Review: Karate Prom
By Dustin Cabeal
Having been a fan of Kyle Stark since Sex Castle an original graphic novel published by Image Comics; I have loosely followed about anything Kyle Starks has made. Style and humor are something that resonates with me as a reader and the places Starks takes stories to be original, interesting, and always very humorous. It is hard to find consistent writers in comics that are funny and that produce consistently funny works. That is not to say that they can never do anything other than comedic writing, but finding someone who is willing and does produce consistently funny things is a creative catch. It is something that makes you want to follow that creator more.
Seeing the words “karate” and “prom,” by Kyle Starks instantly filled me with anticipation and joy for this new graphic novel, from First Second. At its core it is shooting for a younger audience. This is not a book that is necessarily reaching out and grabbing 40-year-olds and saying read me you will find infinite amount of humor and relatable references. Instead, it is more of a story/graphic novel for tweens and teenagers. Young readers. That is the prime demographic of First Second.
That said, the story tends to have awkward pacing and is broken up into three different chapters. While the first two chapters make a lot of sense, the third is staggered and shoehorned in there. While it absolutely relates to the experience of high school the gap between the events of the first two chapters and the third leaves too many unseen events and they are not even needed for the story. Being broken into these three segments does not flow very well. It is like reading three individual volumes of a book rather than one complete story. Young readers may or may not catch this or notice this. It is possible that it won’t even bother them. But from a story perspective, Karate Prom implies the night of prom.
Instead, our story is broken up into Prom, After-Prom and Graduation. See how that third one is a little bit awkward especially when there is a mention of a senior trip in-between. Other events seemingly taking place between chapter two and three. What is more, is that graduation seems to be the longest chapter of the story. Now, that is not to say that the prom and after prom chapters do not flow very well. Each is well, paced and in and of themselves it is just that the pacing of all three together is jarring and choppy. The prom chapter does not actually start at prom, but it is wonderfully paced. It has a good flow to it where you meet our main characters, you see them quickly fall in love and establish the Antagonist of chapter. It is so quickly played out that it does not feel that rewarding. Many of the fights are handled off-page, if you will and the main fights that we experience are unfortunately not over the top or detailed like the style that Starks has done in previous works. It is quick and painless. It leaves you wanting more. The humor is spot on and is not age-specific humor, it is just genuinely funny. Dare I say even all-ages appropriate. Apart from kissy stuff in the hotel room.
The after-prom chapter continues this rhythm. It's paced almost the same as the prom chapter and if there weren’t blank pages in between to show the transition from one chapter to the other, it would almost feel like we were still just continuing our main story. But it does break. We are introduced to different antagonists to our protagonists and a deeper back story to our main character. Which is good. It is just that it begins to all feel very quick. As if the story was saying “Let us just quickly mention this, quickly go to that get to the fighting, okay?” And again, most of the fighting is handled off-page again.
It feels like that After-Prom could be the end right there. But then again, we go to graduation. There is a conflict between our main characters. A situation has occurred between them that has divided them for this final conflict, and they must resolve that by beginning back together and overcoming a conflict once again by defeating a new set of protagonists for the chapter.
Thinking back on it, the story is never given enough time to breathe. The fights are not given enough time to breathe. The development of the characters doesn’t take enough time to breathe. The fast and quick relationship between our two protagonists is the most natural feeling part of the book but it is just everything else needed, more time to simmer, and be developed.
Kyle Starks' artwork is well honed. It has this Adult Swim, Cartoon Network animated looking feel to it. It resonates with me as a reader. I like his art style. I think this is the most well put together, polished version of it that I have seen. Again, having only loosely followed his work in recent years I haven’t seen it grow and develop as many other readers have. Here, it looks polished and beautiful. The pages feel full, the backgrounds feel full and even though there are a lot of dead backgrounds, it fits the humor and the style of the storytelling in general. But then when it pulls out and shows you an entire crowded room, that feels fitting and real to the story.
A strong aspect was the coloring and that there were a lot more tones instead of harsh lines and shadows. It has a more natural look to it and gives it this youthful energetic feel to it. Again, the fights are easy to follow, but they just feel so short. Having seen other works where he did let the fight breathe and it was amazing and hilarious. Perhaps he toned it down because this is for a different audience that doesn’t care or like Kung Fu and this is just a slow, build up for a new generation to enjoy and appreciate that. But it just felt like it could be more. It could bounce between the two protagonists creatively show both fights on two different pages. Anything to give them more pages to breathe. Overall, great character designs. There seemed to be a lot of real-life representation. It felt like being thrown into a real high school and that you are getting these variety of diverse characters.
The friendships feel real. The characters are one hundred Kyle Starks. “Gail Don’t Fight” is a line that will stay with me for quite some time. Punch man was funny even if it seemed like a weird tip of the hat to One-Punch Man.
Overall, it is a very humorous book, one that I would gladly share with my son. From a story standpoint it needed something to connect the three chapters differently. I do not know what it is, maybe it's just not making each chapter have such a concluded feeling to it. Chapter one resolves itself quite nicely and then chapter two does the same thing. It almost feels like we are done with this whole story, but then here's chapter three. And while chapter three resolves. It does not stand out as much as the first two. Especially when there's a mediocre joke called back to at the very end. Without the “Where are they now?” segments I do not think the ending would have been as good because it really needed that last little bit of humor to take you out of the story.
Overall, though if you are just looking for a fun, humorous, close to all ages book then check out Karate Prom this summer when it releases from First Second. If you have a young reader, absolutely have them check this out. Not just for the action and the friendships and the light romance but because they might have never experienced the hilarious combination of Kung Fu, and romance and this style of humor. I am curious to see what age-appropriate readers think of this book. I will likely share it with my son and see if he likes it. For me, as a Kyle Starks fan, I think it was wonderful and a fun read. Is it perfect? No but I think it accomplishes the goal of presenting a humorous timeless story that anyone would be happy to re-read again and again.