The PLAIN Janes

I had the original two volumes, yet it never occurred to me that there would be more made. This gave me such empowerment in my teens, and having all of the stories combined into one thick book has given me immeasurable joy.

Good

THE PLAIN JANES is a YA graphic novel that celebrates friendship and art. The book is in two parts for the first two graphic novels originally published years ago. THE PLAIN JANES tells of how Jane came to Kent Waters, a small town, found a group she wanted to call her own and began the PLAIN movement (People Loving Art In Neighborhoods). The second, JANES IN LOVE, continues this storyline as well as goes into the romances that the Janes have, centered around the Ides of March dance, where girls ask the boys.The main Jane (their names all happen to be variants of Jane) came from Metro City, and her parents moved her away to a small town after she was injured by a bomb explosion. This moment really altered Jane's perception, and when she helped another young man following, she found his Art Saves notebook. In the small town without museums, Jane is determined to bring art to the people, and so begins the PLAIN movement. However, the police and authorities are avidly against PLAIN from the start, focusing on the attack part of the art attacks.At the same time, Jane is dealing with a maybe-romance with Damon and parent issues, where her mother is constantly checking up on her- until another bad thing happens to someone her mother used to know, and she becomes so anxious she cannot leave the house.The book tackles some big issues in a really approachable way. The artwork is fantastic, and though a lot of the story is told in Jane's letters to John Doe (the man she helped save after the bomb) or through her thoughts and not dialogue, it is still really readable. The font size does mean I had to keep the book close to my face, but the text-to-image ratio is spot-on.The storyline itself is highly engaging, making this a really fun read to dive into. I would highly recommend for fans of books like MOXIE and ON THE COME UP. This is a really fun graphic novel.Please note that I received an ARC through The NOVL. All opinions are my own.

This book contains three stories about a group of high school artist activists who are determined to add beauty to their town by spreading art throughout.Since it's three stories that are connected, I'm not going to say a whole lot about the happening of the stories themselves. Just a little about the first and the characters.After a terrible thing happens in the city, Jane and her mother and father pack it up and move to a safe town away from the bustle of city life. Jane has been changed from the incident and through writings to someone she met when it happened, meeting new friends (a few Janes), and art she finds a way to begin to heal and move forward little by little. Of course the road to, well, any is never that easy so there are quite a few bumps in the road and some of them are some major potholes.These are great stories and the artwork is excellent. I love the style. Now I have an advanced readers copy so I don't a fancy copy where each of these stories has it's distinct colors. My copy is all black and white but I can only imagine how much the colors enhance the art and stories.I definitely recommend this book. These are terrific stories and the art is incredible. I encourage you to check out some of the other reviewers reviews as well. There are a few that blew my mind with how detailed they were. If you are at all even slightly curious about this book and/or these stories then I would say go for it. These are good.

I enjoyed this high school graphic novel about a city girl named Jane, injured in a terrorist attack, whose parents move to the safety of a suburb. Jane doesn't like the blandness of the burbs but quickly finds her crowd in a group of girls all named Jane. City Jane inspires the group to start a spontaneous (yet planned out) community art movement, sparking community fears of unknown people defacing property. Meanwhile, there are the trials and tribulations of high school romance or lack thereof and non-understanding parents. Like some of the other reviewers, I have an ARC and do not have the third part - Janes Attack Back - other than a preview. From what I read, I expect it is of the same quality as the rest of this volume. The strengths of this graphic novel are 1) encouraging self expression through art; 2) having friends that share goals; and 3) life is messy and some of the plot points simply don't have easy solutions. The weaknesses of this graphic novel are 1) each Jane has a stereotypical role - jock Jane, science nerd Jane, dramatic actress Jane. This is why I rate this at 4 stars despite liking it a lot. I'm fine with the 'messy' parts raised such as when is art defacement versus spontaneous expression (a theme teenagers through pranks as well as art have been grappling with for years and years) and how the cope with legitimate fears raised by modern life; and how to deal with threats that one can't control such as the attack which made Jane's parents decide to move away from Metro City and made Jane follow her passion for artistic expression. Still, this is a lot of fun to read.

Jim rugg es un gran artista, cualquiera de sus comics vale la pena, su estilo de dibujo es una joya visual, me gustó, mucho plain janes, el único detalle es que no es un comic a colores, es un comic duo tono, a mi no me desagrada para nada(creo que el tiraje original era a blanco y negro) este es un trade paperback de la serie, se agradece que, decidieran agregar duo tonos en rosa, verde y azul algo que le da un toque encantador