STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Students launch a crusade to keep their campus from being strip-mined in Justus and Sturges’ graphic novel.

When gold is discovered beneath Rhode Island’s Halcyon Burke University, the greedy Board of Regents immediately resolves to bulldoze the campus so as to mine the trove more expeditiously. Standing in the way is the interim student government—they’re in office only over winter break—consisting of the president, Parker Myles, an idealistic coed; Malakai Lux, the nerdy secretary; Jean Genie, the nonbinary treasurer who finances the group with poker winnings; and nice-guy Vice President Hutch Hamlin. Their opposition to the university’s destruction gets a boost from an obscure provision in HBU’s charter: If the student government thinks the school is violating its principles, they can declare a “state of emergency” and call a referendum that could block the board’s plan. Their scheme is challenged when the permanent student government returns to campus and declares their support for bulldozing the campus. They’re headed by president Braden Carlock, a rich jerk whose dad is a regent, and Vice President Josh Garner, a rich dimwit whose only talent is improvising drinking games. (“I deal out two cards. Whatever they add up to, that’s how many drinks you take.”) Up against the wealth and cunning of the rich kids and the regents, Parker and her underdog posse seem so overmatched that even her mom tells her to give up. The story frames a broad satire of a college culture that, as in all campus comedies, is split between party animals, earnest misfits, and haughty hierarchs. The plot is full of cartoonish contrivances and the characters are stereotypes, but the stereotypes are sharply drawn and the gags are often funny and spot-on about the ridiculousness of academic folkways. (“Is it true that you once single-handedly dispersed a Nazi rally in Leeds with a flame-thrower?” gushes a starry-eyed Parker to her anarchist punk professor.) Joe Eisma’s well-executed art captures a wealth of expressive detail—pinched scowls, vapid smirks—that makes the characters more vibrant.

An entertaining sendup of campus life.