SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About/Contact
  • Previews
  • Reviews
  • Manga
  • All Ages
  • Young Adult
  • Interviews
  • News

April 3, 2018 by J. Caleb Mozzocco

Review: ‘Mechaboys’

April 3, 2018 by J. Caleb Mozzocco   Leave a Comment

Mechaboys

Mechaboys
Writer/artist: James Kochalka
Top Shelf Productions; $19.99

The unbelievably prolific cartoonist James Kochalka has a new original graphic novel, this one leaning more in the direction of his adult work, like SuperF*ckers and American Elf, than his kids comics, like SpongeBob Comics, Johnny Boo, and Dragon Puncher. The premise is a solid, grabby and compelling one…but the timing couldn’t possibly be worse.

Two bullied, outcast teenagers build a robot battle suit in their garage for the express purpose of exacting revenge on their classmates. The parallels to school shootings could have been subtle, but Kochalka draws attention to them, with one of the boys describing his plan to attack the prom and kill everyone as being “like COLUMBINE meets ROBOCOP.”

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

One imagines that particular line sounding a bit different when Kochalka wrote it, long before the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which managed to do something previous school shootings did not: Start a months-long national conversation on guns.

The line is spoken by Zachery (who would prefer you call him Zeus), the id-driven, aggressive a-hole of the pair, and a decidedly terrible influence on the sweet, quiet Jamie (who would prefer you call him James). Zachery, with long black hair that covers one eye and a barely-there teenage mustache, is reminiscent of Kochalka’s Jack Krak character in Superf*ckers, an inveterate jerk character whose loutishness is part of his charm. His plan is revealed to Jamie after a page-long explanation of his theory about how the universe is evil (“I call it my Evil Universe Theory.”)

So not unlike when Kochalka has Zachery telling his gym teacher he can’t participate because he’s trans and he’s on his period, it might be offensive, but it’s obviously supposed to be; Zachery’s a jerk. Even still, the line, like the inevitable parallels the premise draws, is clunky, graceless, and out-of-touch sounding at the moment. (Although I’m not sure there is a good moment to evoke a particular school shooting by name.) It doesn’t ruin the book or anything, but it’s one more thing to caution against in a graphic novel that’s not suitable for readers younger than teens, despite how open and appealing Kochalka’s signature, simple style is (Although unlike most of his work for little kids, Mechaboys is in black and white).

So Zachery and Jamie build a robot battle suit in Jamie’s garage, utilizing what they find laying around there: It’s powered by a lawnmower motor, and there’s a license plate embedded in the chest. With the suit, Zachery is now much bigger and much stronger than Truck and Duck, the two big, dumb guys at school that bully him, and when they are invited to a party at Booger’s Hollow, they see a chance to show off their suit.

Zachery’s plan is to have Jamie go down there, get bullied, and then Zachery will emerge to defend him. It doesn’t go according to plan, however, as it turns out without Zachery around, the cool kids—particularly a particular cool girl—not only accept but also kinda like Jamie. And then a bear attacks, resulting in a bear vs. mecha-teen battle.

Long story short, Zachery ends up paralyzed in a hospital bed, developing his Evil Universe Theory. It is there that he tricks Jamie into promising to carry out his new plan: For Jamie to finally don the battle suit, which Zachery hasn’t let him wear up until that point, and then go to prom and “KILL every last one of those heathen mothereffers.”

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Don’t worry; he doesn’t. The bear from Booger’s Hollow returns—sort of—as does the villain of the piece (or, at least, the villain who isn’t Zachery). That forces battle suit-wearing Jamie to come up with a new plan on the spot: Rather than kill everyone, he will save them. It all ends happily, although weirdly.

Kochalka’s teenagers talk in a stylized slang that is half real swear words and half little kid-like substitutions swearing, the latter seeming even funnier because the actual s-word appears alongside their insistence on using “sugar” most of the time. Their actions sometimes feel as random as their swearing, but beneath the over-the-top melodramatic coming-of-age elements and sillier events, Mechaboys has a nice message about being yourself and the illusory nature of evil.

That is, sure, Jamie and Zachery are picked on by some of the guys at school, but, in a more direct fashion, Jamie is a victim of Zachery’s friendship, and Zachery is a victim of an elaborate, negative worldview he built for himself and ended up trapped within. The idea of the battle suit is to smash that negative world that Zachery believes in, but when the boys are forced to take little breaks from one other, it becomes clear that the real problems aren’t between them and and the world, but between them and what’s going on in their own heads.

A paean to awkward, high-drama teenage years, Mechaboys gains relevance from its deliberate echoing of school violence, while distancing its plot from the real-world horror of school shootings with its superhero comic book/cartoon elements.

It’s just really too bad about that Columbine reference, which works in the opposite direction…

Filed under: Graphic Novels, Reviews, Young Adult

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments
James KochalkaMechaboysTop Shelf

About J. Caleb Mozzocco

J. Caleb Mozzocco is a way-too-busy freelance writer who has written about comics for online and print venues for a rather long time now. He currently contributes to Comic Book Resources' Robot 6 blog and ComicsAlliance, and maintains his own daily-ish blog at EveryDayIsLikeWednesday.blogspot.com. He lives in northeast Ohio, where he works as a circulation clerk at a public library by day.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

February 2023

Insomniacs After School, vol. 1 | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

February 2023

Kiss Number 8 | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

January 2023

My Sister, the Cat, vol. 1 | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

December 2022

Heartstopper Volumes 1 and 2 | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

December 2022

Ride On | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

2023 Books from Pura Belpré Winners

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Newbery / Caldecott 2024: Spring Prediction Edition

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Pardalita | Preview

by Brigid Alverson

Heavy Medal

March suggestions: early Mock Newbery possibilities

by Emily Mroczek-Bayci

Teen Librarian Toolbox

Why Teens Should Read Hard History, a guest post by Lesley Younge

by Amanda MacGregor

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey Try Something New

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

Free Comics, and Resources on COVID-19, in Graphic Form

A Starter Manga Set: 15 Titles for Children and Tweens

LibraryPass’s Comics Plus | Reference Database Review

Laurie Halse Anderson Announces "Wonder Women in History," a YA Graphic Novel Anthology

12 Essential Nonfiction Graphic Novels for Kids and Teens

Commenting for all posts is disabled after 30 days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2023


COPYRIGHT © 2023