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Nothing Better: No Place Like Home
College is the best time of your life - or is it? Jane has left home for the first time to attend a small Lutheran college expecting to make friends and lasting memories until she finds out her roommate is her complete opposite in almost every way. Katt means well, but her views on partying, boys, and even religion begin to drive Jane crazy. The two girls struggle to find their place not only as roommates, but as individuals trying to construct their adult conception of relationships, education, religion, sex, secrets, family, home and ultimately, of themselves. In their first few months at St. Urho College it quickly becomes apparent to both Jane and Katt that there's more to college than just going to class. This might just be the best time of their lives, even if they don't realize it yet.
- GenresGraphic Novels
200 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2007
23 people want to read
About the author
Tyler Page
31 books20 followersTyler Page is an Eisner-nominated and Xeric Grant winning comics artist and educator based in Minneapolis, MN.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 14, 2019
This is a fantastic start to a coming-of-age story. What place is better to set a coming-of-age tale than freshman year of college? Tyler Page does a fantastic job pacing out the first months of a freshman year for two college roommates, Jane and Katt. The rollercoaster ride of transitioning from high school to college is thoroughly engaging and thoughtful.
This is a highly recommended graphic novel. Pass it by at your own risk.
This is a highly recommended graphic novel. Pass it by at your own risk.
March 22, 2025
3.5 really -
A coming-of-age story featuring two different types of girls who are roommates at a Lutheran college. Not amazing, but enjoyable enough!
A coming-of-age story featuring two different types of girls who are roommates at a Lutheran college. Not amazing, but enjoyable enough!
March 18, 2014
The graphic novel concentrates on telling the story of two girls united as roommates. Jane and Katt, the protagonists, have very different personalities, presentation, and character. They are Page’s rendition of a ‘good’ and a ‘bad’ girl. They both struggle with different situations such as getting a job, finding a suitable significant other, sexual relationships, keeping up with classes, making new friends, dealing with alcoholic beverages, financial status, family, etc. As is the nature of their characters they both deal with the situations in a different way. And even though the graphic novel is about college life, few times are they seen in class. They cavort around the pages, from parties, church meetings, work, school grounds and green areas, to the bedroom they share. Even though the protagonist’s first meeting and time together did not go so well, their relationship slowly develops and they become closer as roommates and friends.
Religion is a very present theme in the book. As is in life, I guess. One of them struggles to keep
her faith while the other one struggles to find her faith, if any. The character seem a bit dull or
undeveloped. As the plot is very predictable because the reader just knows they will act according to their personalities. It all depends on which lenses the graphic novel is being read under. While some people may think that it’s a religion loaded book, other could think that it’s a relationship loaded book. But I think that each area is well balanced. Perhaps, the characters, plot, and story lines could have used the extra thought. It keeps a constant pace that may become monotonous or even seem repetitive. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’, is simply a perception. Ultimately, everyone is always trying to do what they think is the best for themselves. But it seems to me that the contrast between Jane and Katt is well marked. From how they dress to how they communicate with others, they can be considered opposites.
Page show us the struggle from two different perspectives. How one doesn't struggle less than the
other, but simply how each deals with the load in contrasting ways. I think the story is realistic in some sense, embellished, but it still keeps the realistic essence.
Thanks to the design of the book, it was an easy read. But there were times in which I found myself lost, and not knowing which cell box was the next. So it was mostly the accommodation of the cell boxes. If you are not used to reading graphic novels, it may not become a challenge, but it may
present difficulties at times. But worry not, those times are very few. Because aside from those few
times, it was very easy to follow, and a very easy reading I must say. But I was somewhat disappointed as the story carried on and it seemed like it was going in circles. And if you get carried onto the next volumes, you’ll have to be patient and wait for the next chapters as the third volume is still a work in progress.
Religion is a very present theme in the book. As is in life, I guess. One of them struggles to keep
her faith while the other one struggles to find her faith, if any. The character seem a bit dull or
undeveloped. As the plot is very predictable because the reader just knows they will act according to their personalities. It all depends on which lenses the graphic novel is being read under. While some people may think that it’s a religion loaded book, other could think that it’s a relationship loaded book. But I think that each area is well balanced. Perhaps, the characters, plot, and story lines could have used the extra thought. It keeps a constant pace that may become monotonous or even seem repetitive. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’, is simply a perception. Ultimately, everyone is always trying to do what they think is the best for themselves. But it seems to me that the contrast between Jane and Katt is well marked. From how they dress to how they communicate with others, they can be considered opposites.
Page show us the struggle from two different perspectives. How one doesn't struggle less than the
other, but simply how each deals with the load in contrasting ways. I think the story is realistic in some sense, embellished, but it still keeps the realistic essence.
Thanks to the design of the book, it was an easy read. But there were times in which I found myself lost, and not knowing which cell box was the next. So it was mostly the accommodation of the cell boxes. If you are not used to reading graphic novels, it may not become a challenge, but it may
present difficulties at times. But worry not, those times are very few. Because aside from those few
times, it was very easy to follow, and a very easy reading I must say. But I was somewhat disappointed as the story carried on and it seemed like it was going in circles. And if you get carried onto the next volumes, you’ll have to be patient and wait for the next chapters as the third volume is still a work in progress.
March 17, 2014
Tyler Page’s self-e-published graphic novel Nothing Better explores the socio-economic, cultural, gender and religious divide amongst freshman students at Saint Urho College (a fictional Christian institution set in Minnesota). We are introduced to the two main students through whose personalities as Jane, the more conservative, upper middle class, suburbanite, and Katt, the more rebellious, lower middle class, urbanite, are as Tyler Page comments, “The world’s next great Odd Couple.”
Spread generously from start to finish are the conundrums of life and death, the questioning relationship (if any) to a higher power, the issues of social dynamics and development, and the budding sexualities facing the characters. Absent text, the drawings provide what may be the best parts of the book, are easy to follow and display the growth of the story inside a modern and current communicative model. A noteworthy example is on page 6:23, the reader sees Jane’s Lutheran and Katt’s agnostic philosophical worlds intersect. We view Jane’s unauthorized viewing of Katt’s sketch pad and what she finds inside, Katt’s artistic exploration of being a god by the illustrative birthing of the Earth.
The setting at a Christian college forces the faith versus skepticism confrontation to a focal point and allows for some of the most poignant dialogue that takes place between the roommates, as Katt’s questioning of Jane’s beliefs becomes the novel’s pressure cooker.
I do not think any man can faithfully speak for women on what it is like to be a woman and as a 35 year old man, I do not know how it is to be a teenage girl, therefore in Nothing Better we find instances of Page’s tame understanding of the female psyche and formulaic interactions between the genders.
The representations of the main and peripheral characters as the uptight blond one and the dark haired one with attitude, along with the geeky, the fat, the rebel, and the Christian/good kids, serves to reinforce these stereotypes and while this aspect of life maybe true (to varying degrees) gross over use of these basic truisms seem to be targeted for those who would gain from this lack the experience to know otherwise, that there is more to people and the world. This piece may be best suited for teenagers embarking onto a stage of maturation and growth; one which comes from being responsible, accountable and interconnected, a gift suited to a college bound neophyte of the world at large.
Maybe subsequent volumes will break the mold and lessen the cliches, but Nothing Better is like walking down the same old, tired walkway, going in the same direction and not needing a guide for fear of getting lost in any complexity.
Spread generously from start to finish are the conundrums of life and death, the questioning relationship (if any) to a higher power, the issues of social dynamics and development, and the budding sexualities facing the characters. Absent text, the drawings provide what may be the best parts of the book, are easy to follow and display the growth of the story inside a modern and current communicative model. A noteworthy example is on page 6:23, the reader sees Jane’s Lutheran and Katt’s agnostic philosophical worlds intersect. We view Jane’s unauthorized viewing of Katt’s sketch pad and what she finds inside, Katt’s artistic exploration of being a god by the illustrative birthing of the Earth.
The setting at a Christian college forces the faith versus skepticism confrontation to a focal point and allows for some of the most poignant dialogue that takes place between the roommates, as Katt’s questioning of Jane’s beliefs becomes the novel’s pressure cooker.
I do not think any man can faithfully speak for women on what it is like to be a woman and as a 35 year old man, I do not know how it is to be a teenage girl, therefore in Nothing Better we find instances of Page’s tame understanding of the female psyche and formulaic interactions between the genders.
The representations of the main and peripheral characters as the uptight blond one and the dark haired one with attitude, along with the geeky, the fat, the rebel, and the Christian/good kids, serves to reinforce these stereotypes and while this aspect of life maybe true (to varying degrees) gross over use of these basic truisms seem to be targeted for those who would gain from this lack the experience to know otherwise, that there is more to people and the world. This piece may be best suited for teenagers embarking onto a stage of maturation and growth; one which comes from being responsible, accountable and interconnected, a gift suited to a college bound neophyte of the world at large.
Maybe subsequent volumes will break the mold and lessen the cliches, but Nothing Better is like walking down the same old, tired walkway, going in the same direction and not needing a guide for fear of getting lost in any complexity.
May 16, 2016
These two volumes in the Nothing Better series, Nothing Better: No Place Like Home and Nothing Better: Into the Wild are affectionate, nostalgic reflections of the first semester of a freshman year in college, in this case the small town Minnesota Lutheran private school, St. Urho (an obvious and loving stand in for St. Olaf College in Northfield). Judging by the pop culture reference and lack of social media, we can probably date the year as sometime in the late ‘90s. Focusing on the relationship between two conflicting young women who find themselves roommates and later friends, in spite of the tension between them due to their backgrounds and religious beliefs. Jane, a rather old fashioned girl from the suburbs, and Katt, an artistic, less well off girl from the city find themselves roomies in their first semester of college and quickly butt heads. Appropriate for late high schoolers or early college students, the narrative does not shy away from typical college student drama, like first relationships, sex, bullying, drinking, deciding on majors and balancing schoolwork, and, of course, finding out what you really believe in away from your parents and in contact with new people and new ideas. For the most part, everything is refreshingly positive and upbeat. On the other hand, while the characters definitely learn a lot, they are also not really challenged, though not everything is resolved either.
While my college experience was a little different from the one experienced by Jane and Katt (urban state universities rather than rural private ones), it does read as quite true to me, in spite of the rather broad brushes used to characterize the students and faculty, particularly the minor characters. The loutish jock, the nerdy animation kid with a crush, the mean girls, et cetera. It does pack a lot of information in the story, which both scrambles the narrative a little as well as giving it that feeling of early college where anything can happen, your life outside of home is truly beginning and things are always happening. In any case, Nothing Better does provide a great overview of what to expect in college, good and bad, from the heady later summer days of orientation to the bittersweet winter of leaving for holiday break. I, of course, particularly enjoyed all of the little Minnesota references, such as when they took the hour long road trip up to Minneapolis to visit First Avenue. In general, a fun couple of comics that makes me wonder about what happens in Kate and Jane’s next semester.
While my college experience was a little different from the one experienced by Jane and Katt (urban state universities rather than rural private ones), it does read as quite true to me, in spite of the rather broad brushes used to characterize the students and faculty, particularly the minor characters. The loutish jock, the nerdy animation kid with a crush, the mean girls, et cetera. It does pack a lot of information in the story, which both scrambles the narrative a little as well as giving it that feeling of early college where anything can happen, your life outside of home is truly beginning and things are always happening. In any case, Nothing Better does provide a great overview of what to expect in college, good and bad, from the heady later summer days of orientation to the bittersweet winter of leaving for holiday break. I, of course, particularly enjoyed all of the little Minnesota references, such as when they took the hour long road trip up to Minneapolis to visit First Avenue. In general, a fun couple of comics that makes me wonder about what happens in Kate and Jane’s next semester.
July 20, 2016
Nothing Better by Tyler Page is a graphic novel about the experience of going away to college for the first time as seen through the eyes of Jane and Katt, two girls who end up as roommates at a small religious college in Minnesota. Jane and Katt are complete opposites, and the situations and conflicts that inevitably arise out of their unlikely pairing are detailed in this book. Page covers many different possible scenarios and tries to present common experiences that first time college-goers might encounter.
Jane is the good girl, and Katt is the bad girl in the world of stereotypes that Page creates. I think this book is meant as more of an overview, an introduction, to the issues, situations and feelings that students may experience. Understandably, this book may not appeal to a more sophisticated audience. It is probably geared toward high school students who will soon be in the shoes of Jane and Katt, or perhaps college students who are in the throes of being away from home for the first time.
The characters seem to be based on stereotypes, and their characteristics are somewhat exaggerated; however, they are recognizable. For example, on page 3:21 where Katt is out drinking with the guys, the scenario of them getting caught gets played out hundreds of times in real life. I laughed when the students stalled the security guard by throwing a couple of beers at him, and even more so when the guard reported back over the radio that it must have been a deer he saw as he downed the beer.
I particularly related to the end of the book where Jane comes home and is excited to be there, but quickly realizes that no one else shares her excitement for the humdrum routine of home. The shine of coming home wears off quite quickly as she realizes that being home is so much the same as it was when she left. She has had her horizons expanded, and once that happens, it is impossible for them to shrink back down to the way they used to be. She is forever changed, whether she wants to be or not.
Tyler Page has written a comprehensive, albeit somewhat simplistic, guide to the first year away at college. Due to the graphic novel format, the amount of information given is limited; however, Page manages to cover quite a few issues that students may have to deal with, from things like potentially incompatible roommates to making choices about drinking. The simplified presentation may limit the audience to which this book appeals, but it strikes me as a humorous attempt to reassure that first-time college student that what they are experiencing is indeed, quite normal.
Jane is the good girl, and Katt is the bad girl in the world of stereotypes that Page creates. I think this book is meant as more of an overview, an introduction, to the issues, situations and feelings that students may experience. Understandably, this book may not appeal to a more sophisticated audience. It is probably geared toward high school students who will soon be in the shoes of Jane and Katt, or perhaps college students who are in the throes of being away from home for the first time.
The characters seem to be based on stereotypes, and their characteristics are somewhat exaggerated; however, they are recognizable. For example, on page 3:21 where Katt is out drinking with the guys, the scenario of them getting caught gets played out hundreds of times in real life. I laughed when the students stalled the security guard by throwing a couple of beers at him, and even more so when the guard reported back over the radio that it must have been a deer he saw as he downed the beer.
I particularly related to the end of the book where Jane comes home and is excited to be there, but quickly realizes that no one else shares her excitement for the humdrum routine of home. The shine of coming home wears off quite quickly as she realizes that being home is so much the same as it was when she left. She has had her horizons expanded, and once that happens, it is impossible for them to shrink back down to the way they used to be. She is forever changed, whether she wants to be or not.
Tyler Page has written a comprehensive, albeit somewhat simplistic, guide to the first year away at college. Due to the graphic novel format, the amount of information given is limited; however, Page manages to cover quite a few issues that students may have to deal with, from things like potentially incompatible roommates to making choices about drinking. The simplified presentation may limit the audience to which this book appeals, but it strikes me as a humorous attempt to reassure that first-time college student that what they are experiencing is indeed, quite normal.
April 26, 2014
Jane and Katt, two polar opposites, are thrown together as college roommates in Tyler Page’s Nothing Better. The two girls are both freshman; Jane is the typical white-bread girl-next-door from a financially comfortable Christian family in suburbia, and Katt is the rebellious, secularly-minded city girl who has to work in order to pay for her new college life. Through the graphic novel format, Page is able to show both in words and pictures the world of St. Urho College which he’s created. With Jane in her conservative sweaters and Katt in her midriff-exposing tank tops and miniskirts, the readers get a sense of the character’s personal style and can imagine into which crowd these girls would fit were they actual people.
Page skims over some of the controversial topics that most new college students find themselves confronted with, although lightly. Drinking, sex, and the questions of why we are here and who we are as human beings are touched upon, but by no means in depth. Through interactions with other students in school and social settings, the two main characters confront these scenarios in light of their developing senses of right and wrong. They question, as many people of all ages do, whether what they have been raised to believe is truly right or whether there is more out there than they know.
The story line of this volume fits the format and audience well. This book seems to be geared toward senior high school students who will soon be leaving home for the first time, and perhaps some college students who may appreciate the graphic novel format and have already “been there” in a sense of being able to relate to the characters in the book and some of the new arrivals on their own campus. This said, due to the graphic nature of this book, I would not recommend it for younger readers, as it may raise a slew of questions that parents might not be ready to address.
Because some of the situations encountered by the characters in the book are universal, such as the awkwardness of being new and having to meet so many other people in a new setting, Tyler Page’s book could be helpful for the new high school graduate who is about to begin their tentative journey into the life of a college freshman. However, this story might not appeal to some as many high school-aged students may have already come to terms with these situations. Regardless, at approximately 185 pages this first volume of a series would not be a huge waste of anyone’s time. It is a fast-paced, easy read which had this reader chuckling at some of the uniquely-Minnesotan references.
Page skims over some of the controversial topics that most new college students find themselves confronted with, although lightly. Drinking, sex, and the questions of why we are here and who we are as human beings are touched upon, but by no means in depth. Through interactions with other students in school and social settings, the two main characters confront these scenarios in light of their developing senses of right and wrong. They question, as many people of all ages do, whether what they have been raised to believe is truly right or whether there is more out there than they know.
The story line of this volume fits the format and audience well. This book seems to be geared toward senior high school students who will soon be leaving home for the first time, and perhaps some college students who may appreciate the graphic novel format and have already “been there” in a sense of being able to relate to the characters in the book and some of the new arrivals on their own campus. This said, due to the graphic nature of this book, I would not recommend it for younger readers, as it may raise a slew of questions that parents might not be ready to address.
Because some of the situations encountered by the characters in the book are universal, such as the awkwardness of being new and having to meet so many other people in a new setting, Tyler Page’s book could be helpful for the new high school graduate who is about to begin their tentative journey into the life of a college freshman. However, this story might not appeal to some as many high school-aged students may have already come to terms with these situations. Regardless, at approximately 185 pages this first volume of a series would not be a huge waste of anyone’s time. It is a fast-paced, easy read which had this reader chuckling at some of the uniquely-Minnesotan references.
September 7, 2016
Tyler Page's series Nothing Better is one of my favorite graphic novels. I found it quite a long time ago by accident and I read the whole series (which is still incomplete) in a matter of days. As someone who also went to a small liberal arts Christian college where I felt at odds with the other students, I can relate closely with the characters. I think anyone who re-examined their own philosophy during their college years will be able to take something away from this series. With that in mind I highly recommend it.
December 31, 2009
Graphic novels are really growing on me. I found this book browsing through my library's section of graphic novels. My transition to college was awful, so the plot of this book intrigued me.
It was a little heavy in the religious aspect, but it was enjoyable. Hopefully my library has the next book in the series!
It was a little heavy in the religious aspect, but it was enjoyable. Hopefully my library has the next book in the series!
August 29, 2015
1.5/5
The only reason I finished this was because by the time I decided I really didn't like it, i was over halfway through and it's a graphic novel so it's super easy to fly through. This is definitely my least favorite graphic novel that I have ever read.
The only reason I finished this was because by the time I decided I really didn't like it, i was over halfway through and it's a graphic novel so it's super easy to fly through. This is definitely my least favorite graphic novel that I have ever read.
June 22, 2011
really enjoyed this. it reminded me of college as well as reminding me what I thought college should / would be
July 30, 2010
"Nothing better" to read right now.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews