Bingo Love Volume 1: Jackpot Edition

by Tee Franklin, Marguerite Bennett, Gail Simone, Shawn Pryor, Alyssa Cole, and Gabby Rivera

[nannah]

A textbook example of a beautiful idea and poor execution, this one deeply disappointed me. The art, though, is joyful and bright and expressive, so that’s where the extra star comes in.

Content warnings:
- homophobia
- cheating
- racism

Representation:
- almost every character is Black
- the two MCs are sapphic

Spanning over sixty years, Bingo Love tells the love story of Hazel Johnson and Mari McCray, two black women who first met at church bingo in 1963. Unfortunately, they are driven apart by their families, eventually marry men, have families, and never see each other until their mid sixties. That meeting again happens at church bingo, and they realize their love for each other had never died.

I wasn’t sure about the art style initially just by looking at the cover, but it’s adorable! Incredibly expressive and full of life and color, and probably the best thing about this little graphic novella.

Because oh, boy … the dialogue … the writing. I feel so bad, but Bingo Love is poorly written, with stiff and wooden lines mixed with some very cliche ones, such as, “love is love is love is love” and “if loving Mari was wrong I didn’t want to be right”. It almost feels like an educational video you’d watch at high school, the ones simultaneously stiff and over-the-top. Ones where they want to get in as many talking points about an issue as possible, because its purpose is to educate, rather than tell a story.

Characters also seem to change their minds in between panels. The MC’s husband goes from yelling at her to suddenly lying in her lap, saying, “I wanted a family. It was something that I needed to validate myself.” Had they gone to therapy in between the two panels?

What really bothered me, though, were the two instances of “if you want to know what happened/what they’re talking about, buy the bonus comics!” I’m all for supporting creators, but one of these is about something integral to the plot. Even though I can sort of piece things together, it certainly doesn’t make me any less annoyed. And after looking everywhere online, it seems the bonus comic that was important to the plot wasn’t actually made after all.

The book’s stance on cheating made me uncomfortable, too. I don’t want to spoil anything more than I have (if that’s considered spoiling), but even if that doesn’t necessarily make it an objectively Good or Bad book morally speaking or whatever … it’s not something I’m a big fan of. I’m also not actually sure if this is written for YA or adult readers (reviewers seem to have tagged it as both) … the idea itself seems more suited for an adult audience, and the way things are handled in the graphic novel seems more suited for a YA audience.

I think all in all the novella needed a lot more time to be edited and refined. Not to mention it’s probably a little short for this type of 60+yr storyline.