The PLAIN Janes
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Meet the Plain Janes--artist activists on a mission to wake up their sleepy suburban town. This cult classic graphic novel is perfect for fans of The LumberJanes and Awkward.
When artsy misfit Jane Beckles is forced to leave her beloved city life behind for the boring suburb of Kent Waters, she thinks her life is over. But then she finds where she belongs: at the reject table in the cafeteria, along with fellow misfits Brain Jayne, Theater Jane, and sporty Polly Jane. United by only two things-a shared name and frustration with the adults around them--the girls form a secret club dedicated to fighting suburban apathy with guerrilla works of art scattered around their small town.
But for Main Jane, the group is more than simple teenaged rebellion; it's an act of survival. She's determined not to let fear rule her life like it does her parents' and neighbors' lives. Armed with her sketchbook and a mission of resistance, the PLAIN Janes are out to prove that passion, bravery, and a group of great friends can save anyone from the hell that is high school.
With each installment printed in its own distinct color, this volume includes the original two stories--The Plain Janes and Janes in Love--plus a never-before-seen third story, Janes Attack Back. The Janes are back, and better than ever.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
DC Comics' imprint of graphic novels for girls, Minx, starts off with a bang with this elegant story of art in the suburbs. As Jane walks past a sidewalk caf in Metro City, a terrorist's bomb goes off. Her parents, overtaken by fear, move the family to the small town of Kent Waters. The popular girls at Buzz Aldrin High court her, but Jane wants to be an outsider. She finds three other girls named Jane, all of them unpopular in different ways one is "Brain Jane," one an aspiring actress and one an athlete and together the four of them make "art attacks" on the city, leaving the name P.L.A.I.N. (People Loving Art In Neighborhoods) wherever they go. They build pyramids on the site of a planned strip mall ("The pyramids lasted for thousands of years. Do you think this strip mall will?") and populate the police department's lawn with gnomes. But to a community consumed with elevated threat levels, the attacks seem more ominous than generous, and P.L.A.I.N. becomes an outlaw group. All the while, Jane continues to write letters to John Doe, the unidentified man whose life she saved during the bombing and who sits in a hospital, comatose, his sketchbook serving as her muse. Castellucci (Boy Proof) and Rugg (co-creator of Street Angel) nimbly make their larger point that fear is an indulgence we must give ourselves permission to overcome without ever preaching, and without neglecting the dynamics of a page-turning coming-of-age story. Ages 12-up.
