Everyone has a list of entertainments with repeat value: movies they can watch over and over (Addams Family Values), books they can re-read (Putting on the Ritz), music that always hits the spot no matter how many times you listen to it (k.d. lang’s Absolute Torch and Twang). In comics, Amelia Rules! has crept to the top of my list of titles that never fail to bring a smile.
Amelia McBride has a lot to deal with for a nine-year-old. Her parents have divorced, and she and her mother have moved from Manhattan to what she’s dubbed “Nowhere, Pennsylvania.” Her whole life has turned upside-down, dumping her into a new school with new friends as she navigates her drastically different circumstances.
There are compensations, though. Mother and daughter have moved in with Amelia’s Aunt Tanner, a woozily cool ex-rocker who helps bridge the generation gap. Amelia’s new friends provide plenty of distraction, too. There’s budding super-hero Reggie Grabinsky, sweet and silent Pajamaman, and arch-nemesis Rhonda Bleenie. They tip her off to suburban weirdness and the perils that lurk at Joe McCarthy Elementary School. They also welcome her into the Gathering of Awesome Super Pals (G.A.S.P.), Reggie’s super-hero club.
Cartoonist Jimmy Gownley has created a world that’s a perfect blend of the typical and the weird. Amelia’s family angst is balanced with Reggie’s hilariously narcissistic G.A.S.P. “missions” (freeing kids from the naughty/nice tyranny of Santa Claus, delivering payback to bullies who gave him a wedgie, grudge matches with a rival group of super-hero-dissing ninjas). He also uses universal childhood milestones as a springboard for witty, insightful observations on life.
In the two collected volumes, The Whole World’s Crazy and What Makes You Happy, Amelia has a disastrous first day of school, brats out on a camping trip with her father, has a wistful reunion with her New York City friends, flubs a big class project with Rhonda, and learns more about Tanner’s life as a rocker.
My favorite chapter is probably the Christmas story in The Whole World’s Crazy. Amelia is trying to maximize the haul from her first post-divorce Christmas, but she faces plenty of distractions. There’s Reggie’s disastrous anti-Santa scheme, along with her mom’s announcement that Christmas can’t be quite the gift bonanza Amelia hoped. Instead of melting down, Amelia gets perspective in the form of a visit to a friend’s house. She finds out she doesn’t have it so bad and takes steps to make someone else’s holiday brighter. It’s sweet without being a bit syrupy, and it perfectly illustrates the balanced approach Gownley takes to his characters.
He’s made Amelia a believable mixture of good and bad. She can go from zero to bratty in nothing flat, but she’s got a well-developed conscience. She’s got a selfish streak, but she’s also curious and compassionate. She’s funny and smart, but she also has the uncanny ability to say precisely the wrong thing at the wrong time. In other words, she’s an average kid, heightened just enough to make her a truly memorable comic character.
And Gownley has given her a brilliant foil in arch-nemesis Rhonda. Their relationship resonates a lot for me; some of my best childhood friendships started from a point of mutual loathing, and that’s how it is for Amelia and Rhonda. With her mad crush on Reggie, Rhonda is more than a bit resentful of the new girl in G.A.S.P. At the same time, the girls share a sarcastic streak and a dubious view of Reggie’s super-hero fixation. They connect automatically, but they push each other’s buttons just as easily. A simple conversation can devolve into an exchange of horrible barbs. As Amelia puts it, “It’s too bad Rhonda and I hate each other’s guts… otherwise we’re really good friends.”
The bottom line is that they’ve got each other’s backs. Rhonda may be obsessive and cranky (picture an unhinged Lucy Van Pelt), but she does small, surprising things to make Amelia feel welcome. In What Makes You Happy, they wind up working on a social studies project together with disastrous results. It’s a sweet story that encapsulates their like-loathe rapport and takes them to a new level of understanding.
Gownley infuses every page of Amelia Rules! with wit. The stories are stacked with terrific one-liners, wry and off-kilter observations, and energetically bizarre scenarios. He’s a terrific cartoonist, too. While his style owes a bit to Charles Schultz, he takes a wilder, more expressive approach. He also makes some of the best use of creative lettering I’ve ever seen in a comic, articulating the heightened emotions of his characters with word balloons of varied styles and compositions. But he doesn’t just excel at the craziness. Quieter, more reflective moments are rendered just as well, providing lovely backdrops to Amelia’s musings on life.
Amelia Rules! is a deeply satisfying comic, running the gamut from laugh-out-loud antics to sweetly humane observations. It’s the go-to book when I’m out of sorts and need something to lift my spirits.