Hell Phone: Book One

Sometimes, I just have to read a good, creepy story, and Hell Phone fits the bill perfectly. It's the story of a couple of hip (my word, not theirs) best friends and next-door-neighbors, Sissy and Lola, who happen upon a stray flip phone. Strangely the outdated phone continues to ring until they answer it, and when they do they get cryptic directives that lead them all over town.

Spoiler: Whoever the guy is, he's not a hermit, and he was not in that house. I won't spoil what was, but it was gross and horrifying. Of course, no one in authority believes Lola or Sissy, so they are left to their own devices in order to get to the bottom of things. 

As a fan of the teens-who-solves mysteries trope, I really like this well done and contemporary take, and a lot hangs on the two main characters. They are fashionable, savvy, sort of sensible, and darkly humorous. They are also graphically depicted in a wide-eyed, colorful manner that pops. They're cool. They know the kind of story that they are in, and they know how to game the rules. The problem is that the mystery starts taking more turns and involving more people they know, so things start to spiral out of control.

Hell Phone was created by Benji Nate, a comics artist and comedian. She has created a number of other graphic novels and comics, including Catboy, Lorna, and Girl Juice.

This book was named one of the 2023 YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens, and all of the reviews I have read have been positive. Alenka Figa commented on the "cute, appealing visuals and humorous dialogue." Arpad Okay gushed that this "book is establishing new territory in comics and crime pulp fiction." Publishers Weekly called it "a quirky and stylish supernatural mystery that still hits her sweet spot of slice-of-life friendship comics."

Hell Phone was published by Silver Sprocket, and they offer a preview and more info here. You can also read the entire story (so far) online and free at Webtoons. I have not seen Book Two solicited yet, and I hope to see it sometime soon.