What happens when a boy who has been bullied for how he looks must draw his own face for the world to see?
Teenage Nick Pope has prominent birthmarks around his eyes – and he is ridiculed because of them. He quits his therapist and starts writing and drawing in his diary again, convinced he can handle his internal chaos alone.
Now he has been offered a solo gallery show of his art.
Nick is afraid to draw himself. He is scared to figure out if his feelings for his fellow artist Max mean he is gay. His family is falling apart.
Can Nick confront these challenges before the summer of 1988 runs out?
Talented artist Raymond Klecker takes up the mantle of the late Christopher Darling, who illustrated the first Nick Pope diary before his passing in 2018.
What happens when a boy who has been bullied for how he looks must draw his own face for the world to see?
Teenage Nick Pope has prominent birthmarks around his eyes – and he is ridiculed because of them. He quits his therapist and starts writing and drawing in his diary again, convinced he can handle his internal chaos alone.
Now he has been offered a solo gallery show of his art.
Nick is afraid to draw himself. He is scared to figure out if his feelings for his fellow artist Max mean he is gay. His family is falling apart.
Can Nick confront these challenges before the summer of 1988 runs out?
Talented artist Raymond Klecker takes up the mantle of the late Christopher Darling, who illustrated the first Nick Pope diary before his passing in 2018.
Nick Pope: Summer of '88 is the second book in the slice-of-life graphic novel series about Nick Pope, a sixteen-year-old boy with dark birthmarks around his eyes who starts using his journal again as a way to cope with his inner thoughts, insecurities, and questions about his identity. The story is told through short journal entries and uses a half-prose, half-illustration format to showcase Nick expressing himself both through his words and his art. It tells of Nick's experiences from June to August of 1988, chronicling the ups and downs of his life, as well as continuing his story from his first book.
I found the formatting of the book very innovative, as it integrates the art very naturally and in interesting ways along with the text. It truly feels like pages from a teen boy's journal, further enhanced by the text's handwritten style. The story itself is an excellent time capsule of the late eighties while presenting an engaging story that feels realistic. The references to the time period and its pop culture never feel distracting or tacked on; instead, they read as a teenager of that period actively living through and sharing his opinions on the world and media around him. It also never shies away from the topics, events, and social and political climate of the year, both positive and negative. It has equal parts heartwarming moments and tense scenes that may make some readers uncomfortable, all framed through the lens of a young boy facing it all, often without much guidance. Nick is living through an uncertain time, not just in his own life, but in the lives of those around him, and having to carry the weight of all of it. The book never sugarcoats any of it, but it also isn't all dour, making sure to highlight the good things that come his way just as much as the bad.
Content warning for mentions of teen parenthood, parental neglect, death, depression, suicide attempts, and sexual abuse. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in coming-of-age stories, tales that balance drama and joy well, and fans of the eighties.