Incredible Doom (Incredible Doom #1)

White Midwestern teens Allison and Richard each turn to the early internet to mitigate their pervasive loneliness in this first collected volume of Bogart’s gritty webcomic. When isolated Allison, the daughter of an abusive stage magician, gains access to a computer, she connects with Samir, a half-Black, half-Iranian boy who helps ferry her away from harm. Meanwhile, Richard, a Kurt Vonnegut fan and new kid, endures vicious rumors spread by a summer camp peer he once bullied until Tina, a fellow schoolmate and message board leader, intervenes and shows him the possibilities of the internet. In clean, rounded line art that pops against occasional cool blue backgrounds, Allison and Richard separately contend with interpersonal drama until their respective situations unexpectedly draw them toward one another; Bogart’s cartooning renders emotional experiences palpable, as in Allison’s father’s explosive rage and its frightening fallout. If the comic presents without context once-burgeoning technologies that present-day teens may not recognize (e.g., bulletin board systems), its protagonists’ nuanced, substantive character arcs offer an accurate look at 1990s-flavored loneliness and geek subcultures. Ages 14–up. [em]Agent (for Bogart and Holden): Charlie Olsen, Inkwell Management. (May) [/em]