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Fence: volumes 5 and 6
Apr. 20th, 2024 02:49 pmI’ve been copying out my old book lists, and as I have been copying I have been reminded of a number of authors whose work I meant to explore further and ongoing series that may have had new installments since I last read them.
One of these series was Fence, the graphic novel series about the super cute boys on the King’s Row fencing team, which has had TWO new volumes since I last read it. The local library only had the first of these two, so I got that and read it… and then went back to the library and got the first four volumes to reread them… and then at last got the sixth volume from a different library, and of course had to reread the fifth book before I read the sixth, since the fifth and sixth volume are both about the King’s Row trip to fencing camp! And also why turn down any excuse to read a bit more Fence?
It was interesting coming back to the graphic novels after reading Sarah Rees Brennan’s Fence novelizations, which were delightful but light on actual fencing. Fence the comic has plenty of cute shippy moments, but there are also a lot of fencing sequences, perhaps in part because it’s easier to make a fencing match intelligible to a largely non-fencing audience if there are pictures to show what’s going on.
Some of the fencing sequences double as cute shippy moments, like the bit at the end of volume four where Seiji, exasperated by Nicholas’s poor technique, decides to train him, which of course means standing behind him and guiding his motions like the pottery scene in Ghost. And some of them are not shippy but feature great character development, like the time that Aidan manages to beat Seiji by throwing him off his game with trash talk.
This has given me the theory that Jesse Coste, Seiji’s former BFF (and perhaps more…), defeated Seiji at World’s through a similar method, possibly throwing him off his game by saying that their relationship was not as important to him as it was to Seiji. Whatever happened, Seiji was so upset afterward that he left the next day to fence in France for a year. He’s still so deranged about Jesse Coste that when the coach mentions Jesse’s team is going to stop by fencing camp, Seiji actually drops his epee.
There’s a hilarious bit in volume six where another fencer mentions to Nicholas that Seiji and Jesse Cost were perhaps “more than friends,” and Nicholas (who is very smart in his own way but also the stupidest person in the world) says, “Right! They’re rivals!”
Which says a lot about Nicholas consistently casting himself as Seiji’s rival. But then in volume 6, when Nicholas barges into a conversation between Seiji and Jesse Coste, Seiji introduces Nicholas as “my friend,” at which point Nicholas practically gets hearteyes… so maybe friends are better than rivals after all!
At the rate that Fence is publishing we will perhaps have answers to some of these questions by 2040 or so. On the one hand, I want more! Tell me what happens! But on the other hand, I’ve reached a time in my life where I truly appreciate things that come out more slowly, just because there’s so much that it’s hard to keep up.
One of these series was Fence, the graphic novel series about the super cute boys on the King’s Row fencing team, which has had TWO new volumes since I last read it. The local library only had the first of these two, so I got that and read it… and then went back to the library and got the first four volumes to reread them… and then at last got the sixth volume from a different library, and of course had to reread the fifth book before I read the sixth, since the fifth and sixth volume are both about the King’s Row trip to fencing camp! And also why turn down any excuse to read a bit more Fence?
It was interesting coming back to the graphic novels after reading Sarah Rees Brennan’s Fence novelizations, which were delightful but light on actual fencing. Fence the comic has plenty of cute shippy moments, but there are also a lot of fencing sequences, perhaps in part because it’s easier to make a fencing match intelligible to a largely non-fencing audience if there are pictures to show what’s going on.
Some of the fencing sequences double as cute shippy moments, like the bit at the end of volume four where Seiji, exasperated by Nicholas’s poor technique, decides to train him, which of course means standing behind him and guiding his motions like the pottery scene in Ghost. And some of them are not shippy but feature great character development, like the time that Aidan manages to beat Seiji by throwing him off his game with trash talk.
This has given me the theory that Jesse Coste, Seiji’s former BFF (and perhaps more…), defeated Seiji at World’s through a similar method, possibly throwing him off his game by saying that their relationship was not as important to him as it was to Seiji. Whatever happened, Seiji was so upset afterward that he left the next day to fence in France for a year. He’s still so deranged about Jesse Coste that when the coach mentions Jesse’s team is going to stop by fencing camp, Seiji actually drops his epee.
There’s a hilarious bit in volume six where another fencer mentions to Nicholas that Seiji and Jesse Cost were perhaps “more than friends,” and Nicholas (who is very smart in his own way but also the stupidest person in the world) says, “Right! They’re rivals!”
Which says a lot about Nicholas consistently casting himself as Seiji’s rival. But then in volume 6, when Nicholas barges into a conversation between Seiji and Jesse Coste, Seiji introduces Nicholas as “my friend,” at which point Nicholas practically gets hearteyes… so maybe friends are better than rivals after all!
At the rate that Fence is publishing we will perhaps have answers to some of these questions by 2040 or so. On the one hand, I want more! Tell me what happens! But on the other hand, I’ve reached a time in my life where I truly appreciate things that come out more slowly, just because there’s so much that it’s hard to keep up.
