Review by Frank Plowright
The Most Amazing Saturday Morning Rubbish Club is a graphic novel designed to highlight children whose conditions restrict their lives and at the same time provide positive role models. Arthur is on the autistic spectrum, Finn has cerebral palsy confining him to a wheelchair and lack of oxygen in Uma’s brain when a baby has hindered development. They’re drawn in full colour from the start, but surrounded by white people, not coloured until they achieve some kind of understanding about divergent conditions.
Arthur and Finn already know each other when the younger Uma pulls them into her rubbish collecting activities, and thereafter Bill Tuckey and Francisco de la Mora supply a series of short chapters on specific subjects, each feeding into a bigger story. Positivity is present from the start as the children don’t accept council cuts as a reason for a shoddy environment, but there’s also a realism as Tuckey ensures there’s no sugar-coating. Parental routines show techniques they employ to ensure life is as smooth as possible for everyone, but difficulties nonetheless arise and are aired. These aren’t all down to the children, with the attitudes of bus drivers noted.
While there’s no denying that’s wrong, other debates emerge, perhaps not necessarily always as intended. When we first meet Uma she’s pretending to be a tiger and flings herself from a tree branch onto people walking beneath. There’s no serious injury to either party, but is this poor parenting in prioritising the needs of a child over the safety of others? The balance, however, is more frequently a lack of tolerance and understanding in situations where tolerance and understanding cost nothing.
De la Mora’s art is functional rather than a masterclass in technique, the storytelling solid, but with flat figures on flat backgrounds and the occasional problem with perspective. The bright colours do their job of catching the eye, though, and there’s no confusion about the pictograms representing Uma’s form of communication.
As well as showing children throwing themselves into a cause The Most Amazing Saturday Morning Rubbish Club is also a redemption arc for a a fourth character with problems of their own. Initially seeing the children as a nuisance, they prove his saviours over a well considered succession of events where loyalty trumps all.
Thought-provoking over so many issues, and eventually inspirational, The Most Amazing Saturday Morning Rubbish Club raises inclusion in graphic novels to a new level.
