Operation: Cover-Up (Volume 1) by Tate Godwin is both what I expected and not what I expected. I was expecting it to be over the top ridiculousness, and bordering on ( to be honest) the stupid. Instead it was funny. There were good moments and then there were the not-so-good moments that did tip the scales into the “not my cup of tea.”
The story is familiar: two not so typical kids (the class clown and the brainiac) are starting school in the middle of the year. In parallel panels we see the journey. While both are told to “be themselves,” and they try, something goes wrong and they find themselves in an awkward position of being thought of as having the other’s personality traits. Now cue the plan to help each other. But instead of making the confession that their new friends have “got the wrong guy” they enact the plan to help the other become the person others think they are. Of course, they will learn how to be themselves after all, and everyone will live mostly happily ever after.
The artwork never really “grabbed” me. I appreciated the simple illustrations that add to the goofy nature of the story, and the colors are decent, but I just never like-liked them. Maybe they were too easy, allowing the approximately strong six/seven to around 10-year-old to read/enjoy, but not really for the adult reader. I flip between a rating of 2.5 and a 3 as I averaged all the pieces included.
Read via an online reader copy.