Dodge City is published by BOOM! Studios under their BOOM! Box imprint. It is written by Josh Trujillo with art by Cara McGee and colors by Brittany Peer.
If you couldn’t tell by the title of the comic and the cover, Dodge City is about dodgeball. I don’t know what it is, but I’m all about these non-mainstream sports comics. Slam! And Slam!: The Next Jam were fantastic, Fence has been really strong so far (definitely check those out if you haven’t yet) and now we have this. Kudos to you BOOM! Studios and even more kudos to you creators.
So, Dodge City follows a high school student named, Tomás, who has suddenly and unexpectedly found himself as the captain of the Jazz Pandas, a dodgeball team that’s well-known for being, well, the worst. Tomás is now responsible for getting the Jazz Pandas organized and ready to make it to the regional championship. The problem is, they may have decided him to be captain, but Tomás is the newest and most inexperienced member on the team. Although, he’s apparently really good at keeping track of the balls flying around.
This debut issue basically just sets up that main plot (see above). The first time we see Tomás, its as he gets nailed in the face with a ball. Tomás is thin and awkward, he’s nervous, he’s timid, and he doesn’t have a really clear understanding of how the game works (yes, I know you throw and catch the ball, but there are other rules). The rest of the Jazz Pandas: Drew, Elsie, Judith, Amardeep, and Huck, are pretty good players but are ultimately a disorganized mess, with the exception of Amardeep, who is not only their best player, but one of the best players in the region. But once Amardeep is hit out followed by Drew and Elsie, with the pressure on him, something in Tomás clicks in to place and under his direction, the Jazz Pandas begin to catch up to their rivals, the Kettle Balls.
Tomás is a relatable character. Yes, he’s timid, but that’s because he is not only new to the team, he’s the new kid at school too. Tomás is in a new place with no one and while he may be nervous, he was brave enough to show up and try because he wants to make friends. He wants to find his “thing.” His place where he fits in the world. The thing he’s good at and can be proud of. I really like the rest of his team too. Drew and Elsie clearly have something between them (so cute), Judith is a cosplayer (hell yes), Amardeep is the best player, but he isn’t full of himself, plus he’s witty, and Huck may be deaf, but he brings the sass. Each character is their own person and no one feels generic or like they’re there just to fill in a gap. My favorite next to Tomás though is rival team member, Abril. Despite being on the other team, she still talks to Tomás and tries to cheer him up after he gets knocked out and she just seems super cool already with that giant star painted on her face.
Josh Trujillo has created some wonderful characters, I can already tell. And I love the fact that there are several panels where Abril and Tomás only speak in Spanish without a translation. Yes, this may seem inconvenient if you don’t speak Spanish, but I think it’s important that these Hispanic American characters speak Spanish, because they would in real life and in real life we don’t get a bubble that pops up and translates for us (personally, I was excited because I haven’t used Spanish too much since my sophomore year of college so I welcomed the opportunity to test myself).
Besides, with Cara McGee’s art and Brittany Peer’s colors, you can pretty much gather what they’re talking about. Speaking of, Cara McGee’s characters are fabulous. They have a slight cartoon-ish look, but they don’t feel cartoony…if that makes sense. Plus I love her expressions. There are panels without words and they don’t need them anyway because if you just look at the characters you are told what you need to know. I love Brittany Peer’s colors. Particularly any time there’s sparkles. I love the sparkles.
OVERALL SCORE: 8.5 / 10
