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Band Vs Band Comix #1
Band Vs Band Comix, Volume 1
HECK YEAH!
Honey Hart and her group The Candy Hearts just want to spread a goshdarn positive message with their sugary, peppy music - but will things get derailed when she runs into her troublemaker rival Turpentine, and her dirty, noisy band The Sourballs? And what are these...feelings...that keep drawing them together?
The first three years of the offbeat, queer-femmy comic series are collected here in print for the first time, in glorious sort-of-in-full-colour. Believe in dreams!
Honey Hart and her group The Candy Hearts just want to spread a goshdarn positive message with their sugary, peppy music - but will things get derailed when she runs into her troublemaker rival Turpentine, and her dirty, noisy band The Sourballs? And what are these...feelings...that keep drawing them together?
The first three years of the offbeat, queer-femmy comic series are collected here in print for the first time, in glorious sort-of-in-full-colour. Believe in dreams!
150 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2014
1 person is currently reading
145 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 17, 2016
I loved this comic. Gorgeous fun retro style and colours. Cute funny characters who are all almost queer. I found myself laughing out loud quite a few times. And I love the frenemy romance. What is not to love, really?
Band vs Band by Vancouver comic artist and graphic designer Kathleen Jacques is a collection of up-beat, adorable, femme-centric comics that couldn’t be queerer if it tried. It spans pretty much the entire rainbow, including L, G, B, and T identified characters. You might not guess who is what at the beginning of the comic, but as you continue to read, you’ll realize that pretty much every character is queer, which is like my favourite thing ever.
(Don't you just wanna be friends with / make out with the Sourballs?)
If you couldn’t tell from the title, Band vs Band is about a band rivalry: girl bands, to be specific, although technically each band has one boy. Jacques writes that the comic is her “elaborate love letter to everything [she’s] always found magical and appealing about bands as a concept, from real-life groups to ultra-stylized fictional depictions.” You’ll certainly recognize some of those magical and appealing elements as the comic reminds you of Josie and the Pussycats, and fully embraces stories like band road trip shenanigans where tour vans break down in the middle of the desert with band members contemplating cannibalism...
(Ah, that old line between love and hate)
Read the rest of my review on my blog!
Band vs Band by Vancouver comic artist and graphic designer Kathleen Jacques is a collection of up-beat, adorable, femme-centric comics that couldn’t be queerer if it tried. It spans pretty much the entire rainbow, including L, G, B, and T identified characters. You might not guess who is what at the beginning of the comic, but as you continue to read, you’ll realize that pretty much every character is queer, which is like my favourite thing ever.
(Don't you just wanna be friends with / make out with the Sourballs?)
If you couldn’t tell from the title, Band vs Band is about a band rivalry: girl bands, to be specific, although technically each band has one boy. Jacques writes that the comic is her “elaborate love letter to everything [she’s] always found magical and appealing about bands as a concept, from real-life groups to ultra-stylized fictional depictions.” You’ll certainly recognize some of those magical and appealing elements as the comic reminds you of Josie and the Pussycats, and fully embraces stories like band road trip shenanigans where tour vans break down in the middle of the desert with band members contemplating cannibalism...
(Ah, that old line between love and hate)
Read the rest of my review on my blog!
June 18, 2018
Jacques describes this as a "retro-cartoon-inspired, queer, handlettering-obsessed comic series about rival girl-fronted rock bands." One of the bands is daisies and kittens and all things wholesome. One of the bands is punk AF, never saw a sign they didn't want to deface, and snarls a lot. So of course, the gay lead singers have crushes on each other. We supported this on Kickstarter mostly on a whim, not having a clue if we'd like it, and I was immediately hooked. The characters are so funny and the art is so dang cute. It's a super slow burn, with plenty of band hijinx, song lyrics, and cute cats. TRY IT!
July 4, 2016
Probably my new favorite thing in the entire world, it's so damn CUTE!
July 12, 2022
4 - 4.5 stars
very cute, very fun, and very queer<3
Here's the web comic if anyone is interested: https://bvbcomix.com/bandvsband/intro...
very cute, very fun, and very queer<3
Here's the web comic if anyone is interested: https://bvbcomix.com/bandvsband/intro...
October 23, 2015
Good, wholesome queer girl comix.
100% blush and squeal-inducing cute-queerness.
Has a wonderful visual style employing a restricted palette and lots of manual lettering.
The comic is ongoing on the web, but the book is worth the purchase. The art style is definitely a treat in print; it translates very well, and looks wonderful with such crisp lines to enhance the art and lettering.
Be it on the web or in book form (or both), please, please go read Band vs Band
100% blush and squeal-inducing cute-queerness.
Has a wonderful visual style employing a restricted palette and lots of manual lettering.
The comic is ongoing on the web, but the book is worth the purchase. The art style is definitely a treat in print; it translates very well, and looks wonderful with such crisp lines to enhance the art and lettering.
Be it on the web or in book form (or both), please, please go read Band vs Band
December 31, 2017
crossposted on the lesbrary:
Ever wanted a regularly updated webcomic to cater for your fluffy and drama needs in the long term because short things are not the best when you get attached to the characters? You’re in luck!
Band vs Band is a cute and bright webcomic by Kathleen Jacques. For those that prefer physical copies, there is a volume of 150 pages out as well.
Band vs Band follows...you guessed it, two bands that are ‘rivals’. The first band is the Candy Hearts, fronted by Honey Hart. In Candy Hearts there are also Honey’s best friend Cherry Cola (her real surname is Kirsch! For those that know German this is a fun fact(, Coco who always hides her face and Zero who doesn’t appear so often and reminds me of Fred from Scoobie Doo with that scarf.
The second band is the Sourballs fronted by Turpentine who like Honey also plays the guitar and sings. In the band there are also Foxy, who reminds me of Luna Lovegood with her character, Atomic Domme who is the level headed, intellectual feminist in the group and Arsenic, Turpentine’s best friend since childhood who’s always hooking up with people. The Sourballs’ motto is ‘’Hedonism, Nihilism, Petty vandalism’’!
The names are fitting to their bands. The Candy Hearts are all very bubbly, idealistic and sweet and always try to teach lessons to children, take part in charity and so on. The Sourballs are trouble makers who mess with the Candy Hearts. This is especially true for Turpentine to Honey; Honey sometimes retaliates especially when it comes to drawings and letters.
Turpentine and Honey are rivals but there is romantic and sexual tension between the two. I mean, they share a dessert right after the first confrontation. It doesn’t take a long time for them to start looking out for each other apart from being rivals. This includes late night phone calls, trips to hell and facing impostors. The plot basically revolves around this rivalry, sweetness and simple life moments where they drive each other crazy but stick out for each other.
The two bands and the two singers often have band offs and duets. Indeed, there is a whole lot of songs in this webcomic. It’s like a musical, someone is doing something irrelevant, then someone calls for a song and bam, you have a song that’s quite catchy.
The colours in this comic are all reds, blues, whites and blacks and the typographs is very varied. Apart from short episodes, there are also side-stories of side characters, magazine pages, activity sheets that includes colouring pages, album art covers and so many other creative additions. I really liked the pages that are basically song lyrics and interpretations especially when Honey and Turpentine sing together or against each other. The ‘up next’ after each episodes are funny, so take notice of them.
Sometimes, the plot seems a bit detached as it’s not one continuous timeline but episodes after each other and sometimes there is too much extra content that you forget the main plot. If you binge read though, this shouldn’t be a problem.
------------------
more thoughts:
The lyrics and spontaneous songs are good, in my head,there was singing. The pink and blue art was great and the fonts and typography very fitting and adds to the feel. The short comics are mostly about Arsenic's hookups. The activity sheets are fun. I love Arsenic and his friendship with Turps and Foxy. There is some queerplatonic affection <3
Like, almost everyone is queer. It's very saccharine sweet and feel-good. The fashion is really good too! And the bandnames should exist in real life.
You can literally feel the tension and feelings building and it's slow burn.
Although some strips were detached, there were archs as well, like the mushroom trip and the road trip.
This has been updating for years, regularly. So go and get your sugar fix.
Ever wanted a regularly updated webcomic to cater for your fluffy and drama needs in the long term because short things are not the best when you get attached to the characters? You’re in luck!
Band vs Band is a cute and bright webcomic by Kathleen Jacques. For those that prefer physical copies, there is a volume of 150 pages out as well.
Band vs Band follows...you guessed it, two bands that are ‘rivals’. The first band is the Candy Hearts, fronted by Honey Hart. In Candy Hearts there are also Honey’s best friend Cherry Cola (her real surname is Kirsch! For those that know German this is a fun fact(, Coco who always hides her face and Zero who doesn’t appear so often and reminds me of Fred from Scoobie Doo with that scarf.
The second band is the Sourballs fronted by Turpentine who like Honey also plays the guitar and sings. In the band there are also Foxy, who reminds me of Luna Lovegood with her character, Atomic Domme who is the level headed, intellectual feminist in the group and Arsenic, Turpentine’s best friend since childhood who’s always hooking up with people. The Sourballs’ motto is ‘’Hedonism, Nihilism, Petty vandalism’’!
The names are fitting to their bands. The Candy Hearts are all very bubbly, idealistic and sweet and always try to teach lessons to children, take part in charity and so on. The Sourballs are trouble makers who mess with the Candy Hearts. This is especially true for Turpentine to Honey; Honey sometimes retaliates especially when it comes to drawings and letters.
Turpentine and Honey are rivals but there is romantic and sexual tension between the two. I mean, they share a dessert right after the first confrontation. It doesn’t take a long time for them to start looking out for each other apart from being rivals. This includes late night phone calls, trips to hell and facing impostors. The plot basically revolves around this rivalry, sweetness and simple life moments where they drive each other crazy but stick out for each other.
The two bands and the two singers often have band offs and duets. Indeed, there is a whole lot of songs in this webcomic. It’s like a musical, someone is doing something irrelevant, then someone calls for a song and bam, you have a song that’s quite catchy.
The colours in this comic are all reds, blues, whites and blacks and the typographs is very varied. Apart from short episodes, there are also side-stories of side characters, magazine pages, activity sheets that includes colouring pages, album art covers and so many other creative additions. I really liked the pages that are basically song lyrics and interpretations especially when Honey and Turpentine sing together or against each other. The ‘up next’ after each episodes are funny, so take notice of them.
Sometimes, the plot seems a bit detached as it’s not one continuous timeline but episodes after each other and sometimes there is too much extra content that you forget the main plot. If you binge read though, this shouldn’t be a problem.
------------------
more thoughts:
The lyrics and spontaneous songs are good, in my head,there was singing. The pink and blue art was great and the fonts and typography very fitting and adds to the feel. The short comics are mostly about Arsenic's hookups. The activity sheets are fun. I love Arsenic and his friendship with Turps and Foxy. There is some queerplatonic affection <3
Like, almost everyone is queer. It's very saccharine sweet and feel-good. The fashion is really good too! And the bandnames should exist in real life.
You can literally feel the tension and feelings building and it's slow burn.
Although some strips were detached, there were archs as well, like the mushroom trip and the road trip.
This has been updating for years, regularly. So go and get your sugar fix.
December 24, 2023
A lot of fluff- and often suuuper cheesy, but the art style is fun, and the story is entertaining! It’s very episodic, but it works well for this comic format, especially bc it’s a webcomic
January 3, 2016
A friend recommended me Band vs Band a few years ago and I enjoyed reading it online, so when I saw Kathleen Jaques at TCAF, I picked up Volume 1. Kathleen herself is very friendly, and doodled in the front of the book for me. And then I got busy with grad school and work, put the book on myself, and only found time to read it just a little while ago.
Band Vs Band is excellent for a lot of reasons. First, it's still hard to find comics with female LGBTQ characters, and BVB provides without doubting the validity of any of its character or shaming them for how out/open they are. Second, BVB is genuinely fun and very funny with a ton of likable characters. The art is cute and is suited to the funny/weird story and characters.
I also find it nostalgic in an enjoyable way. I grew up loving the Josie and the Pussycats movie and other girl bands, some more like the Candy Hearts and some more like The Sourballs, and BVB shows the greatness of both. The nostalgia comes through in the style and the little comic bonuses that are included, like colouring pages and word searches.
This comic also has a lot of heart. Although it's a comedy, Jaques is really good at making her characters feel like real people. I have a lot of love for Turpentine and Honey in particular.
In conclusion: go read BVB and have yourself a great time.
Band Vs Band is excellent for a lot of reasons. First, it's still hard to find comics with female LGBTQ characters, and BVB provides without doubting the validity of any of its character or shaming them for how out/open they are. Second, BVB is genuinely fun and very funny with a ton of likable characters. The art is cute and is suited to the funny/weird story and characters.
I also find it nostalgic in an enjoyable way. I grew up loving the Josie and the Pussycats movie and other girl bands, some more like the Candy Hearts and some more like The Sourballs, and BVB shows the greatness of both. The nostalgia comes through in the style and the little comic bonuses that are included, like colouring pages and word searches.
This comic also has a lot of heart. Although it's a comedy, Jaques is really good at making her characters feel like real people. I have a lot of love for Turpentine and Honey in particular.
In conclusion: go read BVB and have yourself a great time.
January 3, 2016
Read up to the current webcomic (12-28-15). Enjoyable and bubbly and entertaining, but the format and panel layout took a while to get used to, and it still isn't my favorite in regard to readability. But each comic itself was gorgeous and I could definitely see and compare them to album covers or poster pinups. I wish there had been more focus on the two main characters and perhaps faster development between then, and individually as well. The supporting cast was fun, but not as intriguing. It might just be as I'm not quite musically inclined that I didn't enjoy this webcomic as much as others, but it was definitely a fun read.
January 14, 2021
Adorable! Medium angst (very low on steam but not totally without!) I was following the webcomic and forgot about it for a while; I'm glad to see they've started printing it.
You may have to get used to the "one page at a time" pace and the incredibly song-fic oriented formatting.
You may have to get used to the "one page at a time" pace and the incredibly song-fic oriented formatting.
July 14, 2015
This was a fave find for me at TCAF. The color and character design is gorgeous and the fun rival band story with a romantic twist keeps things very interesting!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews