This is a story about a girl and her dog. And her invisible gremlin friend. And her ability to conduct electricity with her bare hands! (From back cover)

Graphic novels are becoming a useful tool to help young adults get interested in reading again, and as a YA-reader-for-life badge-holder, I can't help but be consumed by their intoxicating appeal either. As my library started building its graphic novel collection a few years ago, I spotted an interesting looking book and vowed to read it. It has since been checked out constantly, and on the rare occasions when I can find it on the shelf, I'm already knee-deep in other books. A few months ago I finally snatched Electric Girl, Volume 1 by Michael Brennan up, and ArianeJ was nice enough to add it to the database for me.

Electric Girl, Volume 1 opens with a scene described as "the origin of the electric girl." Virginia was unfortunately born at a time when a gremlin (an invisible prank-pulling creature) felt the need to prove himself to the other gremlins. Instead of pulling small pranks, this was going to be a big one. And indeed it was. Thanks to the gremlin, Oogleeoog, Virginia was born with the odd ability to conduct electricity with her hands!

Each 'chapter' is actually an issue, and is labelled as such. One thing I found interesting and fun was that at the beginning of each chapter was a sort of title page that said, for example "Electric Girl, Issue One," and had a few thumbnail images from the issue, sans words. These bite-size images invoked curiosity in me, and I really liked trying to find where they came from after I had finished the story. Each chapter/issue contains stories about Virginia, her electrical abilities, her dog Blammo, and her gremlin friend Oogleeoog. These three always manage to find little adventures, usually caused by Oogleeoog's prankster-gremlin ways or by Blammo's puppy way of innocently finding trouble. The stories are fun and silly, obviously fictional and displaying Virginia's way of getting herself into -and out of- trouble, thanks to her powers. One of my favorite of these little stories occurs when Blammo runs out of the yard and chases another dog into an alley. Virginia and Oogleeoog follow Blammo into a house that seems only to be occupied by little Timmy and his dog. We soon find out from Timmy's dog (yes, it turns out he can talk!) however, that though young, Timmy packs a big punch with his toys and creations that can be manipulated to attack Timmy's foes. When Timmy gets angry at Virginia the battle is on between the attacking toys and Virginia's electricity.

Author and illustrator Michael Brennan has created an extraordinary work in Electric Girl, Volume 1. The black and white artwork is fairly simple but without subtracting from the quality. The many types of characters and scenes within this book are given enough detail to keep the reader reading and poring over the pictures. I'm glad the author/illustrator chose to include covers from the various issues in the back as well. While I like the black and white drawings, it was very refreshing to see his artwork large and in color, featuring the great troublesome trio. Brennan's book is almost contradictory in it's simple complexity!

Electric Girl, Volume 1 is a quick easy read for any fan of graphic novels. This fun, easy-to-read book is packed with fictional stories that you will wish were real. Though always getting into some kind of mess, Electric Girl Virginia has me wishing I had a mischievous invisible gremlin friend, a mischievous visible puppy named Blammo, and an electrical current running through my body. I can't wait to read more about Michael Brennan's Electric Girl.



Thanks again to ArianeJ for adding this to the database :)


A Few Other Graphic Novels I've reviewed

Persepolis
Blankets
Borden Tragedy
Electric Girl, Volume 1
Shutterbug Follies
Four Letter Worlds
Strange Day
Cheat
Clumsy
Marvels
Diary of a Teenage Girl



Recommended: Yes