MOPED ARMY by Paul Sizer

I was at the Walker Library, still my favorite of the Minneapolis libraries, walking the stacks, and enjoying my Friday afternoon, when I came across an unshelved, seemingly discarded copy of “Moped Army.” It looked like just another teen-angst ridden graphic novel, but I decided to read a blurb from the back cover anyway:

“In the year 2277, gasoline is an illegal substance, aircars dominate the sky…Inspired by the real-life organization, high-speed two-stroke action and intense drama hits the streets as the legend of the present day Moped Army is resurrected 272 years in the future.”

I was sold.

The graphic novel is a quick but entertaining read. Simone is the main character, a rich well-to-do that lives high in the sky, and above the riffraff that populate the old city, the under cities. She is trapped in a relationship with an oversexed egomaniac named Chester. Chester father runs the largest aircar company in the world, for which Simone’s father designs new models.

Chester is abusive. At one point, early on in the graphic novel, I was forced to question masculinity as an idea, again. So many young punks get it wrong. Masculinity has very little to do with the size of your muscles, and nothing to do with what you can take without asking. Chester and his crew of idiots enjoy taking their cars to Rust City and using them to blow mopeds off the road. When they kill a moped rider named Jatta, Simone realizes that she has finally had enough.

Seeking some kind of reconciliation for not speaking up and stopping Chester and his crew, Simone travels into Rust City looking for Moped Riders. Instead of finding the desperate lot she believed the Rust City dwellers to be, she finds the Moped Army. The Moped is group of Moped riding enthusiasts that work on fixing up and riding mopeds of the 20th century. The Moped Army is a gang, grouped together in order to survive Rust City, their activities revolve around discovering parts and recovering gasoline.

I think that what I liked most about this graphic novel was that it was based on a real enthusiast organization with the same name: Moped Army. I’ve been trying to write a story about Critical Mass, when hundreds of bicycles flood and clog the city streets to show solidarity and demand respect from the city and motorists, in Minneapolis. Sizer’s depiction of the Moped Army has helped me see that I was going about my story all wrong. I need to stick to what works. I need an outsider to help navigate the reader through wonderland.

Anyway, “Moped Army” is a fantastic read. I can wait to get my hands on more work by Sizer.

Sizer, Paul. “Moped Army.” Kalamazoo, MI: Café Digital Studios, 2008