Yungblud Presents: The Twisted Tales of the Ritalin Club by Yungblud, Ryan O'Sullivan, Derick Jones, Jen Hickman, Goran Gligovic, and Ian McGinty: a review

For a couple months now, I’ve been getting mad into Yungblud’s music, and while chatting to one of my friends about this, I found out that he’d released a comic (with a second on the way). Bugger it, I thought, I got a couple of vouchers for Christmas, and I’m always looking for fun graphic novels/comics. This arrived late last week, and I think the second comes out in mid-February, I was super excited for this to arrive, and after this I can’t wait for book 2.

Yungblud Presents: The Twisted Tales of the Ritalin Club by Yungblud (and many others) follows Em (also known as M452). She’s a student at Blackheart’s Boarding School where you must be masked, medicated, show no deviance, and keep any superpowers supressed. Enter The Ritalin Club: a group of rogues ready to lift the masks from those ready to be saved. They each have unique powers, and bring Em into their group and prepare to save the day.

As someone who doesn’t read much Young Adult fiction, (which I assume is the key demographic here) I don’t know if it’s just this book, or a feature of the genre on the whole, but I did find that many of the points raised are a little bit on the nose. That does not detract from my enjoyment of this book at all, and there are subtleties within the more obvious notes. Frankly, I’m not in the right demographic anymore, and I can’t review this as if I am, but being on the nose is probably the right way to go when you’re introducing a younger audience to topics that can be complex and intricate, even for adults.

            I really love that Yungblud’s character in this is written with his accent, and that it’s done well. I’ve often seen accents being done in written format and it doesn’t always work, but here it’s done brilliantly. Maybe I simply have a soft spot as a northerner, but I make no apologies for this particular bias.

            Each chapter is done by different artists, and I’d probably say that my own personal favourite is chapter 2, where the art is done by Jen Hickman. Though, to be fair this whole thing is a work of art. Hickman’s art is both soft and bright, making it incredibly inviting, working with the tone of that particular chapter, and it’s then so brilliantly contrasted in the next chapter. Speaking of which, chapter 3 hit hard; this is where the subtleties really come in, and it’s incredibly clear that this is a deeply personal project. Though it doesn’t use the words “imposter syndrome” outright, it’s clear that this is the subject being explored, and it hits the nail right on the head. There’s more in there too about Yungblud’s (as in the character, I can’t speak on the man himself) inner workings and anxieties. A lot of it hit rather close to home, and watching him losing a battle to his own head just, oh baby, it’s written so well.

            There aren’t quite as many overt references to the music as I thought there would be, but what is there fits in really well. You could read this as a fan of Yungblud as much you can if you’re just looking for a fun superhero romp.

I genuinely bloody loved this book. Super stoked for book 2, and I certainly recommend you find a way to read this.