For an entire generation of internet nerds, the internet was always something that came accompanied by the binary screech of a modem, cost an absolute fortune in phone bills, and was usually dished up against the backdrop of browser windows that looked like someone had chewed through an entire packet of dead pixels on toast, then vomited the results into a Windows 3.1 powered Pentium.

"Internet Crusader" by George Wylesol once again  proves this innovative comic creative is breathing fresh life into the graphic novel medium, digging into source material that folk my age will still be all too familiar with.

The internet, when it first started to insidiously creep into our homes, wasn't a thing of beauty fed through sleek fibre optic lines, it was a screechy animated mess. Wi-fi? hah, you're kidding right? You had to actually physically sit at the computer to use it, and you had to endure the most painful download speeds imaginable (something George nicely captures at a couple of points in this story to brilliant effect).

And of that, this is the story of BSKskator19, your typical tokin' smokin' malajusted teen looking for kicks on old bulletin boards and messaging systems.

Trying to find a 'clean' shareable screenshot from this GN isn't easy!

One minute he's convinced he's talking to an amazing smokin' hot chick online. The next minute he's drawn into a fantasy battle played out against a digital blocky backdrop, as real and actual satan reaps new followers through the new digital frontier.

But where there's satan there's also God, and he's more than just in your inbox. He knows everything about you and in BSKator19's case, he's your right hand dude in the upcoming climactic battle for humanity.

Hah, you think your desktop looks cluttered and you have too many browser tabs open now? You should've seen it back then!

As we've seen previously in George's brilliant "Ghosts, Etc." he creates believable almost documentarian accounts of the most ridiculously overblown situations. BSKator19 is the best worst kind of hero, one you instantly despise on first encountering, but realise that they have just the right amount of natural-born cynicism and effortless luck they'll need to get through the end of the world.

Superb stuff this, and I'm well aware that most millennials would pick up a copy of this and probably txt "WTFLOL" to a dozen or so of their Instagram buddies. But that's just what makes this so perfect.

Sum this graphic novel up in a sentence: A hectic fast-paced apocalyptic battle played out at 1200/75 BPM.

"Internet Crusader" by George Wylesol is out now, published by Avery Hill Publishing (kindly supplied in digital format for reviewing, of course!)

Our YA / Teen Graphic novel of the week is actually two GNs - Volume 1 and 2 of a rather touching love story - A love story between two teenage boys.

If that's the sort of thing that you don't really want to read about, fine, hit the back button on your browser, unsubscribe, wash your eyeballs with lye, whatever.

But we're going to talk about "HeartStopper" anyway, so buckle up and prepare for something far more captivating than your average bromance.

Charlie is gay, no doubt about it, and as he joins a new school he ends up sitting next to Nick, the epitome of the chisel-jawed rugby hero. What could the two possibly have in common?

Strangely though, the two become friends, but for Charlie that friendship is obviously something else. It's a mind-blowing heart-stopping crush that seems doomed to failure from the start.

His sister tuts, as do his friends. "You fell for the straight boy! You idiot!" they chide, but then something happens that gives Charlie a tiny teeny flame of hope worth fanning, as it begins to become all too apparent that Nick might have developed feelings for him too.

After a pretty nasty confrontation that more or less cements this belief, the story shifts in focus from Charlie to Nick, who then has to deal with a whole load of new feelings of self doubt.

Could Nick actually be bisexual? He likes girls, but he REALLY likes Charlie. Maybe more than just "Likes".

One thing's definitely for sure, Charlie REALLY loves Nick's pooch Nellie (well, who wouldn't!)

In volume 1, the story sets out to introduce the characters and set up the interplay between them, but then in volume 2 things kick up a notch and we really begin to discover the depth of feeling that Charlie and Nick have for each other, and how it's put to the test in literally every aspect of their young lives.

Alice's acute observations of what it's like to go through those tempestuous teen years when you're not sure of anything, and spend a lot of time wondering what life is all about is tempered by a gay love story that's truly beautiful to behold.

Whether you're gay or straight, you'll definitely remember what those first few weeks of falling in love are like, and that's something Alice captures so perfectly here. All the little nuances and details that, to outsiders, mean absolutely nothing but to the two people at the heart of it, it's their lifeblood, their bread and butter, the air they breathe.

I'm pretty aware I'm not the target audience for this, yet it's the sort of thing that gives an old ragged straight white bloke a bit of hope that there are amazing and above all NICE people in the world, and those people sometimes get the sort of mind-blowing spine-tingling love that they deserve.

Alice's story is fab, her clean visuals are stylish, almost like fashion sketches crossed with manga, but utterly perfect in "Heartstopper" and so brilliantly scene-setting with each twist and turn in the story.

There are moments of conflict too, as you'd expect - and whether purposely or not, Alice actually underplays these quite a lot so far in the first two volumes (with volume 3 due next year).

I remember when my brother came out to me as a young teen and it was a bolt out of the blue, but somehow I'd always suspected. He was a LOT like Charlie, and I think Alice maybe missed a trick with describing what it is like to admit to your friends and family who think you're one thing, that you're actually something entirely different - but still the same person inside (if that makes sense).

Such a ridiculously cute moment that it makes your heart sing!

Homophobia is also underplayed here quite a bit, and I wonder if the upcoming Volume III will make more of this, as I think it's something that all teens going through the same things as Charlie and Nick will (sadly) have to put up with and be mentally prepared for, from folk who just can't get their heads around love being universal, regardless of sexual preference.

I must admit that this is the first set of Hodder-published Graphic Novels I've seen, and if this is the sign of the direction they're going to move in with their teen fiction, then I'm all for it, as this is a joy-filled and brilliant read and you just cannot help rooting for Charlie and Nick throughout. Very much looking forward to Volume III.

Sum these books up in a sentence: A brilliantly depicted and thoroughly absorbing love story between two teen boys, tackling the complications, awesomeness, pitfalls and euphoria of what falling for someone head-over-heels is really like.

"Heartstopper (Volume 1 and 2)" is out now, published by Hodder Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Our YA Comic / Graphic Novel of the Week this week is very much a topic-du-jour mostly thanks to a new Netflix series based on Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba's stunning comic series.

"The Umbrella Academy Volume 1: Apocalypse Suite" is the jumping in point for the series, collecting together the initial origin story for a wildly dysfunctional, diverse and truly lethal family collected together by a harsh and unloving father figure.

All born on the same day, the incumbents of The Umbrella Academy are actually seven orphans, six of which show signs of incredible and strange superpowers under the watchful and controlling eye of one Sir Reginald Hargreaves.

Sir Reginald begins to train the children to become a super-force to be reckoned with, and in the comics we're given more of a backstory to their super-heroics than you will eventually see in the TV show - mostly thanks to an excellent and stunning set piece where the six main heroes fight an animated and bestial version of The Eiffel Tower in a scene you dearly, dearly wish they had the budget for in the TV show (but is sadly lacking).

Klaus, Allison, Vanya, Diego, Luther, Ben, and Number Five are trained to work together as an elite team of superheroes and assassins, but each child has their own flaws - which come to light as the graphic novel digs its treads into the snow and starts to gain traction.
The seventh child, Vanya, is told throughout her early life that though she was born on the same day as the other kids, she has no special powers at all. Something that later on in the graphic novel leads to her discovering quite the opposite (trying not to spoil things too much but Sir Reginald turns out to be a terrible, terrible liar and an absolutely appalling father figure).

Gerard Way, the talented ex lead-dude of "My Chemical Romance" who is now possibly more famous for his exquisite comic writing has created a distinctly different set of heroes, often deeply flawed, seemingly lied to and misled throughout their entire lives, but drawn together again by the death of Sir Reginald - and a doom-laden message from Number 5 / The Boy, a diminutive member of the family cursed with being a 58 year old trapped in a child's body, who witnessed the end of the world in the rapidly approaching future, and has mere days to convince the others to assist him in preventing the apocalypse.

As two bounty hunters are dispatched by a sinister organisation known as "The Commission" - the previous 'employers' of Number 5, to kill their errant agent, the whole story barely takes a breath as it whips from one excellent scene to another, culminating in a final confrontation that could bring about the end of the world.

I absolutely loved this when I first encountered it some years ago, and wanted to re-read the first few volumes before dipping into the show. The graphic novels are inventive, crazy, original and weird - and it's at least worth reading this first volume even if you don't want to get into the nitty gritty of the later volumes.

Thankfully the show only seems to touch content from the first volume anyway, so again do yourself a favour and track down a copy of this before watching the Netflix show (which, actually, is also very good all things considered, with a cracking cast particularly Number 5 who is a total badass!)

Sum this comic up in a sentence: Utterly unmissable, wildly original, and totally cool.

"The Umbrella Academy Volume 1: Apocalypse Suite" by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba is out now, published by Dark Horse Comics (self purchased, not supplied for review).