Review by Karl Verhoven

Until Tony Weaver Jr’s afterword it’s unclear if Weirdo is his actual recollections of school, or whether he’s personalising the general experiences of any uncertain kid in a new environment. It’s actually the first, although fictionalising has necessitated conflating some people and experiences, and changing the timescale to make for smoother drama. It’s a meditation on the school system, bullying and mental health, and reaches some dark places despite being aimed at young adults.

Tony is an exceptionally smart kid at a new school, but despite having worked out some essential survival tactics, here passed off as “pro-tips”, he’s still awkward and alone. He’s introspective, considering the world and his place in it to a far greater degree than any of his classmates, wondering “if plants are identified by what allows them to blossom and thrive, what if people are the same?” It’s well beyond the usual preoccupations of pre-teenage children, and Tony’s popularity isn’t helped by being an easy target as a geeky kid who brings action figures to school. What makes things infinitely worse is an initial lack of understanding from parents who’re extremely supportive in so many other ways, all the more puzzling for his mother being a teacher herself. What begins as bullying drifts into far greater problems of self-worth and consideration of suicide.

The dark topics are reflected by a change of colour scheme by artists Cin and Jes Wibowo, who switch from a colourful world to one depicted in increasing darkness. The demarcation of their artistic duties aren’t specified, so perhaps they both contribute to all aspects of the art. Whatever their method, the result is clear and attractive cartooning that’s always sensitive to the needs of the events as they occur,

For someone who when younger was very reluctant to express his feelings, Weaver’s excellent at delving back into those emotions now, and laying out exactly what he felt and why. At times recalled incidents can be too lengthy, but Weaver’s dealing with the complexity of painful recollection, and what may now seem relatively trivial to a reader was desperately important to him at the time. He follows the path of identification with superhero comics and fantasy leading to the light and companionship and sometimes uses visual metaphors as stages of progression (along with trading card style summations of each person when introduced).

By halfway through Weirdo a very dark place has been reached, and Weaver doesn’t make the rookie error of telling people everything’s going to work out. Recovery from where he was at as a child is a slow process, but what counts is actually talking to people. Eventually the young Tony finds a school where he fits, but there’s another twist to come and another crisis to overcome.

Good-natured and without finger-pointing, there are many lessons the insecure youngster could learn from the very moving Weirdo, none of them underlined, just passed on naturally and sympathetically drawn. This is another graphic novel that belongs in every school library.