ThanksIndie Throwback Review: Love Buzz

2020 edit:
I wanted to resurface this review I had done in 2015 of this graphic novel. It's still one of my all time favorite indie stories and if you ever run into it and you enjoy something a little different mixing slice of life, coming of age, and romance, you can give this review a read and check out the book if you have a chance! /end edit

​Last year my girlfriend discovered this huge blow-out sale at a Strand Books warehouse. They were moving the warehouse to another location and it was a treasure trove of goodies. Books, dvds, graphic novels, we ended up going twice and we got some great, GREAT, GREAT, well, you get the picture, deals.

On the last day of the sale, I was walking through one aisle, when the spine of this graphic novel caught my attention. The title said "Love Buzz".

Immediately, the Nirvana cover of that song which was published in their first album, Bleach, started playing in my head. I pull it out and saw this nice cover and the inset title saying A True Love Story.

I've always been a sucker for romantic comedies or "chick flicks". My tastes in comics and movies is very varied, and I rarely get to see romantic comedy graphic novels, which kind of shows me how comics, especially indie comics, have evolved since the 90s, where I probably never would've found a book like this.

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I flipped through the pages and instantly fell in love with the beautifully expressive art of main artist of the book Michelle Silva. I put it in the basket with the rest of our loot, and ended up reading it during my daily subway commute.

Writer Len N. Wallace put out  a wonderful coming of age story with the on again off again relationship between the two main characters, Norm Raymer and Maggie Gunther. We see them and a cast of friends develop from those high school years all the way into college.

He does a great job as well integrating Norm's aspiration to be a comic book creator, where the art of Dave Tuney gives a fantastic visual and balance to the book in those few pages where Norm "drew" his comics.

As usual, I don't want to go too much into detail about the story, so that way if you decide to pick up the book yourself, you will still be able to enjoy the story spoiler free. All I can say is a quote from the book warning you all that this is not a story of true love, but a true love story.

The creative team obviously put in a lot of effort into this book, which was published in 2009, and I only wish I had known about this one a lot sooner, this one is definitely one of my all time favorite finds, and if you happen to run into this book, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
-Alvaro Cortes Jr ​

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