Amelia Rules: When The Past Is A Present

Title: Amelia Rules! When The Past Is A Present
Date: 2010
Publisher: Atheneum
Writer: Jimmy Gownley
Art: Jimmy Gownley
Cover Design: Sonia Chaghatzbanian

This volume collects issues #16-20 (plus a preview from the next collection) of Jimmy Gownley's Amelia Rules comic book.

Amelia McBride is a 5th-grader from New York City who is living in a small town with her mom following her parents' divorce. Her mother's musician sister lives in the same town and Amelia has become friends with a band of nerds, superheroes, ninjas, and misfits. That's the basic scenario. It's handled beautifully, with witty geeky dialogue, fast-paced jokes, and a kind of tenderness that is rare in comics. The opening story "Funny Story" has Amelia's mom going on a date, much to the horror of Amelia, who had plans to watch The Princess Bride with her mom. It doesn't help that the only babysitter available on short notice is, well, delusional. The resulting mayhem is clever and hilarious, and it gives a good taste of what Gownley can accomplish with his cast of characters.

Gownley's work is even stronger on "The Things I Cannot Change", the third chapter in this volume, which tells the story of one of Amelia's friends coping with her father's impending deployment overseas with the Army. "The Things I Cannot Change" is one of the best stories about war that I've ever read in comics, and it's written without a single battle scene.

Amelia Rules has some of the best storytelling in comics these days.

Rating: 9.5/10

I picked this up today at Ocean State Job Lot for $3. Best comic bargain I've gotten in quite a while. I know the purpose of this project is to read the comics I have, not to buy more, but this was too good to pass up!