Synopsis
Band Vs Band is about two clashing musicians: wholesome do-gooder Honey Hart with her band The Candy Hearts, and bad-girl troublemaker Turpentine with her dirty noisy band The Sourballs. The gals start as enemies and rivals with a secret attraction to each other, but gradually fall in love. It’s fun, queer, and retro-inspired, with a distinctive visual style.
From: Kickstarter
Notes on This Title
The main focus of Band Vs Band is the rivalry/romance between the lead women, but the series includes several more queer characters.
The printed volumes are Kickstarter-funded limited printings. They are occasionally available from Band Vs Band‘s website or from creator Kathleen Jacques at conventions.
Awards
2016 Autostraddle Comic and Sequential Art Awards Shortlist — Favorite Webcomic – Episodic
Reviews
“If you couldn’t tell from the title, Band vs Band is about a band rivalry: girl bands, to be specific, although technically each band has one boy. Jacques writes that the comic is her “elaborate love letter to everything [she’s] always found magical and appealing about bands as a concept, from real-life groups to ultra-stylized fictional depictions.” You’ll certainly recognize some of those magical and appealing elements as the comic reminds you of Josie and the Pussycats, and fully embraces stories like band road trip shenanigans where tour vans break down in the middle of the desert with band members contemplating cannibalism.
Visually, this comic is as amazing as it is with characters, humour, and story. As Jacques puts it in the intro to volume one, she was going for “overtly feminine aesthetics and a fun design sense and retro inspiration.” These motivations are clear on every page, as Jacques’s detailed, 50s style drawings shine in the limited blue and red-pink colour palette.” (Source: Casey the Canadian Lesbrarian)
“Band vs. Band is about two local bands in New Pacific City, the Candy Hearts and the Sourballs, and the romantically-charged rivalry between the two frontwomen of these bands. The Candy Hearts’ Honey Hart is a wholesome and moralistic meddler, while the Sourballs’ Turpentine is a drunken goth-punk hooligan. The comic’s title implies enmity between the bands, but the other members are mostly just along for the ride; it’s the two main girls who can’t seem to stop gleefully messing with each other.
The comic’s tone draws a lot of inspiration from old Scooby Doo cartoons and Archie comics; beyond the cutesy interjections (“Chee!” “Attaboy!” “Holy moley!”) and people calling each other “finks”, the format tends towards episodic hijinks of the lighthearted variety, usually punctuated by a musical duel of some kind. The Candy Hearts tend to uphold these tropes (they play a show at a roller skating rink at one point), while the Sourballs subvert them (by getting everyone high on mushrooms and band-fighting Satan in hallucination hell). As far as parodies go, it’s a pretty good one, lampooning the original genre enough to be funny, but being close enough of an homage to keep the jokes subtle and not too over-the-top or obnoxious.” (Source: Yes Homo)
Interviews
ComicsAlliance: “Kathleen Jacques’ ‘Band Vs Band’ Makes Nostalgia Gay Again”