Review: Bloom (Kevin Panetta, Savanna Ganucheau)

Bloom is the story of Ari and his plans for moving to the city with his band and making a career in music. His parents want him to stay home and keep working in the Kyrkos’ family bakery. Ari’s older sister just got married and they’re not sure they can make it without Ari working there. But Ari has a plan: he’ll find someone who wants to be a baker and train them himself. Then he’ll be free to head to the big city and pursue his dreams.

Hector recently came back to town to settle his grandmother’s affairs after her death. Luckily, he only wants to be a baker, and applies for the job. And so begins a summer they’ll both remember for a long time.

Bloom follows a traditional romance story line. A couple meets and gets to know one another. Boy meets boy. Things cause them to separate. Boy loses boy. And then they get back together again. Boy gets boy. It has a happy ending, which is both standard and expected in a romance kind of story. It’s an enjoyable story with likable characters and just the right amount of conflict. And the artwork is excellent: relatively simple line drawings, done in a simple palette of blues, with great shading. As you can see from the sample below, it just matches the story so well. Panetta and Ganucheau work very well together, and I would enjoy seeing more from them. Take a look at Bloom and leave a comment letting me know what you think. I suspect you’ll enjoy it.