Do your kids think you’re out of touch with the angst of adolescence? Or do you worry that your kids will make the same mistakes you made, and you want to spare them that pain? And do traditional parenting books get you down, or just not work for you? If so, you might find assistance and meaning in graphic novels and comics.
Hopeless Savages is a comic series by Jen Van Meter and a great circle of artists that follows the lives of the Hopeless- Savage family. The Hopeless Savages are punk-rock pioneers who are trying to settle down and raise their family in suburbia. Ground Zero is a collection within the series. It centers on the parents and teachers as they try to figure out what motivates the youngest Savage, Skank Zero, to get into so much trouble at school.
Zero Savage is struggling to manage high school life, find love, and pursue her rock-n-roll dreams. But she doesn’t fit in as high school and her parents don’t seem to understand her. Her relationship with her mom is particularly strained, as Mom tries to protect her youngest from all the upheavals and dramas that she experienced as a teen.
Can Mom figure out why Zero has been so hard to handle lately? Can Zero find a way to make her world make sense to her Mom?
Can a comic book help you understand your kids?
Check out Hopeless Savages, and let us know what you think.