Incredible Doom by Matthew Bogart
Alaine Martaus · Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books./Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books · 2021
Reviewed by: Incredible Doom by Matthew Bogart Alaine Martaus Bogart, Matthew Incredible Doom; written and illus. by Matthew Bogart and Jesse Holden. HarperAlley, 2021 [288p] (Incredible Doom) Trade ed. ISBN 9780063064942 $24.99 Paper ed. ISBN 9780063064935 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780063064959 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 8-12 Teens Allison and Samir, Richard and Tina are two sets of misfits brought together by a local online bulletin board system in the early days of networked home computers in the 1990s. Allison, escaping virtually from an abusive father, finds solace online and friendship (and maybe more) with fellow outsider Sam, while bullied new kid [End Page 375] Richard is looking for a friend but finds an underground network of rebels looking for trouble, and maybe a cause. When Allison runs away from home and Tina runs into trouble with the cops, these tech-savvy teens undercover answers waiting on the internet and, more importantly, discover offline interpersonal connections that create safe spaces for all. Rendered in black, white and blue panels but rife with rose-tinted nostalgia, this quirky graphic novel, a collection of Bogart’s serial comics, offers a window into the days when nascent computer networks were a haven from harsh realities. Offline drama provides a focus for the action, of which there is plenty, and abuse, bullying, and social isolation underscore the lure of a newly online world, where information empowers and seeming strangers offer acceptance and open arms. Most characters are white, with only half-Black, half-Iranian Samir as a nod to diversity, though the novel wistfully remembers the early ideal of an online world where common interests outweighed other identifiers. The text-based world of the pre-graphical interface computer may seem an odd fit for a graphic novel, but images of computer screens and the occasional ASCII code illustration ultimately draw a different vision of the internet readers may think they know. Copyright © 2021 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois