I was provided this graphic novel (as an advanced reader copy) by NetGalley. All views expressed in this review are my own.

I absolutely adored this graphic novel! It was not only cute and adorable, but also incredibly progressive and accepting. This story revolves around the inaugural year of an all-girls basketball team (and league) at an art school. Many of the characters are women of color and/or members of the LGBT community, and it is effortless in its diversity. I love the art style and colors, as well as the story itself. I requested this on a whim, having read and loved sports novels/graphic novels such as The Foxhole Court and Check, Please!: #Hockey, Vol. 1, and I am so incredibly glad that I did. I definitely want to pick this up in physical form when it comes out and also continue on with the story.

If you enjoyed Fence, Volume 1, this has many similar themes and you should definitely add it to your TBR!

The storyline of the graphic novel is intriguing and captivating from the first page. Combined with the crisp illustration style it's a book you won't want to put down.

I was able to snag the first chapter of The Avant Guards during free comic book day, and I was SO excited to have the chance to read the full first volume thanks to NetGalley! The Avant-Guards follows Charlie, who has recently transferred to the College of Arts and Subtle Dramatics, where she ends up joining the school's brand new (and struggling) basketball team. The artwork is so cute, the characters are all unique in both personality and illustration, and the story is fun and easy to follow. I highly recommend! Thanks to NetGalley for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Avant-Guards is a refreshing graphic novel that delve into the beauty of friendship and moving on. I requested this graphic novel as I was interested with the gist and honestly, this book did not disappoint. I would love to play some hoops with Bravo, Liv, Jay, Tiffany, and Ash.

The illustrations are on point as well and the color dynamics are visually enticing. I hope this graphic book reached a wide audience it deserves.

this graphic novel is the first that I have gotten from netgalley and it did not disappoint! this was so cute and I cant wait for the next one

An epic and beautiful start to what I believe will be a classic comic. The Avant-Guards was just what I needed: a wonderful story of a new basketball team with hilarious and romantic moments in between. The colors are just gorgeous and the art made me cry so hard because it's so amazing! I would highly recommend this to everyone to be honest, and I will for the rest of my life. Cannot wait to read more of it! I'm a fan now.

Charlie Bravo has just transferred to the Georgia O’Keeffe College of Arts and Subtle Dramatics and is struggling to adapt to her new environment. She's as surprised as anyone when she is invited (repeatedly) to play for the school's brand new Division 4 women's basketball team. Despite her apprehensions (she's still recovering from an embarrassing flame out on the State school team) she quickly finds her place among her team of misfits. The characters are highly diverse and the plot is both both fun and engaging. I'm personally very much looking forward to future volumes of this series.

This was such an adorable graphic novel! It was full of friendship, though out characters, AMAZING ART, and cute sapphic love!

I loved the progression of the story and how it went into each characters unique personality. The art just captured the atmosphere of this team of misfits. The style was very realistic. I almost cried seeing a girl have love handles. The cool sports scenes were also done so well, AND THE COLORS. I loved the diversity of the characters. Body types, race, styles. There was even a Non-Binary character! But, back to the story it was a nice jump into this world and I really needed more, like right now.

Just some information, the main character is a Scorpio Sun Cap Moon, so take that how you will.

When this graphic novel comes out in print, I WILL have a copy and you should, too!

Sweet Tart

This series is from Boom! Box; while I don't know a lot about that publisher or all of its titles, I'm familiar with two other series. I'd slip this one in between "Giant Days", which I like very much, and "Lumberjanes", which I've never been able to really get in to.

Anyway, the premise here is that Charlene, (Charlie), has transferred to a free spirited arts college after bombing out of the state school where she played scholarship basketball. She has a big chip on her shoulder and the first part of the book has us following Charlie as the she grumps, groans, sighs, shrugs, and scowls her way around campus. Luckily, a fireplug student, Olivia, is trying to form an artsy-fun basketball team, and she won't keep away from badgering Charlie to join. Olivia is a great character and she finally wears down and warms up Charlie. The undercurrent of romance is very mild at first and builds slowly to a sweet, promising mild cliffhanger.

The other ballers are interesting characters. The team banter is amusing and gentle. There isn't so much drama as there is good natured development of their various relationships, and their overall friendship as a team. While Charlie starts out sour and annoying we quickly transition to an upbeat and entertaining friendship tale.

The art is interesting. At first it feels awfully cartoony, with minimal backgrounds and a bit of a static feel. But I warmed up to it because it was actually sort of sly and subtle. Expression and energy was always focused on the right character in the right panel, so just a smirk or an eyeroll or a raised eyebrow could enliven and carry the story. Colors are pastel bright, with simple lines and almost no shading or heavy inking, but that all helps to keep the story moving along at a light and lively pace.

So, I enjoyed this and I liked it, and ended up way more involved with the characters than I expected I would when I was just a short way into the book. A nice find.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

AHHHHHHH this is everything I've wanted in a comic series and more!! Our entire cast of characters is made up of queer ladies of color and I would die for every single one of them? Sports gays are already god tier but the amount of pure lesbian energy in this is unreal give me more NOW. Y'all absolutely have to pick this up when it comes out this September.

10/10 recommend to anyone looking for a wholesome comic. I absolutely loved the characters, soft angst and queer representation. I can't wait to keep reading!!

This is a story about strong women at college playing basketball for the love of the sport. This is the first basketball team that has happened at the Georgia O'Keeffe College of Art. Of course in this volume of the ongoing comic book series, we have onlkyk just one game that takes place. The rest of the story is about everyones lives and likes and dislikes.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5211" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/avante-gaurds2.png" alt="" />

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5212" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/avant-gaurds.png" alt="" />

Charlie has played basketball before, and is actually quite good at it, which is they the school recuits her. Well, the Avante Guards recruit her, and she joins the team.

And what would a story be if it was just about sports. There are loves gained and lost. There are interdramatics.

A whole lot of fun.

I did not think I was going to like it because, yuck, who wants to read a whole comic book about sports? But there is very little sports played in these stories.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

A graphic novel with diversity, sarcasm, f/f relationships, a non-binary character, and a healthy dose of realizing nobody is sure of what they are doing? Yes, please!

This was original, but definitely has a feel similar to Giant Days so if you are a fan I recommend this series as well. The cliffhanger ensures I can’t wait for Volume 2, but to be honest I would have been looking for it anyway because I really enjoyed the characters and the scenario in volume 1.

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.

Everything I was hoping for and more! Smart, snappy, and snarky, this is easily going to become one of my favorite graphic novel series. In the same vein as Check, Please!, this series is a nice stress relieving evening with a group of lovely female characters full of self-confidence and well-placed sass. Add in some refreshing diversity, and this book was a slam dunk. (Haha, I'm hilarious, right?)

Welcome to the Georgia O'Keeffe College of the Arts and Subtle Dramatics! Now meet our players: Charlie, an aspiring filmmaker and transfer student; Olivia, a textbook over-achiever; Ashley, who sings like Beyonce and dances like Rihanna; Tiffany, who would like you to join her coven and, no, those are definitely not candles in her dorm room; Nicole, the cynic; and Jay, who is a quiet gentle-giant. Together they are: the Avant-Guards!

This motley crew come together to play basketball in a brand-new league for small colleges, and develop friendships (and romances) as they learn how to become a team. It's sweet and cute and funny, and the art is fantastic. But what a cliffhanger! I can't wait to see what will happen in Volume 2!

Weirdly, seeing as I'm not a sports fan, I've been loving (graphic) novels about sports lately! This one, which is about a girls' college basketball team (full of queer girls!), was once again really fun. I absolutely adored the art work and colour use. So often, a graphic novel will either read quite rushed or it'll feel like nothing really happened yet in volume 1. This one had great pacing, and there was already quite a lot of character development.

If I'd have to compare, I'd say this is a combination of Fence and Giant Days, and I would definitely recommend picking it up!

Rep: this graphic novel has multiple (main) wlw characters of colour, as well as a non-binary side character.

CWs: anxiety, mentions of panic attacks.

I enjoyed this one. It both had a compelling story and a diverse group of characters. The love triangle did irk me a little but it didn't hurt the story. It contained feminist themes, great humor, and a great artistic style. Hopefully, with the cliffhanger, readers would like to continue with this story.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect going into this. What I got was a slightly saner cast of characters than the madhouse that is Giant Days. Which is just fine – as much as a love Esther, Liv is someone I’m more likely to be friends with because she’s the cutest bun-head ever…. I mean she’s insane but that’s fine.

Easily my favourite character though I liked all the characters (Ashley might be my next favourite, because I appreciate her fabulousness).

Charlie – who I should probably mention, being the MC and all – is ok. She’s kinda meh the whole time. A John Mulaney quote comes to mind with her in all honesty:

‘I don’t know what my body is for, other than carrying my head from room to room.’

(John Mulaney, Kid Gorgeous, 2018)

Charlie kind of had that vibe about her, simply there to move the story from room to room even though she’s one of the two narrating characters and a love interest character.

Liv was a much more charismatic narrator and it felt like the writers realised this as they went along as she got more and more internal dialogue. But, Charlie was fine to kick things off and move things along and Liv picked up the slack and they can both play basketball well, so it’s all grand.

I love anything sports related. Though, maybe it’s just me, but the sports kind of took a back seat to the relationships – which is fine, there was a lot of character and dynamic to cram into 100-ish pages.

I was a bit wary of the romance – like it kind of came out of nowhere but, at the same time, it didn’t. It just felt like ‘awwww look, we have a couple! Let’s slam ’em together within the first book and that’s it for the rest of the series.’ But, it saved itself at the end. The characters sort of decided to take it slow for rational, sensible reasons – I mean we’ll have to see what happens next book because this was all at the end – but it SEEMS like it might be a bit more of a slow burn.

Also, can I just say, though it’s a background scene, the witches ceremony? Funniest part of the whole book, I loved it XD.

Overall, not a bad start to a potentially good series (I don’t appreciate that ending though -.- like c’mon, they only just got going! Be kind to Liv!)

It's interesting to see the rise in sports and athlete comics genre, and the addition of The Avant-Guards is a good one. The comic has more of a focus on the characters and their relationships than on basketball as a sport, though. Other than wishing there was more on that, I really enjoyed the story and art.

Thank you very much for allowing me the opportunity to read this book! I appreciate the kindness. <3