Vincent: The Story it Tells
Pretty much everyone has gone through that period as adolescents where they just discovered girls and or boys and the emotional swings they produce. Recently Brazilian author Vitor Cafaggi has brought his widely popular comic strip Valente (Valiant) to the US. For its US premier, it is called Vincent. In what will be a beautifully illustrated three book series, he cleverly and with humor covers these types of emotions. In the first book, Vincent Book One: A Guide to Love, Magic, and RPG, Vincent is an anthropomorphized dog who is unlucky in love. He is shy and socially awkward, interested in magic, RPG’s and the character Rocky Balboa. This is good because so are many of his friends. However, it doesn’t generally make him a “chick magnet.”
Navigating Young Love
This does not stop him however from having high goals where love is concerned. It is during a bus ride he discovers Lady, a cat who recently broke-up with her boyfriend. Vincent does his best to impress her, going over many scenarios in his head how to do that. While he does his best to woo Lady, she continues to overlook him in favor of her ex-boyfriend. How typical.
Undeterred, Vincent rebounds by falling for someone new on his bus route, a panda named Princess. In what should have been a surprise to Vincent, soon BOTH become interested in the nerdy kid. Because he is so new to this type of attention, he attempts to try to keep both their affections (Upon the advice of his RPG friends). This goes on until he makes the decision to choose Princess, only to have her leave to Australia for school. This left him without Princess (at least physically for now) and without Lady whom he left for Princess. Perhaps if he had listened more to his level headed confidante Bu he might have avoided this. In the end he has lost Lady and after not hearing from Princess for a while, he receives an ominous phone call from her…Uh Oh.
Viewpoint
Vincent Book One is a charming tale of adolescent love and heartbreak. It is told with the right amount of angst and humor to help lighten the load. The pages are beautifully illustrated. However, the amount of text used gives a tip of the hat to its comic strip origins. Vincent Book One: A Guide to Love, Magic, and RPG is available now. It is aimed at young adults 12-18, although anyone older will relate to the story it tells. The second book in the series Vincent Book Two: Heartbreak and Parties 101 will be released be on July 16th. Both are by Super Genius and published through PaperCutz.
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Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 50 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove head first over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 18 year old boy with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.
