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Bad Machinery: The Case of the Team Spirit: 07/02/13

cover art

Bad Machinery: The Case of the Team Spirit by John Allison is a web comic now being printed. Two sets of investigating teams — one made up of three boys, and one made up of three girls — compete to uncover mysteries at their grammar school.

As there are six main characters and two intertwined plots, as well as minor characters and the usual web comic wackiness, it took a dozen or so pages to fall into the story. I think part of the trouble was in reading it as an egalley. Sometimes graphic novels don't play nicely as egalleys and this was one of those cases. The print version is a 9x12 folio and the artwork would certainly shine at that size.

What took me in finally was Mrs. Biscuit. While seems like the usual, somewhat daft, elderly character to so often shows up in tween fiction, she's more than that. Mrs. Biscuit's part of the story adds something special.

Four stars

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