Heavy Vinyl #1

Heavy Vinyl #1

by Carly Usdin, Nina Vakueva (Artist)

Film and TV director Carly Usdin (Suicide Kale, RuPaul's Drag Race) teams up with breakout artist Nina Vakueva for a new series that’s music to our ears! New Jersey, 1998. Chris has just started the teen dream working at Vinyl Mayhem, the local record store. She's prepared to deal with anything—misogynistic metalheads, grunge wannabes, even a crush on her wicked cute co-worker, Maggie. But when Rory Gory, the staff's favorite singer, mysteriously vanishes the night before her band’s show in town, Chris finds out 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!

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

27 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 23, 2017

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

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this girl-power comic at the back of Misfit City #2 nearly two months ago and was immediately intrigued by the beautiful cover and premise of “a music-infused, action-adventure series that takes rock ’n’ roll fandom out of the record store and into the streets.”


New Jersey, 1998. Chris has just started the teen dream job: working at Vinyl Mayhem, the local record store. She's prepared to deal with anything-misogynistic metalheads, grunge wannabes, even a crush on her wicked cute co-worker, Maggie. But when Rory Gory, the staff's favorite singer, mysteriously vanishes the night before her band's show in town, Chris finds out 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!

So my expectations were set pretty high for this first issue, just because Hi-Fi Fight Club had such a unique and promising setting.


But this introducing piece felt more like a setting-everything-up-for-future-issues than something of its own where we get to see the girls together just talking and hanging out. But since it’s only issue #1 and I know that my expectations are way too high, I’m going easy on it.

I am excited, however, to see what the follow-up pieces will entail for our group of strong female individuals. I'm just hoping we'll get to see some character building between the girls. (I'm pretty stoked about Irene, Kennedy, and Dolores.)

3.5/5 stars

Note: I'm an Amazon Affiliate. If you're interested in buying Hi-Fi Fight Club #1, just click on the image below to go through my link. I'll make a small commission!


This review and more can be found on my blog.

[Tiferet · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cutest baby lesbians imaginable, flavoured with the 90s nostalgia.

[Alice-Elizabeth (Prolific Reader Alice) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vinyl, kickass characters and gorgeous illustrations? Stop by this comic ASAP! The main character Chris takes up a job at the local records store and discovers that a famous band member has gone missing and needs to be located fast. Also, Chris identifies herself as Queer and there is LGBTQIA+ representation that made me very excited. It was a little short for me personally but keen to see where the storyline goes next! Quite nostalgic and kick-ass all female cast.

[Kemi · Rating 4 out of 5]

wanted to recommend this to my little cousin but she makes me read everything first to make sure it's good🙄 at least this passed the test

[a · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok this is HELLA CUTE!

I really, REALLY love the cover and once I found out just how diverse this comic was, it was honestly a no-brainer.

THIS IS ABOUT AN ALL GIRLS FIGHT CLUB!

SIGN ME THE HECK UP!

We don't learn too much in this first part but it introduces us to the characters and this new world very well. Everyone seems so cool! I already wish I could be a part of that world and be friends with these amazing women and I've only read 29 pages of the comic so far!

Alright, I'm moving on to the part 2!

[Camden Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really cute graphic novel with amazing character designs and even a blooming lesbian romance. This was a fun start to the series that introduced the characters and the world excellently. Although, it was quite short which I can understand since it is the first edition of the series. I'm really eager to check out the rest of the series though!

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this SO SO much! Cute, fun and oozing with girl power. The art is also pretty rad. I'm not much of a muso but I highly suggest this because it's not what it seems :)

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the art style a lot, still don't know much about the story.
Want to read more.

[Xara K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good first issue!

[Momo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forgot to add this to my Goodreads apparently oops I think I would've rated it 3 stars-

Read this a few months ago and liked it but didn't love it but I find that I kind of almost never love comic books but I probably just pick all the wrong ones for me! I liked this enough to recommend it to my friend (mostly because of sapphic romance) and I just found out there's a second volume because of someone's review so I will probably eventually pick that up too!

[Ray Flores · Rating 2 out of 5]

Things you need to know about this graphic novel:
-Has a nice representation on different types women and their empowerment.
-Has a teen LGBTQ+ character that is actually relatable and not annoying at all.
-A record store set in the 90s!
-Woman kicking ass!
-The power of friendship!
-Gorgeous art style!

[solène · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure what I was expecting, the art was gorgeous but the characters were quite flat. This is the first issue and even if it took me some time to get into it, I'm excited to see what's going to happen to Chris.

[Veronic · Rating 5 out of 5]

HA!
This is the reason why I love going into stories blind.
If you have no formed expectation, you can more easily enjoy the story.
That ending threw me for a loop lol. I was not expecting a vigilante teen girl fight club, and now I can't wait to read the rest of the issues!

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good! So cute, and full of fun characters that are actually diverse. I'm addicted, and I don't care who knows it. Bring on the next issue!

[Zimmy W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my gosh I'm OBSESSED this was so fun - definitely gonna have to read the rest of this series!!

[sunny · Rating 4 out of 5]

they're all so pretty i wanna cry

[mehk · Rating 4 out of 5]

THIS IS AMAZING

I saw the cover and it was promising. I loaned it and read it about fifty times. It's just so cute for my single heart and I miss reading it. Now there is some spoilers so skip if you WILL read it.





Okay so hi
This books was a rollercoaster and I loved it. It was the first comic style book I'd read in a while and I am trying to get my hands on the rest of the series.
First of Maggie and Chris-
This is a couple I hope to see thrive and just care about. When they had a little bit of a fighty part thing I was screaming, crying, throwing hands just to realise they do end on good terms.
THIS BOOK SCREAMED GIRL POWER
and I am here for it. Feminism in books is always done well and I love it. Idea of a women's fight club? Sign me up!
Roxy stole my heart <3 like omg bestie could sing, fight steal hearts yes.

[Brooke Banks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in looooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooove!

90s nostalgia. Girl gang. Music. GIRL CRUSHES. Vigilantes. Feminism. ALL OF IT!!!! *flails about wildly*

[The Sapphic Nerd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gosh darn adorable! You know when you're super excited for a comic and it comes out and it's everything you hoped it would be? This is that. I love it. I relate to Chris so hard! Everything in this comic is a mix of things I love. Queer girls, cute girls, audio/music, butt-kicking, and nerds. Good. All good. Beautiful art and writing that makes me make noises. PICK IT UP!!!

[haraka (tinybooknest) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I really enjoy this graphic novel. Good premise (about a music store with all woman as their staffs). I adore the diversity and representation in here. And since I pick this one without know a single thing about it, the ending kinda suprise me and make me wanna to read the next part ASAP.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork is really nice and I like the idea of a woman owned vinyl store but the plot is… confusing? I can get down with a female fight club but they’re also like detectives? And there’s humanoid androids? Hoping this is a case of first volume syndrome and the plot is fleshed out well in the next one

[Tar Buendía · Rating 4 out of 5]

El dibujo me encantaba así que decidí darle un tiento. Qué gran decisión. No creo, eso sí, que la trama de para muchos números. Pero para empezar ay qué chachi.

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

ohmygosh this was so good and I love the characters and the art and the whole vibe it gives off and I can't wait to continue reading this series because I just know it's going to be amazing!!!

[Mayar Mahdy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful artwork, but I'm not really hooked. I don't know if I'll continue.

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the things are not making sense, story-wise, but the art is nice

[Bree Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lesbians. Music store. Teen girl vigilante fight club. I’m so excited for more of this series

[Jamie Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The art is stunning!!
Also a secret teen girl fight club?? Sign me up!

[Liz ݁ ˖ִ ࣪✩₊ ⊹˚ - INACTIVE · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so intrigued to read the rest!

[Karina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[fulano]

Rep:
Lesbian MC

Good so far, and I like the art style too!