Holler

Massie (All My Ghosts) draws on his own teen years playing in a grunge band in this mellow graphic novel set in a small Appalachian town in the 1990s. Mark forms a band called Magnesium Mama with a group of friends and fellow alt-rock fans at his high school. In between gigs at the Bistro, the town’s only venue, they deal with the familiar troubles of aspiring musicians, including relationship drama (drummer Phil, rowdy and perpetually single, warns that lead vocalist Jay’s girlfriend will become “our own Yoko”). But the conservative backwoods setting adds an extra dimension to their rock rebellion: Mark hides his Nirvana tapes by labeling them as Christian rock band Jars of Clay, punk-styled bass player Dave is targeted with homophobic harassment, and a school brawl breaks out between the “grungies” and the “rednecks” (who listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd). Between the music, the kids pull raunchy pranks, smoke pot, go camping, find and lose love, and slowly grow up. Mark starts making minicomics and discovers that art and music help him deal with depression: “When that nothing feeling hits... I just make something.” Massie’s loose, upbeat art has just enough of a rough edge to make it feel right for a story about grunge rock. This bittersweet blast from the past will strike a chord with recovering high school outcasts. (Sept.)