Rebels Without Applause, Backstagers # 1 by Rian Sygh

The Backstagers Vol. 1 - Rian Sygh,  James Tynion IV

After discovering the tie-in novel for this series, I sought the comic out. I was 100% in this for Jory and Hunter, and I got it, but it felt a trifle underdeveloped.

 

Jory has transferred to the all-boys school St. Genesius and is forced by his mother to join an after school program to make friends and keep him out of trouble while she works late at her new job. Jory is reluctant, but decides to join Drama Club. Confronted with some serious flake behavior, he retreats backstage and runs head over heels into crazy supernatural business.

 

The backstage is connected to an eerie, fascinating and often dangerous world of magic, rivers of psychedelic paint, and rumors of lost stage crews. But those are just stories, right? Hah! Jory joins veteran Backstagers Hunter, a whiz carpenter and shameless flirt; Beckett, mad lighting genius; Sasha, comic relief and loveableish klutz; Aziz, besties with Sasha and generally the one questioning any hi-jinks going on; and then there's the Stage Managers, two guys trying to keep a handle on things and get through their senior year intact - effectively non-entities, but they're in love, so....

 

This first volume mostly fleshes out the premise, but I have hopes for the rest of the series.

 

The Backstagers

 

Next: 'The Show Must Go On'