Nothing Better: Into the Wild

by Tyler Page

Odd-couple roommates Katt and Jane are in the middle of their first semester of college. They've made it past the awkward introductions and initial missteps to find themselves in a daunting place - in total control of their lives and their futures for the first time. Fortunately for the girls and their friends, St. Urho College is the perfect place to explore their budding freedom. Parties, tests, crushes, adventure and new experiences are around every corner. As the girls forge deeper into the world around them, their journey within takes them to new(different) and sometimes confusing places. They slowly begin to learn that life isn't always something you can plan moment-by-moment - it's something you just have to let happen.

Genres: Graphic Novels

162 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Tyler Page is an Eisner-nominated and Xeric Grant winning comics artist and educator based in Minneapolis, MN.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is hitting it's stride. Freshman year changes are happening in a fast and sometimes furious way. Jane, Matt and their college family are finding their own purposes. They discover the conflict between rigidity and flexibility of their worldview.

Highly recommended pass this by at your own risk.

[Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 colleges 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.

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just fantastic.