Book Review: Ubby's Underdogs
GRAPHIC NOVEL
Ubby’s Underdogs: Heroes Beginnings
Brenton McKenna
Magabala Books, $24.95
The smart and tough Ubby returns with her Underdogs in this second volume, an adventure where Aboriginal and Chinese cultures come together, both in harsh realities of a post-World War II Broome and in their respective mythologies. Brenton McKenna shows his developing confidence as a storyteller, mixing it up to appeal to both teenage girls and boys. He uses his organic manga style to emphasise colour and a freewheeling speed to the narrative, wanting the reader to move through the text as fast and as possible, making the action run less on the page and more in the mind like a clever action film. His expression of lives growing up hard and becoming heroes in struggling times is the stuff of good animated movies.
