Action Girl Comics #11

In "Tobey's Holiday Dinner," Chris pulls double duty during a holiday gathering—juggling last-minute prep while Tom charms their friends, blissfully unaware of her dry wit. As the evening winds down, a guest raises a toast praising Chris as the best hostess ever, leaving her quietly stunned by the unexpected recognition.

In "Stay Gold Pony Boy," Patty shares a quiet, nostalgic memory of bonding with her sister Jan over classic teen films—movies like *The Outsiders*, *Sixteen Candles*, *The Breakfast Club*, and *Pretty In Pink*—each one a window into the bittersweet ache of growing up.

In "How I Became Beautiful," Melissa recalls the pivotal moment at age 11 when she saved her allowance for a tube of Pearly Pink #7 lipstick, daring to wear it to school after her parents’ disapproval. Inspired by Loni Anderson on *WKRP in Cincinnati*, she got her first perm, a transformation that made her feel truly beautiful for the first time.

In "Going Dutch," Jen shares her time working at a Pennsylvania Dutch grocery store, where the no-frills atmosphere feels worlds away from the city life she left behind. She recalls her boss’s Flanders-like demeanor, the bag boys’ car talk, and the unsettling truth behind the local "delicacy" Scrapple. Her inspiration comes from Ethel, a former New York City dancer and waitress, whose blunt advice—live hard and fast, because at 22 you're just young and stupid—sticks with her.

In "Puberty Shmewberty!", Jo and Tink ditch sex ed with a flair, faking pre-menstrual drama to escape Miss Dunlap’s lecture—only to trade the nurse’s office for a playground snack break and wild daydreams of gangster glamour and amusement park empire. Later, their classroom escape leads to dodge ball, where the real chaos begins. Lisa McElroy’s sharp, playful art brings the whole mischievous, candy-fueled afternoon to life.

In "Quitter," a quiet reflection on creative doubt and second chances, a young man recalls the years he abandoned his dream of being an artist after feeling overwhelmed in art school—where he was silenced by self-doubt and the presence of peers he believed were far more gifted. Years later, he returns to drawing, not with grand ambition, but simply to make marks, learning that the real obstacle was never talent, but the voice in his head that told him he wasn’t enough.

In "Pivotal Scenes from My Life as a Stage Actress," young Jo recounts a crushing moment from third grade: missing the lead role in the school play to her rival, Chrissy Toberman, only to find herself on a chair during the performance—where a fall leaves her humiliated in front of the entire class. Though the teacher reassures her the show must go on, the real sting comes not from the fall, but from the imagined smirk she’s certain Chrissy couldn’t hide.

In "Mrs. Miller," a quiet moment of memory unfolds as the narrator attends the estate sale of a woman they barely knew—Mrs. Miller—after her passing. Recalling a childhood encounter selling Girl Scout cookies, the narrator wanders through a house filled with books and art, now being cleared by the state, pausing to wonder what Mrs. Miller might have thought of her things being sold so casually.

In "Fashion Is Silly," Jo flips through a forgotten 1980s fashion magazine during a dental appointment, laughing at the decade’s wild trends—bad perms, leg warmers with heels, and pants packed with pockets—reminding herself how absurd style can be. The story captures a quiet, wry moment of nostalgia, grounded in the small, silly details of a bygone era.

In "He Shoulda Knowed Betta!", Chris’s messy tuna sandwich takes an unexpected turn when it lands squarely on Jim’s cherished scrapbook of John Romita’s Spider-Man newspaper strips. As Jim hesitates to let Chris see it, the moment becomes a quiet, funny collision of carelessness and nostalgia—where a simple mistake sparks a moment of reluctant sharing and playful blame.