Ah, 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank is awesome and highly entertaining. It's bound to offend people too, which makes it even better. These four kids are Paige and her three male friends all eleven years old or so. Paige finds out that her dad's former friends are back in town to rob a bank with Paige's dad and Paige decides to stop this by robbing the bank first. She doesn't want to lose her dad and her nerd friends decide to help. Sounds heroic, right? Except the comic is full of violence, swearing and pissing off. These kids are great, nasty and dumb and this all has consequences. Not all of them make it out alive, so beware. Yet, the comic isn't violent hellfest, but more like it's about extremely dark humor and awesome ideas. My only complain is about the ending. It's too abrupt and short to convey anything and this would've deserved better. Something dark and something witty.

I liked the simplistic and slightly robotic art. The dull colors work so well with the imagery and create this odd and off-putting feeling, very Daria-like even. The panels are monotonic, but awesome and the best part is when the kids roleplay with weird toys. There's something very offensive in the comic and you can feel it through the art and it's hard to pull this off well. The kids are actual kids and the outcome of it all is so fitting too and no, heroic escapades hardly ever work in real life. I do recommend this!

This was quite a jovial, fun comic - four kids of different types (the bossy, upstart female one, the quietly spoken nerdy one with gender issues, the tall one, and the lunk who keeps gatecrashing) together work out the truth about the girl's life - that her father was once with some bank robbers, on a professional basis, and plans to be so again. But surely with their collective nous, they can beat them to the job and save the day? I think the book gets a little less out of the fantasy lives and game-playing of the characters than the creators think, but on the whole the kids are good to spend time with. The pages have artsy tricks, such as sound-effects that portray the consequence of the sound as opposed to spelling the noises out (ie a huge 'f*** you' instead of something like 'sproing' at one point), but even a comic novice will find some fun here. Even if the heroine isn't exactly a girly-girl, it's nice to have a female lead for such a role, and in-jokes such as the repeated grounded status she suffers, and Easter egg-styled quotes from Star Wars et al, all add to the charm of the piece.

This is a compendium of issues 1 though five of the originally published comics and runs to about 180 pages in the print version. I read this in Bluefire Reader on an iPad where it looked good but the text was a bit hard to read, especially the one character Walter, who is painfully shy and reserved. His speech was deliberately written under-sized in a regularly-sized balloon, and it was hard to read, so I didn't appreciate that. I think Tyler Boss's art told Walter's story well enough; it would have been nice if writer Matthew Rosenberg had had more faith in it (or the designer - or whoever decided that this was a good approach!).

That said, the characters: Paige, the tough feisty female, Stretch, an abnormally tall expert in irony, the irreverent Berger, who in some depictions seems slightly pudgy, but in others seems a lot more trim, and retiring almost to the point of self-effacement Walter, are all interesting to read about and even more interesting to see interact with each other. They all bring their own strengths as characters, but Paige is a dynamo.

The story is that four thugs from Paige's dad's past show up wanting her father to resume his role in their history of thieving. Dad isn't interested, but the four idiot wannabe robbers won't take no for an answer. The kids decide the only way to save Paige's dad is to rob the bank first so the thugs can't. Great idea, huh? The entire story leading-up to 'will they or won't they?' was entertaining and at times completely hilarious. I really enjoyed it. That's not to say I didn't have a few problems with this.

Paige was an oddity to me because in many panels she looked distinctly male. There's nothing wrong in a female having male characteristics or vice-versa; nothing at all in real life, but in the case of a minimally-drawn comic book character, this can be confusing. At least it was to me.

I found myself at one point honestly thinking there were two characters, and wondering who this new guy was and where he came from, because it wasn't Paige! Except that it was. It just didn't look like Paige. When I realized that, for a short while, I found myself thinking I had misunderstood and Paige was actually a guy, not a girl, but no, Paige was very much a girl. It was just the graphical depiction of her that confused me. It made for an unpleasant reading experience on occasion because I was happy that she was a girl!

This surreal experience wasn't helped by two other events both towards the end of the novel. The first of these was the random addition of a fifth person to their four-person team towards the end of the novel. I had no idea who this fifth person was. Maybe I missed something, but I had no idea where this person came from!

The second incident was the very ending of the novel, where Paige and her dad meet up at a prison. I had no clue whatsoever whether she was going into jail or getting out. I honestly and truly did not. I even looking back through many the pages trying to figure it out, but I couldn't, so I was unhappy with the ending. But the rest of it was great. Mostly! I recommend this, anyway. Maybe you'll have a better handle reading it than I did!

Before I started this I wasn't sure how ...serious it was going to be I guess. And basically the answer is that it starts out very comedic and then by the end you're just sitting there like WELL THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY. It works very well though. I like how every issue starts out with all the kids hanging out playing a game and then moves on to the meatier part of the plot. And despite dealing with some heavy issues the comedic is absolutely perfect through the entire thing, I found myself laughing out loud several times right up til the end. It reminded me a lot of Matt Fraction's run on Hawkeye, both in the story style and the art style / layout which I absolutely LOVE. I would definitely recommend this, it was a lot of fun.

A fun graphic novel. I love the plot of this one. Great art-style too!

This is a tough graphic novel to review - the story is full of contradictions; it's funny and dark, violent and loving.

The story takes place in the 80s and shares some of the traits that makes Stranger Things so popular - D&D, misfit tweens and devoted friendship in times of trouble. Each volume starts with the main characters being portrayed by whichever toys or fantasy characters they're playing as at the time, reminding us that they're only kids, no matter what they get up to.

Paige is the strongest personality in her group of friends so she manages to convince them to help her save her father from himself by robbing a bank. Her behaviour gets daaaaark as she plans this heist and yet it's still fun and entertaining to watch...

The illustrations have a unique style that fits well with the story, they're not quite as well polished as you find in most mainstream graphic novels and that gives it a sense of individuality.

If Wes Anderson and Quentin Tarantino wrote a caper movie, it might look something like '4 Kids Walk Into A Bank' by Matthew Rosenberg with art by Tyler Boss.

Paige lives with her widowed father. She has three oddball friends. Paige and her friends like to play D&D and use their imaginations. When Paige's father is visited by a group of bumbling idiot criminals, she wants to know what her father has to do with any of them. When the kids find out they are going to rob a bank, they decide to foil the bad guys with their own plan, which you can guess by the title of the book.

These characters are ones I would have loved to hang out with when I was that age, with the bullying they receive and their weird play and banter. I loved the names of the streets and other background things. The art was so fitting for the vibe of this book. I absolutely loved it!

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Black Mask Studios, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Good art, lettering, and colors but didn't much care for the story itself.

Throughly enjoyed this first in a series graphic novel. I enjoy a long form graphic book and this one was particularly engaging. The kids of the title are introduced initially by their online gaming personas which I found to be clever and creative. The kids (preteens) ban together in response to meeting thugs looking for one of the groups parents. Adventure ensues. More adventures to come. And, I’m looking forward to them.

I thought I was reading the wrong book at first but it was a fun way of introducing the gang of kids. Some seems like Paige is the leader, and has some concerns for her Dad when a gang of 4 thugs turn up at her home.
They need to take the play co-operation into the real world to overcome this latest enemy .
I loved the story, the humour. Poor Berger seems to be the butt of their fun but it appears he also brings it on themselves and he is part of the group. Not that they are universally liked by the wider school population.
A comic tale of 11 year old kids caught up in a crime caper it seems with Paige’s Dad somehow involved. The illustrations are first rate and the comedy is both subtle and rolling about the floor funny.
It reminded me of a classic from my own childhood. Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner.
The best comic format story I have read and it is only part 1 with many more episodes to follow in the developing story. Where many struggle with compact text in lines, sentences and paragraphs. This is an excellent example of how well this art form can work. As stated I loved it.