Austin Paramore and Sarah Bollinger’s Malcolm Kid and the Perfect Song is a lively paranormal YA graphic novel about an aspiring, albeit comically insecure, teen musician who ends up with a very peculiar electronic keyboard possessed by a jazz musician from another era. Teen pianist Malcolm Kid is dealing with all the usual high school challenges: bullies, girls, grades, and, in Malcolm’s case, disapproving parents dubious of the whole music career thing. When Malcolm’s old friend and secret crush January accidentally destroys his portable keyboard, she offers to get him another. She takes Malcolm to the First Circle, a very strange music store, hoping to find an inexpensive instrument, where an equally strange salesman gives them a keyboard for free. All Malcolm has to do, the oddball salesman tells them about the unusual deal, is “pay it forward.” It isn’t long before Malcolm and January realize just what that means. In this 14-page excerpt, January and Malcolm go looking for a new keyboard. Malcolm Kid and the Perfect Song by Austin Paramore and Sarah Bollinger is out now from Oni Press.
