden and somewhat unexpected.
I feel this is somewhat common in modern french comics (but please correct me), the stories seem put together perfectly for 60% of the story and then the authors.. give up? Still, I liked this book.
Vote: 7/10, I felt this was two different books, but I enjoyed both.