Duffy and the Bullies   Jeff Szusterman  Ant Sang

 

Duffy and the Bullies                     
Jeff Szusterman, 
Illustrator: Ant Sang
Oratia (2024)
Picture book, 
Illustrated story, Graphic novel
Paperback, 88 pages
ISBN: 978 2 99 004256 0
 

This graphic novel, written by Jeff Szusterman and illustrated in colour by Ant Sang, was developed from an original play for schools, ‘Duffy and the Cloak Bay Bully’ by Lauren Jackson. The central character is Duffy (a popular New Zealand mascot for reading) who enjoys books and rugby.

Readers will be intrigued to find that Duffy sometimes addresses them directly, spotting that they have changed pages or commenting on events in the story. He also reads a book (The Hallowe’en Hassler by I.C. Spooks about ghostly bullying) at Halloween) and extracts from it appear among the illustrations.

Jeff Szusterman’s story is, of course, told entirely in speech balloons, so he has made good use of young people’s slang, idioms and abbreviations.  

Duffy discovers that Marama is being bullied. A girl is tripping her, calling her names and stealing her lunch. Duffy interrupts his reading to ask about what to do, so advice about bullying is offered by some of the characters.

Duffy’s Dad rejects the code of silence, ‘It’s not narking when you tell someone who cares about you.’ Duffy’s mother adds a rider, ‘But Marama is going to have to be the one to talk about it, eh?’

At school, Duffy sees that Marama is being teased with an embarrassing phone video clip and bullied during their lunchtime touch rugby game. He persuades Coach Mike to include Marama in their 10-a-side social match where her kicking skills bring victory.

Duffy also tries a little book therapy.  Marama, aided by ideas from the book, stands up to Ashlee.  Ironically, when Marama lends the book to Ashlee, it leads to an epiphany for her. Ashlee is enjoying the horror tale when she realises, ‘OMG! I’m the Paul in this story. I’m the bully!’

Another thread in the story involves Ashlee’s cousin, H.G., who is being shamed by his father into using his size and rough tactics in rugby games.  The concluding section of the book is a rugby final, where various forms of bullying are identified and dealt with – among parents on the sidelines as well as players on the field.

Ant Sang’s colour illustrations are masterly. He manages to make every one of his large cast of characters instantly identifiable. Even his picture of a skeleton is appealing. A skilled comic illustrator, Ant Sang also uses close-ups and a range of perspectives to keep his pages visually exciting and dramatic. The most impressive page shows two rugby teams performing their haka.

The result is a slightly didactic but thoroughly enjoyable comic book, which will also be a good conversation starter.

 

Trevor Agnew 

10 July 2024  [Review 3678]

 

Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas Ant Sang Michael Bennett

 Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas (2018)
Ant Sang (ilustrations)    Michael Bennett (text)
Penguin Random House NZ
Paperback  264 pages  NZ$40
ISBN 978 0 14 377124 1

Helen is a young woman, living in present day Auckland, whose concern with threats to the environment accidentally disrupts a biological research demonstration by her boyfriend Marion. Suddenly Helen is kidnapped by two female warriors from the future – the Go-Go Ninjas of the title – and swept off three centuries into the future. The world of 2355 is what remains after the destruction caused by global warming, wars, famine and floods.

In the first of several very good black jokes, Helen is called “world-wrecker” and is told that the devastation is all her fault. The ninjas, unaware that Marion can also be a boy’s name (if your mum is a John Wayne fan) have kidnapped the wrong person.

Along with Helen, we learn how Marion’s development of paramecia “peace balls” to create new ways of healing and communicating led to the near-extinction of the human race.  The peace balls - the red blob menacing Helen on the cover is one of them - destroy people's ability to think and communicate. Only three groups of humans now live in what used to be Auckland. The mindless Tree People are the slaves of The Riders who use a mixture of technology and cult theology to survive.  The third group, of course, are the Go-Go Ninjas who survive in Little Tokio, an underground shelter, where they have created a culture based on a few 1950s films which survived. The jokes about Bruce Lee and Go-Go dancing are a recurring feature of the story.     

Helen, quickly adjusting to her new situation, realises that the only way forward is to make another time-jump and help kidnap the right Marion. Needless to say, more complications follow, ensuring a fast-paced action story with several surprises and, unusually in a dystopian story, a reasonably happy ending

This graphic novel was originally conceived as a film script by Michael Bennett and it has the tightly-connected plot and well-constructed surprise twists of a good action film. At the same time Ant Sang’s illustrations bring an imaginary world into being, with convincing detail and skilfully shifting viewpoints. As soon as you have read this book, you immediately turn back to page 1 and start through again, this time appreciating the carefully planned structure and the careful placing of tiny hints (such as Helen’s cold) which will be significant later.

Ant Sang’s artwork (which has had some colouring assistance from Kiwi comic creators such as Adrian Kinnaird and Dylan Horrocks) is beautifully matched with the story and dialogue, making each sequence a tiny drama in itself. For example when Helen is draping an illegal protest banner from the Sky Tower, a drowsy security guard fails to spot her on the outer balcony. Then he thinks she’s going to jump. “Miss, don’t do it. …You’ve got your whole life ahead of you.” She slips but grabs on to the banner, “STOP GLOBAL WARMING.”

Such ironies, quirks of human behaviour and razor-sharp storytelling, as well as the ability to project some social issues of the present into the future, make Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas a winning graphic novel.

Ant Sang has an interesting website showing stages in the development of the illustrations, beginning  at http://www.antsang.co.nz/241-2/

Trevor Agnew
11 July 2018