2020 52 Book Challenge - 25) Title Beginning With "C"

I liked the premise of this comic, following the lives of retail workers at a mobile phone store. Parts of it, I could relate to. But other than that, it was pretty forgettable. I only finished it a couple of hours ago, and already I can't remember some of the characters names.

If you’ve ever had to labor through the horrors and character building experiences of working retail then you’ll get a kick out of Cellies.
The working teen and adults alike will enjoy reading the “if it can go wrong it will” plot about the newest greatest amazing-est phone launch happening in their local cellular store.
And if you haven’t had a job like this before, maybe you’ll treat the kid at the Verizon kiosk just a little better next time you need a new phone.

Take a generic cell phone store named Jog in the Pittsburgh (PA) area, add a clueless boss, a diverse set of retail clerks, mix, shake and out pops Cellies. The interest comes from the interaction of the clerks with each other and customers. If you have ever worked retail, you will recognize various situations and personalities. A different read than super hero comics, but enjoyable in its own right.

This was so enjoyable and brought back nostalgia from the days when I worked as a cashier. I felt sympathy for the characters and each character felt as real as people I know or knew back in those days. The storytelling and the artwork was wonderful and flowed well together, making for an engaging, overall story.

I didn't find the main plot elements particularly compelling. Working standard retail is a weird world, especially when it involves a struggling business. And especially when you have a self-serving boss. This leads to some weird episodes that would have been more compelling if there had been a stronger narrative structure. More interesting to me was the interludes relaying real life stories of working in retail.

I honestly thought this was going to be a book about cell phones turning people into zombies from the cover and blurb. That myth was quickly dispelled midway through the first issue. Instead it was a workplace comedy with very few jokes or plots. It was mainly about people working in a cell phone store helping customers. It may have been the most boring thing I've read in my life. It's right up there with the training videos they make you watch when you get hired to work at a cell phone store. Maybe that was the inspiration?

'Cellies, Vol. 1' by Joe Flood and Davis Stuart II is a love letter to working in retail hell. It is funny in a sitcom kind of way.

The workers of Jog Mobile have lots of things to deal with. There are new phone releases, irate customers, clueless customers, absentee managers. There is also bonding with strange coworkers and office romance.

The cover might lead you to believe it's a zombie story, but it's more of a story told by someone who has been in the trenches of retail and suffered the ennui of slacking for menial pay. The art works well for the story. Overall, it's a solid effort.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Lion Forge, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Book Review
Title: Cellies Volume 1
Author: Joe Flood & Davis Stuart II
Genre: Graphic Novel
Rating: *
Review: So from a glance Cellies seems more like a friendship and family based graphic novel rather than a creepy Halloween read: “It's Halloween season, when Seven Sails theme park's Shocktober Nights rule! Budding teen rebel Rey decides to ditch work to join her friends for spooky fun and asks Devin to cover for her. One thing though: Rey's parents are a little (read: very) strict! Devin must wait for Rey to rush to Jog Mobile by 9pm – after closing – in time for her parents to pick her up. But Parker and her friends have other plans. Will Rey make it back in time? Can Devin keep her out of trouble?”
I was disappointed with the beginning of Cellies as we are only introduced to the store workers of Jog Mobile and their daily work life for 3 whole chapters, we don’t get to the Seven Sails theme park's Shocktober Nights until the opening of chapter 4. I didn’t think this much of the novel was needed introducing the characters and the store maybe just one chapter so by the time chapter 4 came around I was already bored.
The only interesting part of this graphic novel for me was the end in which Rey’s parents who are really strict decides to visit the store to speak to her boss, but Parker pretends instead to help her friend. However, Rey’s parents want to speak to the supervisor and are threatening action against the store for leaving a 16-year-old girl alone late at night and they also make Rey basically quit her job. While I won’t be continuing with the series, it was terrible just not my cup of tea.

I was perusing the comics available on NetGalley recently when this cleverly named collection jumped out at me. Cellies follows a group of retail employees at a cell phone store through midnight launches, parental drama and store romances.

Volume one of Cellies is a fun introduction to some interesting and varied characters. The staff feel like they’re your average underpaid and under-appreciated retail worker and their manager is a hoot. Though, I must admit, I never found myself really caring about the characters or what happened to them.

Interspersed throughout the main storyline are “real life” retail horror stories that have been drawn in the same style as Cellies. I think these in particular will resonate with anyone who has ever worked in retail.

The art is quite cool and I loved the use of colour throughout the comics.

I enjoyed Cellies, vol. 1 as a very quick “slice of life” style read, but found it odd that the volume ended on a cliffhanger. Most collections I have read in the past end on the conclusion of the current story arc so that each collection can be read separately.

While I did enjoy the first collection, I wasn’t hooked in enough to be super keen on checking out the next instalment in the series. And I don’t feel like what I’ve read will be particularly memorable in the long run, but it was a quick read that gave me a few laughs.

I received this graphic novel from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

So, given the cover, I had thought this was some kind of zombie book, but no. Instead it is all about the employees of Jog Mobile, some kind of mobile phone shop. So I braced myself and hoped for the best. I have to say I hated this book. Around 30 pages in I wanted to drop it, but I wanted to give another shot, at around 50% I just wanted to bang my head against the wall, and now I am finally finished.

Most of the book takes place in the store, duh, though we also see some other places which I found refreshing.

I liked that this was about retail and that we also actually saw some retailing happening, including some very annoying customers (like the guy who expects our guys to know everything about every phone they have, yeah, no).

I just couldn't give a shit about any of the characters. Not Rey, not Devin, not any of them. They were all pretty much terrible, and not only because of the Jerry thing. I wonder even why a smart girl like Elena is working there. Does she need money that badly she will take any poop job? Girl...

Did they just take/steal the Jerry thing from Parks and Rec? You know, older employee who nobody seemingly likes and everyone is always shooing and shushing him and being rude to him? I was not amused by that. I hated it in P&R and I am not happy that someone is doing the same thing here. How can someone be so mean towards someone? Just because he isn't always doing the right things doesn't mean you should chew him out like this. And really, it is stolen from Parks & Rec. He does the same stuff that Jerry there would do. Stumble around, bump into things, etc.

Plus who the hell does that to someone who is in a tanning booth? I don't like that guy, but that is just dangerous.

What did I like? Well, those small stories in between about retail. Those were fun to read.

Oh, and the art was good. I liked that.

But yeah, too many things that I disliked so I won't be reading this one any further than this volume.

As someone who worked on with phone companies, also as someone who still works with public - same!
Joe Flood and Davis Stuart II create a a beautiful and nice drawn world, where our nice and human character have to suffer in retail work. In a Cellphone shop! I shudder just to think!

In this first volume it's mostly more so we can meet the characters and get to know where they work and how. More of a background moment. We meet Devin, Parker, Rey, Jerry, Elena... And of course can't forget the instagram model Chris! From teens to a retired journalist we see as they go their days dealing with frustrated costumers, which again - Shudders!

And all between chapters we get to see the real hell of retail workers! As the authors also accept your stories by email so they can maybe make it into a cartoon.. Maybe I should send some to them?

The characters and how they are portrayed - At least in my point of view - are actually quite real, from crushes, to how to deal with parents and.. well costumers trying to make their mistake on you! All very real and with a really nice art! I love the colors and how they all are drawn, very pleasing to the eyes! I can't wait for the second volume, and maybe the return of the mysterious goo!

Thank you NetGalley and Lion Forge for giving me this chance to read it! I'm excited for more of Cellies!

Fun, light-hearted graphic novel about everyday people doing everyday things. The cover gave the impression it would have to do with zombies - it doesn't. I appreciated the diversity, but doesn't really do anything with it. It's one of those books you should read when you've just read a really intense story and you need a "filler" book, while you recover.

This was a short, fun read. This feels a lot like Saved By The Bell meets IT guys. Very sitcom-y but enjoyable. Have the people you worked with ever been your family, your support system, and your social circle all at once? This is that story. The story has the rich white girl who is “accepting of all races,” but tries just a little too hard, the hard worker, the “Dwight Schrute” who works too hard, the burner/stoner, and of course the old guy who nobody likes. The gang is all here, insert cell phone store.

Drawing very much from the 1994 Kevin Smith movie, Clerks for its inspiration, this graphic novel written by Scheidt (issue 1) and Flood (issues 2 - 5), and illustrated throughout by Steward, tells the tale of an evidently way over-staffed cell-phone store and the oddball events that occur there from day to day. Some are hilarious, others boring. The book does have the advantage of a diverse cast (which Smith's movie was sadly lacking) and is well-written and illustrated, and while I enjoyed this volume and consider it a worthy read, there really wasn't anything in it to persuade me to read any more beyond these covers.

Cellies is a slice of life comic about a group of regular people who work at a cell phone store. Having been a retail slave myself for many years I really enjoyed that the characters are really very representative of the types of people that really do work retail: you have the dodo manchild whom no one can believe has actually been promoted to manager, the hard working new college grad who is just trying to move on up in the business world, the young teen working their first job and the token old guy who is trying to rebuild a life and career after the bad economy cost his his "real" job among others.
Their stories are told in a funny and realistic (although occasionally over the top) manner with great art - and bonus points for having an ethnically diverse cast which includes a Muslim woman, an African-American and a multicultural Latina. I also really enjoyes the little break in between chapters in which the writer illustrates real life customer service horror stories sent in by fans!

I can see the market for this, but it's not for me. I did not finish this book, so I do not feel comfortable writing a longer review.

I was looking forward to this book, but I didn't like it at all. Firstly, this is not an accurate depiction of retail workers. Retail workers work hard for little pay, and often have bad work environments. Also, customers can be terrible. That is not the retail workers' fault. I find this book discriminatory, dry, and weakly written. The art was good though.

Though Cellies is very relatable to anyone who worked in retail, the story was a bit weak for me and didn't pull me in as much as I wanted it to. I felt it started strong in the beginning but when that part of the story was done I just wasn't interested anymore. What I did like though was the submitted stories intbetween certain chapters some of those were really funny. The artwork is very solid though.

This comic is entirely relatable for anyone who's ever worked in retail. I especially enjoyed the short comics between chapters that were based on true story submissions. Looking forward to the next one!

Okay I need to honestly say I liked nothing but cover. The story? Boring to me. I expected some kind of a zombie drama, but nah-ah. I've got 5 issues of boring characters (a lot of diversity of course but boring anyway, every one of them). There's no mystery or zombies or any other amusing thing I was expecting. Just a little sight into basic day of people working in phones selling store. The only parts I liked a little was those outside of the store. I can't say it is badly written or bad in general, I'm just not that kind of person who can enjoy stories like this.