2 out of 5

Before his infamous run on Marvel and DC comics, Chuck Austen kicked around in the indies, his initial main writer credits on two erotic series – Strips and Hardball. Strips was a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age sex romp in college; while I don’t know if Hardball had any personal details in it, it’s thematically linked, with both strips showing off Chuck’s embrace of sex and horniness as a pretty natural thing, leaning into it for cheesecake, and finding some very human drama (and comedy) mixed in.

After those infamous runs, the last comic works Chuck would do for a while returned to those themes, and kinda comboed both books: Boys of Summer focuses on Bud, on his way to college, and already branded as a “pervert” for ogling a girl playing sports who just so happens to be his across-the-hall neighbor. In a backwards meet-cute / underdog tale, we learn that Bud is actually a dang good baseball player but refuses to participate due to some past traumas; while Chrissie – his target-of-ogling – is catcher for the school ball team, coached by her dad. The first few days of school are full of ups and downs while Bud re-earns his pervert credit, but also impresses Chrissie with his occasional self-awareness.

Published in manga format by Tokyopop, an “older teen”-aimed booby book hits a bit different than a book about and for young adults – Strips, Hardball – written by a writer then closer to the age of his characters. It’s likely / possible artist Hiroki Otsuka leaned into the sex stuff moreso than is in the script (which primarily just admits that teens are horny), and although the kids are “of age” and probably drawn appropriately for their first college years, it’s all a bit cringey. Like if you’re reading this as a teen, you’re maybe hiding the book, and if you’re reading it as an adult… well, ahem, that’s me, but I’m here for the articles. I’d try to set this aside as much as possible for the review, but it’s still there, taking time to flash titties at us on occasion, or have Bud stumble across Chrissie changing, and while it’s all kind of innocent, and essentially tame, it’s a hop and a step to “boys will be boys.” A couple decades later you’d get writers like Brian K. Vaughan trying to do modern adult comics; Austen is definitely equipped (then; now) to do something like that, but I guess I don’t think that was the exact goal with Boys of Summer. I think it starts with titillation and then is back-filled with story.

Which is way too open-ended to make much impact. The overall thread of discovering more about Bud’s past is there, and because baseball appears on the cover, we know that’s going to be important, but we otherwise don’t really get much of a sense of character or place. Some of that is on the art, which occasionally doesn’t align how something is depicted with the script, or the lettering (Lucas Rivera) making it confusing who’s saying what, both of these keeping our immersion on guard; but ultimately, the story is very, very lightweight. Chuck’s forte of allowing protagonists to be neither good or bad is present – Bud is a pervert, but he’s also just a kid; Austen loves showing off how confusing / predictable humans can be, with their actions and words often misaligned; and Chrissie is played off against this well, being both caustic and caring and somewhat showing off a sense of independence outside of being defined as the love interest. And as with Strips and Harball from way back when, there are those recognizable moments of saying or doing the wrong thing, and not knowing how to respond. All those very human insertions are appreciated.

The rest of it…? There are a couple chuckles, and the underdog aspect of the baseball bit is some promising drama, but the book has a very kind of written-for-hire vibe; a last gasp before Austen took a break from the scene.