Heavy Vinyl, Vol. 1: Riot on the Radio

Heavy Vinyl #1-4

by Carly Usdin, Nina Vakueva (Illustrator)

When Chris joins the staff at her local record store, she’s surprised to find out that her co-workers share a secret: they’re all members of a secret fight club that take on the patriarchy and fight crime!

Starry-eyed Chris has just started the dream job every outcast kid in town wants: working at Vinyl Mayhem. It's as rad as she imagined; her boss is BOSS, her co-workers spend their time arguing over music, pushing against the patriarchy, and endlessly trying to form a band. When Rosie Riot, the staff's favorite singer, mysteriously vanishes the night before her band’s show, Chris discovers her co-workers are doing more than just sorting vinyl . . . Her local indie record store is also a front for a teen girl vigilante fight club! 
 
Follow writer Carly Usdin (director of Suicide Kale) and artist Nina Vakueva (Lilith’s World) into the Hi-Fi Fight Club, where they deliver a rock and roll tale of intrigue and boundless friendship.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, LGBT, Young Adult, Queer, Graphic Novels Comics, Lesbian

112 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2018

About the author

Carly Usdin is an award-winning filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Her first feature, Suicide Kale, won the Audience Award for Best First Feature at Outfest 2016. After playing over 30 festivals worldwide the film is now available on iTunes and Amazon Prime. In 2017 Carly served as showrunner and director for the scripted series Threads, produced by New Form for Verizon’s go90 platform. The 20-episode horror and comedy anthology series brought to life outrageous stories from internet forums like Reddit.

Carly is also the creator and writer of two comic book series for BOOM! Studios: Heavy Vinyl (in stores now) and The Avant-Guards (out in January 2019). Heavy Vinyl was nominated for a 2018 Prism award, honoring the best in LGBTQAI+ comics.

Carly has spent years making short-form narrative and branded content for clients like Funny or Die, CollegeHumor, Amy Poehler's Smart Girls, World of Wonder, CBS, Fullscreen, Astronauts Wanted, Portal A, TruTV, Viacom and YouTube. Most notably, she directed the third season of Awkwafina’s digital series Tawk. Her promo campaigns for RuPaul’s Drag Race have won One Show Awards and Promax BDA Awards.

Carly has recently completed post-production on her short film Misdirection, created as part of the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women, class of 2019. Currently she is developing several projects through her production company Scheme Machine Studios, which she owns with her wife, photographer and producer Robin Roemer.

Reviews

[Cece (ProblemsOfaBookNerd) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was GAY and GREAT

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

What else can you expect from a graphic novel ?It was so fucking good!

• Leading ladies against patriarchy ( a ladies fight club solving mysteries , fighting against men, helping people....I fucking want to be in that club...tell me who to contact)

• Art/dialogue/writing was perfect ( It's was funny ....like literally Chris babe I love you)

•It made sense( there are graphic books with great art but lack in depth conversation and storyline ....this was cool!)

• GAY GAY GAY( it has got girls with girlfriends ,girls with gay dads, girls with girl crushes....what else you need)

• 1990's Music ( the whole setting of the book...girls working in vinyl mayhem secretly working as fight club was superb)

• Diversity of characters ( there is an African American girl, a Puerto Rican girl....and omg there dressing sense...I fell in love with them the moment they were all introduced)

I need vol 2 ASAP!
This is so good!
Highly recommended📚

[chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a super cute graphic novel about girls who love music and are fighting against the patriarchy and so many other amazing things and I definitely recommend it! <3

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sapphic book lovers: plug in and turn the dial all the way up because this a hit!
Welcome to Vinyl Destination, the coolest vinyl shop in 1998 where teen girl Chris has just landed her first job. Awkward but determined to be cool, she’s blissfully immersed in a land of amazing music and hip women coworkers, especially Maggie who is ‘literally the cutest.’ But something is amiss and this new girl suspects her coworkers are up to something when they send her home after close…

Author Carly Usdin blends the love of music with the fight for justice in Heavy Vinyl, a rocking good time of a graphic novel with wonderful artwork from Nina Vakueva and Irene Flores. When bands start going missing, its up to a gang of tough teens to save the day and..oh wait, yea, I should probably mention that this record shop is just a front for a music loving gang who love to punch up at the patriarchy and stand up for justice.

This is such a fun graphic novel full of action, music, queer romance and features a lovely inclusive cast of characters. Chris is suddenly ushered into this new world of post-close crime fighting and will have to keep her confidence up to keep up—made all the more difficult when D., her “arch enemy” (D’s words), is resentful of her being included in the group. But when the singer of the hardcore band that is supposed to play their shop disappears right before a new album release and her bandmates seem pre-programmed with polished, interview friendly marketing replies to any question, it’s going to take all of them to crack the case. Chris is so much fun to follow as we are treated to the chaotic anxiety running through her head, made all the more high-strung when she cannot stop thinking about Maggie who is always so sweet to her and can really land a kick.

I enjoy how well this captures the adorableness of Chris and Maggie very blatantly having mutual crushes on each other but the accuracy of teenage anxiety that makes Chris scared maybe Maggie isn’t into her or even girls at all. Aww you adorable little crime fighting dorks, just kick the bad guys ass and kiss already. But for real, this is super fun and…okay the plot is a bit ridiculous involving mind control record labels with a plot to take any social justice messages out of music but its also a pretty timely evil villain idea as book censorship is rampant and queer stories or marginalized identities are often the primary targets.

Is it all kind of dumb? Maybe. But is it super cute and fun? ABSOLUTELY. This is a joyous ride full of music and mayhem and I had a blast. Extra special shoutout to my assistant director who recommended this to me today when we were supposed to be talking about library programming. Heavy Vinyl is a blast.
⅘

[Sara ➽ Ink Is My Sword · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 “New favorite” Stars

➽ FULL REVIEW NOW POSTED:

I will lead this review with a list of things this graphic novel contains, browse and see if any of those things are for your liking bitch please, I bet everyone will find something, this has all of the best things:

✔ Puerto Rican girl
✔ African American girl
✔ f/f main couple
✔ 2 interracial couples
✔Girl with gay dads
✔ 2 f/f couples
✔ girl on girl crush heaven
✔ Music
✔ Humor
✔ Awesome art style
✔ Awesome Dialogues
✔ All girl fighting club
✔1990’s setting

Now let’s get into the review:

I was so wonderfully surprised by this graphic novel.

First of all, this graphic novel smashed my most important required when it comes to comics, to make sense. I have read comic after comic, where sure the art is cool, but the storyline and dialogues don’t make sense at all. Well, this graphic novel is the complete opposite of that. Yes, it does have a weird-cool-absurd concept, but damn the dialogues were so well suited. Funny, clever and complete.

Second, we got a great, I really mean it, great cast of characters. We get a lot of individuality and diversity. The storyline also helps to connect and let the reader create a bond with the characters, although I wish in next volumes we get more action. I guess that’s my only complain, I wanna presence more kick-ass scenes. But this lack of intense action didn’t make me love this any less, I guess my expectations were extremely low.

Thirdly, that girl-on-girl teenage crush was a BIG FAT MOOD for me. It was the cutest, and the slow build up had me pulling my hair out for Maggie to confirm she liked Chris. Small moments like taking the same shift than your crush, getting jealous of random dudes, and blushing all the goddamn time, was so relatable, so so so fucking relatable.

Fourthly, this was so entertaining. I was actually laughing out loud, the sarcasm and just so well written dialogues. Okay, that’s like the 5th time I mention the dialogues, but serious kudos to the writer. It was addictive and fast-paced.

Fifth, PLEASE TELL ME THERE ARE GONNA BE MORE VOLUMES FROM THIS COMIC. I am so emotionally invested, and this concept has so much potential. I want more backstory and focus on storylines for all the characters. Literally, my life is in the line, I need more. I dumbly just wanna go an re-read this already.

In conclusion, if you love me try this one out. It’s on hoopla. And please gush with me afterward. Who was your favorite character? I loved everyone to be honest.

Pre-reading thoughts:
First, THIS COVER.
Second, THE CONCEPT.
Third. I AM READING IT

[literarylesbian · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Kinda cheesy, but overall a fun read!

[Dennis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was sweet and harmless and ultimately not for me.

The year is 1998 and Chris, the main character, is a 16 yo girl working at the local record store.



She’s the new girl. So she has to find her place amongst the clique of girls that’s been there for a while already. She’s also trying to figure out who she is as a person and what she likes. And on top of that she’s having a crush on one of the other girls.



I thought the teenage infatuation part was handled well. The uncertainty when you realise for the first time that there’s someone you like a little more than the others. When you tend to overthink things, always dreading to say something stupid. And at the same time trying to figure out how the other person feels about you, but without giving yourself away as to not being embarrased. That was sweet.



I’m of two minds though regarding the same sex relationships in this book. There are several and on the one hand it was kinda refreshing to see how they were just a natural part of the story without getting any kind of special mention. Because, really, that’s how it should be. Unfortunately, how we all know, this isn’t the case nowadays and it certainly wasn’t the case in the 90‘s. While I respect and even kind of admire the choice the creative team made here, it also feels like a missed chance to give this story a little more weight.

In general I expected to like this book a little more. I was at the age of 16 myself in 1998 and I’ve been and still am today very much in love with music.

I don’t know ‘bout you, but when I see a record store full of people chatting about music, recommending to each other and discovering new artists it warms my heart.



Nowadays I look for new artists online on Bandcamp or some other site and while I’m constantly chatting with people about music, usually I’m doing this online as well. To some point this is surely my fault, but it is also a sign of how in the last two decades the music industry and our world in general has changed. Some records don’t even get physical releases anymore and I’m streaming my music anyway. I’m only buying a few select albums without ever putting the CD in a player, because I also have it on my phone. Yes, it is kinda sad.



Back to the story of this book.



The girls at the record store are part of a secret fight club. But not like Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. It’s really more of a detective club, to be honest. They’re just having a few harmless adventures and are punishing bullies and jerks for doing jerk-ish things.

But recently something peculiar is going on. All sorts of bands are disappearing and when they resurface they seem to be brainwashed and bereft of emotion and their uniqueness. So the girls are investigating, trying to figure out what’s happening and if there’s anything they can do about it.



Everything goes very smoothly from there on out and I’m afraid I was a little bored.



I really wanted to like this a lot more. It just wasn’t to be. But teenage girls (and Chad) should love this.

2 and a half fluffy stars.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about this. It's Empire Records crossed with Scooby Doo (or maybe Buffy without the supernatural). Set in 1998, Chris is the new girl working at the local record store. When the lead singer of a rock band goes missing, her co-workers invite her to join a secret underground fight / detective club. Chris also has a crush on another girl at the record store but doesn't know how she feels. Usdin does a fantastic job of capturing that uncertainty of not knowing how a new infatuation feels about you along with the uncertainty of even knowing if the person is gay or not, that feeling of is this person just being nice or are they into me as well?

I also really liked how much Chris was into music. How when you are young music is so important to you. How exciting it is to go on this journey of sonic exploration to seek out all these hidden gems of bands you didn't even know existed. How your mind can just be blown away when you are introduced to a new band by a friend or mentor. How your life was turned on its ear by hearing a new band.

Usdin may have tried a little too hard to hit all the politically correct notes. There's a ton of open same sex relationships and everyone seems to be OK with them which was certainly not the case in the 90's (It's not even the case now in large portions of the country, unfortunately.) This is very much a rose-colored glasses view of the 90's, and I'm OK with that. This is the kind of comic not only girls can get into, but it has enough heart, humor, and passion in it this forty-something man really dug it too.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a gift from Melissa over at The Bookish Babbler on youtube and OMG I LOVED IT.
This had empowering females, a fight club, mystery, and music! I thought this was such a unique idea and I was in love with all of the characters. There was a great balance between mystery, action, and personal lives. I'm excited to see where this goes in the future.

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars.

Kiss ass vigilante club? YES. Queer qirls? YES. A black girl that isn't the "token black character"????? YES YES YES.

Was this perfect? No, it was a bit rushed and the characters could use a bit more developement, BUT I NEED VOL 2 ASAP.

[Dev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute art, cute story, cute girls [that have cute crushes on other cute girls], and awesome music - What's not to like? This is definitely a fun idea for a series and I can't wait for volume 2!

Also I sent this page to my friend with the caption "i would be offended by the design of this girl asking where the new placebo album is if it wasn't so spot on" and she replied "lmao who let damien bloodmarch in here" so new headcanon accepted basically ;)

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the message, the characters, the art execution.
Unfortunately, the grrl power is rather undermined by how implausible it is. Who is funding this? Why so little training? How do the teens skip so much school and go out at night with none of their parents ever noticing? Maybe some questions will be answered in book 2.

[❀ iro ❀ · Rating 2 out of 5]

WARNING: This review contains *spoilers* because I'm angry and I want to talk about it.



Well, this is awkward.

Heavy Vinyl gave me strong Spell on Wheels vibes, meaning that it had an interesting concept but the execution was rather poor. To be honest I found it quite problematic. Also, a lot of people seem to love it and I am just not.

Heavy Vinyl is catered as a YA lesbian love story, between the main character who works at a record store and her co-worker. Add to the mix a teen all-girl vigilante fight club (that makes absolutely no sense as an idea, I mean you're seventeen, don't be stupid) and some nonsensical evil plot about 'making the music meaningless' (really???).

Going into this I was expecting a feminist tale about empowerment, acceptance, love and all that jazz. Instead what I got was:

-juvenile writing
-a sugarcoated story (it's the 90s but everyone seems so chill about the same-sex couples and there is no struggle at all)
-every relationship problem is solved in two panels
-the main plot is nonsensical and far-fetched (an evil label that wants to deprive the music from its meaning, a secret all-female vigilante organization that doesn't make any sense at all, fucking mind control??? wut???)
-the '90s were there purely for aesthetic reasons, if the writers decided to change the decade half-way through the story I genuinely wouldn't notice
-it tried so hard to be a diverse and empowering feminist story that it felt extremely forced
-also, I'm sorry but since when kicking a guy out of a store for saying he doesn't like a certain artist to a girl is empowering, even if the guy has a douchebug-y attitude? Or since when flirting with a guy and then joking about "trying to get some free mochas" is feminist? i'm confused? kicking boys' butts and exclaiming that you 'fight the patriarchy' doesn't make you a feminist, i'm sorry. there was no substance to any of it. there is basically one panel where the reasoning behind the club is explained as 'fighting sexism, racism etc." and that's it. and then they just go out in a search of a missing person?? what has THAT anything to do with oppression? (well, it did because it served the plot but it didn't make any sense)
-the characters were flat and underdeveloped
-a lot of different ideas were crammed into four puny issues, and sewn badly together
-this whole adventure was not resolved in the end (they uncovered the conspiracy and then continued with their lives, and just decided to form a band to fight the bad guys????)
-and in general everything felt very rushed. like 'lets put all these random elements into a tiny page number and try to make a point with them' and also don't forget 'fuck boys cuz we're like FEMINISTS'
-this whole graphic novel felt like a bad episode of Totally Spies! to me (damn, I miss that show)

On the plus side, the art was cool, so that's nice.

[destiny ♡ howling libraries · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was super cute and I enjoyed it a lot. It didn't "wow" me and some of the commentary on feminism actually felt very out of left field (like don't get me wrong, I agreed with the points being made! I just wasn't sure how it related to the actual topic at hand sometimes), hence 4 stars instead of 5, but generally I'm just always gonna be here for cute queer girls and girls of color having each other's backs, kicking asses, and being hilarious and awkward.

[human · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this was AMAZING.

The art style is really good and seriously detailed. I loved the idea of having a secret feminist fight-club.

MAGGIE AND CHRIS ARE SO ADORABLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I liked how it ended, but at the same time, I want more!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"take on the patriarchy"

OH MY GOD I NEEEEED

[Sunny Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

queer indie music nerd all girls fight club slay

[anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's so cute & fun & also so effortlessly diverse!! two biracial couples one of which is sapphic! gay dads! another sapphic couple! black & puerto rican mcs!

[Gary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the concept but the execution left me wanting. It reads a little like a TV pilot; introducing lots of potentially interesting characters and ideas before running out of time to do much with them. The 90s setting also felt a little like a plot contrivance. I think the idea would work just as well in a contemporary setting.

All that said, I'd totally read a second, more focused volume.

[(inactive) · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was alright, nothing that special to be honest. i loved all the representation and the whole GIRL POWER concept but other than that it didn’t do much for me.

[Bookishrealm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a cute comic with badass females and LGBT representation. I absolutely loved it. I was amazed by the plot line and the character development. The story was so easy to follow and it definitely kept my attention the entire time. I LOVED it. I can't wait until the second volume is released and I get the opportunity to see where the story goes. This is also a comic that takes place during the 90s so there is a lot of pop culture references that I loved. If you haven't read this comic definitely give it a try.

[theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

i need more!!!

the art in this graphic novel is stunning!! especially the characters!! and i just adored the retro vibe and girl power!!

[Aleksandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH, PLEASE READ IT!

Heavy Vinyl is awesome comic about a vynil shop, where all the employees and the boss are ladies, who are also in secret fight vigilante club, set in 1990s, USA! It's lots of fun, it has great diversity and the main arc is about missing music bands.

The main character is Chris, she's sixteen, she started working in the shop a month ago, she's crushing on her co-worker Maggie. It's very cute! Then the singer from Chris's favorite band goes missing and Chris discovers that her vinyl shop isn't what it seems!

The supporting characters are great as well! And the story is diverse: three confirmed sapphic characters, Puerto Rican goth girl, Black kickass girl, two interracial relationships (m/f, f/f), Maggie has two dads. I love all these elements and how they are seamlessly added to the story, easy and realistic and there.

The illustrations are so beautiful, the colors are bright and vibrant, the panels look pretty, I love characters' designs. But I admit I have a soft spot for Chris, who reminds me of a girl from Girls Like Girls by our queen Hayley Kiyoko.

I highly recommend to read it! I hope there's more than these four issues!
(To all my sapphic pals, you've got to read it!!!)

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last night I was in the mood for a lighter read so I remembered Bianca's comics recommendations on the Episode 145 of the Reading Envy Podcast and ending up reading Volume 1 of Heavy Vinyl. A female owned and operated record store, which might be a front for another business. Very fun.

[maria ✦‧₊☽ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5
It was fun but not as good as I expected!! It was a little hard for me to finish it. The art and characters were good But the story could have been better.

[Jay G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Want to see more bookish things from me? Check out my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfer...

When Chris begins her dream job working at Heavy Vinyl, she never expected to become a member of a girl's fight club. When her favourite singer, Rosie Riot, goes missing, she must find her with the help of her co-workers!

I really liked this! the cast of characters were diverse and a lot of fun. The facial expressions, colours and art style used in the panels were awesome and really enhanced the story. I thought the story was unique and it drew me in right from the beginning. I wanted to know more about the fight club and what happened to Rosie! I'm definitely looking forward to picking up Volume 2!

[rey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH DKGGLDBBGKGKVW THE BEST DRAWING STYLE AND BEST STORY AND SO GAY FGKHLHLSHSG

[kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

the art style
the characters
the story
THE FASHION
the romance
the music

SO. MUCH. FUN.

[Rue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Code Violet!

I will admit this the art on the cover was the actual thing that got me interested in reading it. The story on the other hand was a disappointment and felt rushed.

The year is 1998 and Chris, a 16-year-old girl, is working at a record store, crushing on one of her co-workers (Who is a girl! Yay, diversity!) and also trying to figure out what the staff is hiding from her.

The main characters are all a bunch of badass girls with a great taste in music... and that's pretty much it. That's the first problem. We don't get to know much about the characters when they fight, make up or get together.

Although the concept was interesting enough, the story itself was simply okay.
All in all, this was something that could have been great but fell short. Hopefully, they will work out the problems in future issues.

I ship them! ✨

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comic is very cute and interesting. It's set in a record store called Vinyl Mayhem where five girls work all together. So if you're into music it's really nice. Plus there's a very unexpected twist: these girls are all part of a secret vigilante fight club. The comic is all about girl power and it also has a lot of representation in it. I can't wait to read the second volume. I highly recommend it!

[laura (bbliophile) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love everything about this

Re-read: I STILL LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS