So I absolutely ADORE this graphic novel.
It’s cute, fun and so beautifully illustrated, I need volume 2 in my life immediately.

Just a note: I’m not a sports fan. I have a very specific set of sports that I enjoy and an even smaller amount of sports that I’ll watch. So a graphic novel about sport was a bit of a wildcard for me, but I’m SO glad I read it.

I adore all the teammates and the illustrations really bring their personalities to life.

*I received a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

(eARC received for review from NetGalley) This was so good! I LOVE the representation. The artwork and coloring are fantastic. I definitely will be reading the rest of this series! It was super fun and I’m not a basketball fan.

The Avant-Guards was a wonderful and beautifully illustrated graphic novel.

The novel explores the experience of moving to a new school, making new friends, and getting out of your comfort zone. I loved the plot of this book and how all these creative people came together to make a basketball team.

The characters were so charming and adorable (especially Liv) and I loved how I got to know them quite well in a short amount of time. The representation of the characters was amazing and I really appreciate how much there is now; especially in graphic novels!

Overall, I really loved this story and the characters and I can't wait for Volume 2!

This was a wholesome graphic novel about forming friendships in the most unexpected places. It showed us that you can always fall back into what you love to do, even if you fell out of love with it. I loved that the romance in this was not the main focus of this story, but we still see them clumsily showing that they care. It's such a wholesome read that everyone should read.

This book is fantastic! I adored every second of it and I am beyond excited to read more volumes. There was a lot of representation in this book which was one of the reasons that I loved it so much. The characters were all different races, genders, and sexualities. I really liked that the book - even though it is a sports comic - mostly focused on the friendships and relationships between all of the characters. I would highly, highly recommend this book to any library. I think it will make an excellent addition to any collection.

When Charlie transfers colleges, she doesn’t exactly fit in anywhere until she meets the rag-tag group that makes up the school’s basketball team, The Avant-Guards.

I really enjoy the art and it had a pretty solid story line. Can’t wait to continue on when more are released.

I can't get this graphic novel to download. I love the cover and I think I would have liked this book alot if it would have downloaded

We have sports. We have college. We have drama (in more ways than one!). We have lesbians. We have non-binary people. We have people of color. We have a fun, relevant graphic novel that I really enjoyed! The artwork was great, the colors popped, and the storyline was topical. I want more!

Awesome stuff!
Charlie transfers to the Georgia O'Keeffe College for Arts and Subtle Dramatics and finds herself quickly bombarded by a colorful group of students who would like to form the school's first basketball team. She used to play at her former school, but fell out because of her panic attacks. Maybe this time she finds the supportive group that can help her overcome them?
So much representation! I loved that aspect. We have anxiety, queer, trans, non-binary, witchy..
The color scheme was unexpected and really fun!

Charlie is a new transfer to the Georgia O'Keefe College of Arts and subtle Dramatics and she is feeling a bit isolated at her new school. She decides she needs to get out more so she goes to see what types of clubs and groups the school has to offer. She is approached by a very enthusiastic Liv and her eclectic friends who are starting a new basketball team.
I loved this book! The characters were diverse fun. We got to know a bit about each character and their unique identities. Charlie was moody and extremely sarcastic while dealing with her social anxieties. Liv was an enthusiastic, dramatic character that I feel in love with.
I enjoyed the fact that this book was so diverse. They had different races, genders, body-type, style and sexuality. But it wasn't preachy! It was just a fun book that reflected the modern world.
It did end on a cliff hanger which was a bummer because I really need the next book to come out soon!

I LOVED this graphic novel! I ate it up sometime in the middle of the night, in one sitting. I love the diversity presented in this story in the ethnicities of the characters as well as the characters' personalities. The representation in this story is so important and is just one story among many more that is diversifying the shelves of readers and reviewers. It felt real. I have read other graphic novels in which the characters feel more like characters in a story rather than real people dealing with real things.
I love the connections that grow throughout the story arc. Although I would've loved for it to be longer, I think the length plays very well with where the story left off. It left off with the suspense and want for more issues in the future. And as always I appreciate the cover images in the back of the novel, beautiful work!
The beginnings of romance in this story make me giddy and excited. I'm so ready to read volume two. I have only positive feed back for this lovely story and I look forward to reading more work from Carly Usdin in the future.

This was too cute. Cute story, cute art. I love the whole weirdo team. I look forward to the next volume, hopefully soon!

This is really cute! <i>The Avant-Guards</i> is about a new, small basketball team created by students at a performing arts college. The team members are a mix of races, body types, genders, and sexualities. There is a developing f/f romance between the two main characters: overachiever Olivia who's still smarting from her last break-up; and transfer student Charlie, who has anxiety and bad past experience with the bball team at her previous school. This comic is fun and pretty low-key for the moment. The art style is nice and vibrant. I really like the characters and the unique setting (there are stage set-pieces on the Avant-Guards' practice court, lol) and I'm excited to see where the story goes! 3.5 stars

Filmmaker Carly Usdin is the driving force behind this graphic novel - composed of the first several issues of the popular comic - that opens with a young woman named Charlie trying to find her way as a new transfer student to the Georgia O'Keeffe College for Arts and Subtle Dramatics. The campus of focused, arts-oriented and creative students is foreign territory to Charlie, a former basketball star in her previous school days now seeking a new career path, and as she finds herself struggling to make friends and make her way, the young woman, quite ironically, runs into a short, cute, very hyperactive African-American girl named Liv. Liv is everything Charlie isn't - outgoing, open, energetic, a true lover of life and all it has to offer. Where the ironic parts comes in? Liv also happens to be the captain of the Avant-Guards, a motley crew of athletes and non-athletes Liv is determined to turn into a crackerjack basketball team so that their school has some representation on the courts. Liv's also determined that the one player they need to make a full team is Charlie, who resists every temptation to join at first - that is in her past - though she soon falls under Liv's perky little spell and reconsiders helping to get the team off the ground. The Avant-Guards Vol. 1 has a lot of positive energy and some terrific LGBT+ representation all across the board, with individual characters you grow to like. My problem with this compilation is simply that not a lot seems to happen, dramatic conflict kept to such a minimum I found myself (a couple times) checking how many pages I had left to read until I was finished. A budding romance toward the end livens things up considerably - as does a seeing the Avant-Guards in action on the court - but overall, while not bad by any means, volume one of this series just feels like a bland prologue whose purpose is to get you to the cliffhanger at the end, setting some real wheels in motion for volume two. 3/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

Loved it! Boom is nailing it with casually diverse, girl-friendly comics. I loved the characters in this volume, which mainly serves as an introduction to the new series. I'll definitely be picking up Volume 2! For fans of Hi-Fi Fight Club and Giant Days.

I'm really not that into sports stories. They usually feel so derivative; the over-zealous competitors, the drama to be the very best, the struggles that make the games look cheap. This however has none of that. There's still a basketball team, but the focus is purely on the characters and their interactions. Charlie wants to find out who she is as a person but is still struggling with her anxieties. Liv meanwhile is energetic and wants to find where she fits in. She doesn't let her achievements go to her head and she's still anxious about what she really wants to do. Liv's struggling with her own expectations though. It's through her that the series gets its focus on. The rest of the cast however is something that people feel like they can genuinely have a good time with. The humor is light, and even when they're in the background, they make the world come to life. If anything, this series and its creator are going places.

Review to come tomorrow on blog/goodreads.

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

Meet Charlene, or Charlie Bravo. A transfer student to this college she is in for a heap of trouble and fun as she walks around for clubs and meets the Avant-Guards, a wannabe basketball team that just needs one more player (where have we seen this setting before, ah yes, so many places :P). They want Charlie. I was wondering why because Charlie didn't seem like the girl to do basketball, but it turns out she was actually in varsity (which makes me wonder what happened).

I have to say I wasn't always a fan of Olivia, having her POV at times did help, but otherwise I am not too big of a fan of pushy characters. I get that you need a team member to complete your team, but pushing, hedging and whining and even getting other peeps to help out just went WAY too far for me. If I was Charlie I would have said a big fat no to Olivia and just turned away. Olivia needs to chill out. She is also way over the top with everything, it is like she can't do anything normally without exaggerating the fuck out of it. Again, not a character trait that makes me happy.
And sure, she had her cute moments, and I loved seeing her swoon (at least that is how I saw it) over Charlie. :P

I quite like Charlie, I love how tough she is, and how she kicks some big ass with basketball. And we do eventually find out more about what happened to her and why she isn't doing more basketball.

We see how the team gets started and we see how just after one training they have a match? Whut? Why so soon? It seems very weird to me. But oh well, whatever floats their boat I guess. I would rather have done some more practices and then maybe ease into playing matches. Some of these peeps haven't played ever or for a long time. So yeah, the match? Exciting as it was, it was so unbelievable I was laughing my ass off. I am sorry, a team, just created and totally with almost zero experience except for a couple of the group does all that? HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. *coughs*Sorry. That really made no sense to me. And I am deducing some points for that. Sorry, if you want me to root for a team at least make it all believable. I get that this is fiction, but come on this is just ridiculous.

The romance (blossoming for a big part of the book) between Charlie and Olivia was just adorable. I loved seeing it happen in both of their POVs, especially Olivia's made me smile. I was definitely rooting for these two gals to get together and start dating.

Though I was laughing hard when these two were getting cosy while behind them the coven was lighten crap on fire. :P

OK, my wrist and hand would like some kisses, because dang this ecopy wasn't working right. I had to scroll like mad to even get anywhere and with 116 pages + having to zoom in 2x as to be able to read it, my hand and wrist are now dead. x.x

The art was fabulous, I so so so so love the style of it. It is cute, funny, colourful and fits so well with the story and the characters. I also loved that we got some extra artwork at the ending of the volume.

All in all, with the exception of the unbelievable match and the way over the top Olivia, this was cute and fun. I definitely want more of it and I can't wait for the next volume to come out.

I knew I would love this book, based on my love of Usdin's previous comic, Heavy Vinyl. But I ended up loving it even more than I anticipated. The characters have strong, distinct personalities and it was fun to watch Charlie get to know each of her teammates. I also loved the humor this book is infused with, especially when it comes to the college and team names. I eagerly anticipate the next book!

This was SO MUCH FUN! I absolutely loved the characters and I cannot wait to read more of their story. My only complaint is that I wish this had been longer! Not a ton happened in this first bind up and I NEED MOOOOOORE

I’ve been slowly trying to branch out into other types of books and I am so glad I gave The Avant-Guards a chance. I absolutely loved everything about this graphic novel. I played basketball when I was in high school and had such close relationships with the girls on my team, so I really enjoyed watching Charlie find her place on the team. While the team is small (and not the best), I loved the representation and diversity seen within the players. Plus, the art is so colorful, vibrant, and fun! I can’t wait to see what happens next in Volume 2.