Space Boy Volume 1 is a gorgeous and engaging debut to a promising story. The art-style is colorful, dynamic, emotive, and pretty obviously inspired by Japanese manga, in a good way! I'm in love with our protagonist's character design and with the beautiful augmented reality scenes. My biggest complaint here, aside from some half-hearted grumbling about forced exposition, is that it's just too short. I read it one brief sitting and immediately wanted more. The good news it the reader is given a lot to chew on in this first volume, so there's definitely a lot to look forward to throughout the rest of the series.
Oh, I am disappointed that Amy's synesthesia isn't shown to us. Seems like the graphic novel medium would be perfect for some creative visualizations of different people's "flavors" - but nothing like that really happened, we just get told what their flavor is via inner monologue. ( )

The artwork in "Space Boy" is really pleasing to see; it's got a kind of Jetsons vibe to it without being cheesy. Everything about the art just flows so well, and all the elements (colors, facial expressions, settings, palettes) feel cohesive with the storyline and each other. The general idea of the story is intriguing: a young girl and her family are frozen and sent 30 years away from the space mining colony they have lived on their whole lives, and now are readjusting to life on Earth.
However, after the initial setup, I feel like the story kind of becomes one big set up/prologue for the actual part "main" part of the series. Reading just Vol. 1 here is fairly unsatisfying because it answers no questions. It definitely feels like only 1/4 of a book, which can work in some cases, but "Space Boy" is 250 pages and I came out of it feeling like I didn't read much. I'll probably check out the next part of the series, but I'm really hoping it gets a lot more into the meat of the story! ( )

I love a good space story. I’ve only read this first volume of Stephen McCranie’s Space Boy so far but it was an interesting start to the series. The art style is very unique and the writing can be quite lyrical at times. The opening of the book really drew me in, with I’m assuming the character that the title refers to with the words “In space the stars don’t twinkle. Apparently, twinkling only happens when you look at the stars through the atmosphere of a planet. Out here there’s no atmosphere…there’s only the Nothing. The Nothing is ever present and always silent. You can talk to the Nothing as much as you want, but it doesn’t talk back…”

The story stars Amy, a high schooler who is forced to leave her home on a mining planet after her dad looses his job there. So the whole family climbs into their cryotubes only to re-emerge 30 years later on Earth. But to Amy’s family, it’s like no time has passed at all, merely a blink. Now they have to get accustomed to Earth’s gravity, 30 years of missed history, and a completely different social system. To add to the list of strange new experiences, Amy comes across a boy on the first day of school who doesn’t have a flavor. Yes, you read that right. Amy has a form of synesthesia that causes her to associate specific flavors to specific people, for instance her mom is like mint and her dad like hot chocolate. But this new boy, has no flavor at all. Add to all this a reported murder surrounding the study of a mysterious space “artifact” and this story already has a lot going for it.

Space Boy Vol.1: 4/5 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ( )

I really enjoyed the art. The storyline is possessed by many heavy things, but manages the lightness part of adolescence as well. ( )

Love all the world building and the art work but agree with some of the other reviews here that this was heavily focused on set-up and not a lot of actual plot. Looking forward to seeing things moving forward in subsequent volumes. ( )