The Drained Brains Caper

Raf knows Megan is trouble from the moment she steps into his mom's pet food store asking for a tarantula. But there's one thing you can count on in Chicagoland: weird things happen several times a day.

Megan is a vegetarian, manga-reading haiku writer. She definitely doesn't fit in at Stepford Academy, her new summer school. The other students are happy to be in class. Too happy. And everyone looks and acts exactly alike. That's weird.

Megan is determined to dig into Stepford's secrets, but soon she's in way too deep. Raf may be the only human being she knows who can help. But with zombified students, very mad scientists, and the school psychiatrist on their trail, they're going to need a whole lot more help.

We did say that Chicagoland is weird. . .

“"This series opener does the legwork of bringing together the major players--Megan, the new girl in town; Raf, who works at his mom's pet-food store; and a talking dog schooled in the lingo of classic detective movies--but it doesn't forget to tell an entertaining story. Megan gets enrolled in a summer school where the students are all suspiciously conformist--and what's with the Band-Aids they all sport on their foreheads? Sure enough, something's rotten at Stepford Prep, and that something is the maniacal Dr. Vorschak, who's looking to score a Nobel by lobe-snipping and serum-injecting, making kids perfect little citizens. Page's black-and-white cartooning has a loose manga slant, with peppy goofiness popping out from stippled screen tones. There are also plenty of references that fans of the format will pick up on: Megan sneaks copies of Peroxide and Veggie Baskets into class. Heroic zaniness abounds, and in the end, Megan, Raf, and Bradley the dog decide to jump into the private-eye business. There's little doubt readers will happily jump with them." --Booklist”

"The crisp black and white artwork is appealing, and the writing is just edgy enough to entice middle-schoolers." --Library Media Connection

Writer and feminist herstorian Trina Robbins wrote books, comics, and graphic novels for over 40 years. Her work includes The Brinkley Girls (Fantagraphics), Forbidden City: the Golden Age of Chinese Nightclubs (Hampton Press), and the three-part YA series Chicagoland Detective Agency for Graphic Universe. Tyler Page is an Eisner-nominated and Xeric Grant-winning artist and educator. He illustrated the Graphic Universe series The Chicagoland Detective Agency. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, author/illustrator Cori Doerrfeld, and their two children.

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