Marie likes boys, Harry Potter and mushy movies, while Nathalie prefers girls, Mad Max and dystopian stuff. Despite their clashing interest, the two are best-friends and love killing time by playing their favorite game – “what if..”. The game involves picking up a hypothetical situation and imagining what they would do under those circumstances. “What if we were scientists?”, “What if we were in a Manga?”, “What if we were magical creatures?”… The possibilities are limitless.
Titled “What If We Were…”, this vibrantly drawn graphic novel by Axelle Lenoir is entertaining. The art is modern comic-book style, it’s glossy and colorful. Lenoir mixes mediums and changes the art styles throughout the book, depending on the what the protagonists are talking about. For example, when Marie and a supporting character imagine being in a Japanese manga, their characters turn into big-eyed chibi like characters.
‘What If We Were…’ is not just about playing pretend, the creator also slips in a simple cute love story without any typical teen drama. And to give the characters more depth, Axelle even deviates from typical comic-book panels and inserts a few diary entries to give a detailed idea about the kind of emotions and thoughts running through the protagonists’ head. Despite being just about 100 pages long, due to the crazy number of topics the girls discuss, the graphic novel feels longer than it is.
Overall, the tone of the graphic novel is fun, breezy and it makes for a simple quick weekend read. The title is available on Kindle Unlimited.
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Ep 79 – Five Graphic Novel Adaptations Worth Checking Out
