Topside by J. N. Monk (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Topside by J. N. Monk
2019 [200p]
Library ed. ISBN 978-1-5124-4589-3 $33.32
Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-5415-7285-0 $14.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-5415-6501-2 $8.99
Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8
Maintenance tech Jo likes to go it alone when she takes on repair assignments from the Interior administration in her underground world, so there's no one to help [End Page 133] (or blame) when she accidentally damages one of the power relays she's working on. If she can get her hands on enough of the energy source Oblexium, she can fix it, but that means she has to go Topside to find the Oblexium cache. Of course, that mission goes awry as well, and now she's stuck Topside, mixed up with a few shady characters, pursued by bounty hunters, and unsure if she's ever going to see her subterranean home again. Monk and Bogosian skillfully use the conventions of the graphic novel to convey both the universality of a quest story and the specific and utter weirdness of Jo's home planet. Loud colors and disorienting perspectives place the world fully in the realm of the other, while key plot details are embedded in even some of the smallest panels, requiring the reader's full attention in piecing together the whole story from picture and text. Although some of the characters aren't fully developed beyond their plot necessity, Jo herself is effectively presented as a girl who relishes solitude but yearns for connection. This would certainly serve as a stepping stone for readers outgrowing Hatke's Zita the Spacegirl series (BCCB 1/11, etc.).
