Never Ending Summer

by Allison Cole

A graphic novel that pays attention to the strange details that make up everyday life, this story is an autobiographical account that follows a group of friends through a summer filled with uncertainty and confusion. Relationships break down between boyfriends, friends, and family, throughout which the author must discover how to maintain a sense of balance. Parties, excessive drinking, and financial instability add to the commotion. Drawn in a beautiful minimal style with delicate 2-color interior, Never Ending Summer reflects upon the immediacy of the present and the potential of events to come.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Comix

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2004

Reviews

[Laura]

3.5 stars. Very cute and relatable -- that sort of quiet, deceptively simple style where people are just hanging out, drinking beer and making mix tapes.

[StrictlySequential ArtNarrative]

This is what I've come to know as an "Alternative Comic" which is pretty much a story about real-life with very simple art that's printed on paper that tears when you take a sticker off of it leaving a nightmarish spine for your shelf.

Her FAT THUMB PEOPLE with arms and legs who have faces where the nail would be got annoying to look at very quickly and made characters difficult to distinguish especially when dealing with so many names- some being unisex.

Once you've read a bunch of stories chronicling the emotional tribulations of dealing with boys (vs. men) they become less interesting and feel like writer's homework to read. A story like this needs some interesting fiction mixed in to captivate readers like myself.

[Ami]

Art was OK. Plot was tragically uninteresting. A girl says goodbye to her boyfriend, who is going home for a break. He decides to be away the whole summer and distances himself from her. We learn that he is sort of wrapped up in his ex-girlfriend. The main character spends the summer working at a comic book store. She hangs out with her friends, who like to listen to records and drink and talk about who is dating whom. She meets a new boy. We learn he is also wrapped up in his ex-girlfriend. The main character breaks up with her distant boyfriend. She works some more at the comic book store. She hangs out with her friends some more, while they drink and listen to records and talk about who is dating whom. Then she starts playing records at a bar. The end.

The most intriguing thing about the book was how every character was drawn the same, with a silhouette that resembled Bigfoot, and the only differentiating characteristics were their hair and sometimes eyes.

[S]

1/3 adorable, but reminds me of the lady version of Regular Show. An endless cycle of going outs and breaking ups. This is a fair look at the class of person who is responsible enough to not do drugs and maintain and job, but not responsible enough to move past their own self interests and lukewarm hedonism.

[K]

Fun art, I like this type of clean art. The handwriting was a bit hard to parse at places. There's almost no plot, just vibes. The cat was super cute. It was very fun to read it with my partner, we had great time interpreting all the scenes.

[Courtney]

Girls hating boys, drinking beer, and listening to records.

Overall a pretty fair coming-of-age in your 20s kind of book. Simple and honest, Cole looks at a bad summer for relationships and a good summer for self-discovery. The dialog isn't brilliant. In fact it's often bad. But the characters pull the book through.

Cole's obvious weakness, in my mind, is her handwriting/illustration style. It's unbearably cute. Even when she writes "beer" in her curly cue cursive it reads like "slumber party!" It's distracting. Still, I finished the book happy for her. Hopefully next summer (six years in the future considering she wrote this 2003-2004) finds her in a much better place.

[HeavyReader]

The story here is about a young woman whose boyfriend type person is supposed to only be gone a couple of weeks, but once he leaves decides to go to Australia for the whole summer. He tells her this decision via telephone. Much drinking of alcohol and young adult angst follows.

All of the characters are drawn as sort of Weebles with legs and only slightly different features like hair and glasses. These Weebles with legs creatures are kind of cute, but hard to differentiate. I spent the whole book trying to figure out who was who because everyone looked so much alike.

[Nicky]

The plot isn't really the point of this book. It tells the story of a twentysomething summer that uses little moments between friends (that look like yetis or bears, btw) to do so. I feel like other graphic novels capture the restlessness and poignancy of being in the suburbs as a not-child-not-parent better--Daniel Clowes and Nicole Georges come to mind--but it was a fun read that, for a bit, brought me a couple years back to drinking and wondering "will they or won't they?" for all of my friends.

[Lori]

Yes, this is a graphic novel. Not so much my speed, I know. But I love this book. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I feel like I know everyone she's writing / drawing about. It's real, it speaks volumes (even when there aren't words), it's endearing. You can read it in under an hour, and then read it over and over. That Allison Cole. I'm a fan.

[Kate]

The fact that the characters in this book were so indistinguishable bugged me a little. The slight differences between them is signified mostly by hairstyle or the presence of glasses. Strange artwork...I like the story though, a post-breakup, redemption plot...Reminded me of High Fidelity.

[jessica]

this made me want to work in a comic book store, but one which sold only allison cole books. aaand i kind of wanted all of my friends to have animal heads like her friends in the book.
this reminds me of sitting at the kitchen table with cherie, talkin' comics.

[Claire]

cuuuuuuuute. and the end is kind of empowering. it's nice to get a female spin on the battlefield of love after all the scott pilgrims and the jeff browns that dominate the self-consciously emo comic book world. it's nice to relate to drawn little smooshy people.

[nicole]

the best post-break-up comic ever!

[Jen]

Girl ditches boys for records. A new feminist manifesto?

[Callie]

It reminded me of my early 20's.

And I enjoyed the artwork- cute stuff!

[Aneesa]

This is a quiet, northwestern comic about girls who drink beer and make mixtapes. I had a hard time telling the characters apart.

[Tienlyn]

My favorite graphic novel off all time. Ok it's tied but seriously, this book is perfect. Sweet, sincere, and open.

[Oneblackcloud]

ouch to my heart

[Lilly]

Another book on my graphic novel binge. I got drawn into the world of these kids trying to sort themselves and their loves out over the course of one summer. So beautiful.

[Forest Juziuk]

Liked the perspective of the female characters – fairly rare in comics, especially one point in the story when a few lament the similar frustrating experiences of dating young dopey dudes.