Fence

Fence est une série de comics scénarisée par C.S. Pacat et illustrée par Johannna The Mad. Elle se déroule dans l'univers de l'escrime, un sport que j'ai rarement vu que ce soit dans les bandes dessinées ou dans les dessins animés inspirés de mangas. Elle met en scène des adolescents américains qui veulent tous intégrer l'équipe d'escrime de leur lycée.

Le premier album regroupe les quatre premières numéros du comics. C'est un album avec une inspiration manga pour le « character design » et globalement dans le style du dessin : c'est un cocktail d'ingrédients qui pouvait me plaire.

Eh bien je dois dire que je n'ai pas été déçu ! Cet album d'un peu plus de cent pages m'a énormément plu : c'est fun, joliment illustré, un peu voire clairement gay par moment.

Les personnages sont sans doute stéréotypés, mais ils sont plutôt sympathiques et on a envie de découvrir leurs aventures sportives, et peut-être sentimentales même si ce n'est qu'effleuré pour le moment. Parmi les protagonistes, les deux principaux sont clairement Nicholas, le fils illégitime d'un champion olympique d'escrime, au fort potentiel mais à la technique défaillante, qui cherche sa place dans ce lycée de futurs champions ; et Seiji, l'un des grands espoirs dans sa classe d'âge, une pépite quasi-invaincue lors de son arrivée au lycée, mais dont la modestie ne semble pas être le point le plus fort.

Le récit n'est pas forcément très surprenant pour le moment, mais c'est plaisant à lire et à regarder, c'est très efficace et j'ai bien aimé les quelques cases pédagogiques sur l'escrime.

ROOMMATES AND SPORT WHAT ELSE DO I NEED?

I enjoyed it a lot.
The art is amazing and I loved the characters. It's cute with lots of banter.
Can't wait to pick up the next volume.

I picked this up purely based on the rave reviews it has been getting across the bookish internet community. It really held up to those reviews!

Fence follows a young boy trying to become a nationally ranked fencing champion. He faces a lot of prejudice and he has a pretty big chip on his shoulder that he will need to overcome on his journey. So far the world hasn't really been fleshed out yet, but it is vibrant and engaging so far. I think the second volume will hopefully develop the characters more because currently that is lacking for me. The art is gorgeous and I really liked seeing all the alternate covers at the end of the volume.

I am excited for the volumes to come and I think this will be a series I will try to keep up with as it is published.

4.5 stars (Read for Queerlit readathon). OMG! I wasn't sure this would be for me. I know nothing about fencing and it's not something that particularly interest me. BUT I AM HOOKED. I just want Nicholas and Seiji to kiss already. I love the enemies to lover trope AND

I guess you could technically say the cast of characters are diverse, although most of them seem to be queer in some way. So diverse from the “norm”? Yes. Diverse as in lots of different identities and sexualities? Not really 😅

i don't know how i feel about it. it wasn't the best, but it wasn't the worst. i'll give volume 2 a try

oh my gosh, they were roommates

Oh, gay fencing. I love it. This is clearly inspired by sports manga, you know the ones: Free, Yuri on Ice and Haikyuu. It has that sport rivalry with gay undertones. (I presume it's gonna get gayer right?)

There's a lot of cliches and overused tropes, but this case I don't mind at all. It's a tad cheesy, but in all the right ways. The characters are entertaining, and I am already shipping Nicholas and Seji!! Looking forward to reading to reading more of these two.

I loved it and the whole series so far

This book is so good. I told myself I was going to take it slowly and only read these on the bus but alas. I blazed through all three of the volumes I had access to on Scribd. These are excellent. They are short. Delightful. Juicy. Read them. Give yourself the satisfaction.