I’ve never watched the Degrassi TV series, a long-lived Canadian series showcasing teenagers at high school or starting college, and yet, I did enjoy reading this manga-sized book (available at Amazon). There’s a short presentation of the main characters at the beginning, which is all one needs to get into the story. This fourth and last–for now, at least–volume of all-new stories all written by J. Torres and set during summer vacations (between seasons of the TV series, if I’m not mistaken) focuses on Ashley, a young woman who’s back from a year in England and finds it hard to live again in her hometown, and on Marco, a gay teenager who’s just out of the closet as well as of high school, and has trouble balancing all that, with Dylan, his more assured boyfriend, not making it any easier.
Ashley’s story is pretty silly, but funny, in my opinion: on the surface, it’s about an horrid hat she brought back from England, which she holds on to despite everybody’s rather clear dislike of it. Of course, it’s all a symbol of her problem adjusting to getting her old life back. The meat of this volume is Marco’s evolution: he’s shown as having some trouble asserting himself, especially in situations where he’d have to face his family’s reactions. He’s out to his parents, but parts of his all-Italian extended family don’t seem to be very gay-friendly. So, when Dylan, who’s slightly older than he is, proposes that they share a place, Marco has some growing-up to do.
Marco and Dylan
Marco and Dylan are engaging characters, with some obvious care given to challenging stereotypes of gays and gay portrayal in mainstream fiction: Dylan is a jock, yet he’s perfectly at ease with being gay and is completely out; Marco loves shopping and has some clichéd gay tastes, yet he’s the one who’s afraid of behaving affectionately in public or of announcing to his parents he’s in a relationship. Both are warm, nice people who love each other, despite some bad blood between them.
I’ve also read the first two volumes in the series (Marco is a background character in the first one), and it’s clear that the stories for each of these teenagers are made to highlight issues real-life teenagers can, and often do face. Sometimes, it’s a bit heavily done, and sometimes it’s well woven into the characters. I think that Marco and Dylan are fortunately in the latter group.
Steve Rolston’s art is a big plus, even though there’s sometimes a dearth of background. He’s very good with expressions and body language, with an open, cartoony art that enables him to bring out the emotions of the characters. He also draws pretty cute guys.
Is reading only this volume worth it? Well, maybe not. But having well-written mainstream teenage fiction tackling interesting and well-rounded gay characters (Marco’s “problems” are far from being only gay-related) is, hopefully, a sign of the evolution of mentalities in Western societies. Whether real-life gay teenagers have it easier than we did when I was their age (uh, some time ago…) is another question entirely.
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