The Strange Ones

This arch coming-of-age graphic novel, originally serialized in zines in the 1990s and completed in the 2010s, unfolds predictably unevenly with flashes of poetry. Gen X hipsters Anjeline and Franck meet at a Belly concert and keep crossing paths until they become friends, despite Franck’s scowling pose of disinterest. They swap sardonic in-jokes and explore New York City together, hitting the Cloisters, the Staten Island Ferry, a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and hole-in-the-wall diners. In this gentle, nostalgic vision of the 1990s alternative scene, “strangeness” doesn’t get much more extreme than wearing Army surplus and silly-walking like a Monty Python routine; Julie Doucet would eat these kids alive. The early chapters meander, but gradually the protagonists expose vulnerabilities and face the question of what kind of adults they want to become. Like the story, the art gets better as it matures, shuffling from scratchy alternative-zine hatching to strong, sure inks. Jusay wears his artistic influences, especially clean-line indie cartoonists such as Jaime Hernandez and Dan Clowes, on his sleeve. A comic produced over a 25-year period can’t help but show growing pains, but it’s hard not to share at least some of the artist’s love for the characters and the very particular time and place they inhabit.(Jan.)