In less-than-jolly old Tackleford, England there are mysteries afoot, and two separate trios of youths are on the cases! Shauna and Charlotte are total BFFs, but Mildred is totes butting in, will they be able to save poor old Mrs. Biscuits from the evil developer that wants to destroy her home to build a new football (the soccer kind) stadium? Jack, Sonny, and Linton want to solve the curse of the local football team (well Linton does, Jack and Sonny are just bored) who happens to be the aforementioned evil developer. Also there may be a ghost!This book is absolutely hilarious. It is filled with clever gags, great characters and at least one joke on every page! The book is a recurring webcomic (read it here), so that means every page has to have at LEAST one joke and forces the funny to be on the money. The cast of sort of wonky 12 year-olds looking for something to do really drives a lot of the jokes. They're in the middle of not being silly kids anymore and having no clue of how to start being teenagers. Allison has absolutely crackling dialogue and knows how to use lettering and pacing to maximize his jokes. My favorite bit has to be when Mildred points out how illogical ghosts are, because if ghosts DID exist they would absolutely show up every time an American president made a speech to make fart noises. He also makes all the side characters wonderfully weird. Even the mysteries which are silly and solved in a ludicrously lazy fashion by the kids pay off very nicely. there are quite a few Britishisms, but they usally make sense in context and there is a helpful glossary in the back. All in all it's a must read for any one that likes their comics actually comic.
You can look for Bad Machinery: The Case of the Team Spirit here.
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