THE MIGHTY ONION AND GUINEA PIG GIRL!

Middle school comic book collaborators Pam Jones and Eliot Quigly are back in this second series entry with new episodes of their creative collaboration.

They’re thrilled that the local paper, The Piffling Bugle, plans to feature their work, The Mighty Onion. But Eliot’s relative lack of self-awareness is comical and rings true as he struggles with ideas and dismisses Pam’s concerns about deadlines (“chucking out the entire script and starting over from scratch is standard industry practice,” he confidently states). Crilley’s humor ranges from goofy (local towns named Blemish and Goosefat Junction) to wry (as in the gentle sendup of Darn You Kids!, the syndicated comic strip Pam’s mom loved as a kid). Gladys Smylie, its creator, wants to retire, and she invites Pam to take over as the new artist, leaving Eliot aggrieved. Even worse, The Piffling Bugle drops The Mighty Onion. Journal entries in both prose and comic form, letters, and notes on scraps of paper, as well as episodes of The Mighty Onion, make up most of the narrative. These elements are accompanied by some hyper-realistic bits of illustration—a partly chewed candy bar in its wrapper, a fortune cookie, a box of matches, and pages from an old fictional guide to writing comic books by the creator of Toaster Oven Man. The resulting mix is fabulously funny and engaging. Main characters read white.

Supercharged silliness and relatable tween drama.