Strikers: A Graphic Novel

I finished by second consecutive graphic novel today, Strikers. If this book hadn't been so damned fun to read, I probably would not have mentioned it here. As I mentioned before, it's about a rag-tag youth hockey team (called "the Strikers") in Flint and takes place between the autumn of 1986 and winter of 1987. The historical and geographic detail is fairly impeccable, and mentions of IMA Sports Arena, the International Hockey League (IHL), the Flint Generals, the Flint Spirits, Carman-Ainsworth, and Lake Fenton (to name a few) were simply word candy for me. (To top if off, one of the fictional characters is said to have received a track & field scholarship to Michigan State).

Ostensibly, Strikers is aimed at children and youth readers, but there is plenty of humor that likely goes over kids' heads. For example, at one point in the book, the kids on the Strikers team go to IMA Sports Arena to see a Flint Spirits IHL game. The adult chaperone, who is the boyfriend of main kid character Evan's mother (are you following me thus far?) gets too drunk at the game to drive the kid home and has to "do the responsible thing" and call the mom to pick them up from the arena. (This is likely funnier in the book than I am describing it here). At another point in the book, Strikers enters full-blown Slap Shot mode when our heroes on the titular hockey team break into a bench-clearing brawl with the obnoxious rich kids on the opposing (and undefeated) "Blades" team. The fight is instigated when one of the Strikers players is knocked out cold by a flying hockey puck, hit intentionally errant by the biggest bully on the Blades. The Strikers receive the worst punishment of the two teams and are forced to forfeit the game.

One of the best passages of the book is when the boys are having some post-game burgers after their disastrous forfeiture. They are all feeling despondent when they see a special news report on the restaurant television about the 50th anniversary of the 1937 Flint General Motors strike ("strikers"...get it?!). The now elderly men talk about how brotherhood and the support of others helped them survive the long cold weeks of their strike against GM. The kids go from being bored by the news report to viewing these old auto strikers as heroes.

So, if you can't tell, I really dug this book. It was a tremendously fun two days of reading. Now, I should return to more adult fare.