Zine Review: F*ck Off Squad and Teenage Switchblade by Dave Baker, Nicole Goux, and a Bunch of Guests

Fuck Off Squad Comic Front
Fuck Off Squad Comic Front
Fuck Off Squad Comic back
Fuck Off Squad Comic back
Teenage Switchblade Comic Front
Teenage Switchblade Comic Front
Teenage Switchblade Comic Back
Teenage Switchblade Comic Back

Introduction
F*ck Off Squad and Teenage Switchblade (A F*ck Off Squad Story) was created by Dave Baker and Nicole Goux, with guests Gwennie Kim, Sonja Shoemaker, Holly Randall, and Anne Lee for F*ck Off Squad, and Jasmin Garcia-Verdin, Ellen Marie Bae, and Melody David-Baker for Teenage Switchblade. Both books can be bought for $15: F*ck Off Squad here and Teenage Switchblade here. F*ck Off Squad was bought at the 2016 Emerald City Comic Con and Teenage Switchblade I got from backing their 2016 Kickstarter.

A bit of fun history here, I first met Dave and Nicole at the 2015 East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Fest, where I picked up their series This Is Not A Girl Gang (which I reviewed here). I ran into them at Emerald City Comic Con in April 2016 and they remembered me, which caught me off guard! They were the first people who remembered me from conventions and it was not an experience I expected to happen.
Since then I’ve seen them at several other cons around California and it’s been fun to see them grow in terms of their artistic talents and merchandising (lots and lots of stickers amirite). They are fantastic, wonderful people and I highly recommend you check out all their works.

That being said, on to the review.

Thoughts
The F*ck Off Squad consists of a main story following a cast of characters, as well as writings by Dave Baker, and backup stories with the guest artists.

I have a short period of my life when I skated just about everywhere. From 2010 – 2012 I picked up skating in an effort to get around, especially before I went off to college. I made a fair amount of friends during my time, we would go out to parking garages and skate all the way to the bottom, wind in our hairs, alerting each other to incoming cars. I remember a quiet night skates with a friend (whom I had a huge crush on) to the Subway two miles away from our university, a year before they built one on campus. I remember the miles of trails I would skate alone, as if there was nothing else that mattered other than the path. So many potential places just a skate away. But college and really, life in general, is more than just the calm parts. There’s a lot of messy things that occurred, a lot of fuck-ups, and a ton of growing up I had to do during my college years. Hell, even now there’s a ton of growing up I need to do! In a way, that’s one of the prices of freedom. When you can do anything, just about anything can happen.

F*ck Off Squad is cool. Full stop. It reminded me a lot about what it means to just take risks, have high hopes, and then have things blow up in your face. Life is a bunch of people doing things and sometimes we happen to cross paths with others, whether it’s temporary or something far longer. F*ck Off Squad is a slice in the lives of these hooligans that carefully mirror our own. You may not skate, have tattoos, or be in a band, but I know you’ve felt the same things these youngins have to deal with. Love, watching friends get shot down, and passionate platonic-totally-not-lovers-quarrels, some of the many ingredients that make up life. I could go on and on about why I love F*ck Off Squad (coughMegancough), but there’s a point where I’d incoherently start rambling. It’s a great series about going through life, both the main story as well as the backups. Life’s not easy. Get these books.

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