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

Charlie is having a hard time adjusting to her new arts school when she is recruited for the brand-new (well, it will be brand-new if they can get another member) basketball team, the Avant-Guards. But Charlie has a lot of baggage about her history with basketball, and she's going to take some convincing to pick up the sport again.

This is a sweet, gentle story about friendship, crushes, and women's basketball, particularly club sports at a school with an arts focus. The LGBTQIA+ representation is diverse and well integrated into the story. Racial diversity is present on the page but not discussed. I do wish there was a little bit more about the actual basketball-- I was as surprised as the coach when they turn out to be pretty good-- but overall I really enjoyed this gentle, feel-good read.

I had been eyeing this comic book for a while and I was so happy to get the chance to review the bind-up first volume in advance.
This was a very cute read. The artwork is very nice and I loved the palette of colors they used, it was such a nice choice.
The story is funny and cute. This basketball team is composed by a group of weirdos, as Charlie says, but they’re definitely a lovely group of weirdos who deeply care for each other and who support one another. The representation in this comic book is everything we deserve and more, I was so happy to see that.
My favourite parts were definitely the one where they all try to convince Charlie to join the Avant-Guards basketball team and also the one where they play against the team who had puppies at the game, they were adorable!
When it comes out I’m surely going to check out the second volume.

I enjoyed this book. It was about this girl named Charlie that is a transfer student at an Arts College. The school has never had a basketball team and are looking to create one. The team is called Avant Guards and they need just one more player to make the team. So, they try to convince Charlie to join the team. Charlie has some reservations based on her past experiences and is reluctant to join. It’s a quick read that I see is geared towards 6th graders and up.

Charlie has just transferred from a State University to an (all-girls?) arts college after a not-so-great anxiety filled two semesters. She comes into the new school year jaded and with no friends. Luckily, the plucky Olivia decides Charlie is definitely the one person the school needs to complete their first ever Basketball team- the Avant-Guards- whether Charlie wants to be or not.
This is a very cute and fun start to a graphic novel series. The cast is racially and ethnically diverse, with heavy LGBTQ representation. The characters are distinct and each uniquely charming. Though Charlie is very much in her shell in this volume, I suspect I will like her more as the series continues. I appreciated that readers were not expected to know much about Basketball and jargon was kept to a minimum. My only complaint is that the characters occasionally appear stiff/awkward in the action/basketball scenes, but this is a minor distraction from an otherwise great Young Adult graphic novel.

I received this graphic novel from the publisher as a free Advanced Reader Copy through Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion and to assist in my Library Collection Development responsibilities.

I loved this book. It reminds me a lot of Lumberjanes, Giant Days, Heavy Vinyl, etc. The story was great, the characters were likable and dynamic, and the art was really well done. I can't wait till the next volume.

The art style was pretty good, I loved the vibrant, fun colors though. Storyline wise, it fell flat with the rampant stereotypes and cliches. I liked how chill the opposing team was, but having only one practice would not make the avant guard team work that well together, let alone destroy their competitors. Generally it isn't a unique story, yet, hopefully the next volume brings things back down to earth and gives the characters some more depth. I love tiffany though, she is awesome!

Very cute! I'm really enjoying this sudden profusion of queer-friendly children's comics (this series falls very much in the same vein as Goldie Vance, Lumberjanes, and Backstagers, and Fence, Zodiac Starforce, and Heavy Vinyl on the slightly older end). I have to say I expected there to be slightly more basketball in The Avant-Guards -- the first volume is mostly relationship drama -- but it's not necessarily a bad thing to focus on the interpersonal aspect more than sports. Volume one ends on a sudden cliffhanger, so readers beware!