Mad Magazine homage?

(click for full-size)

Intentional? I’m not comparing the characters. Not at all. Just the distinctive style of the artwork. Click the close-up above to view the full size poster for Youth in Revolt.

The novel is a cult classic about a teenage kid with angst in his pants, and has a terrific 95% approval average on Amazon.com.

Library Journal begs to differ:

This is the story of a precocious 14-year-old who reveals his struggles with the life, love, and libido of adolescence through his excruciatingly long and detailed journal. Bored by his mind-numbing high school and bewildered by the escapades of his wacky, divorced parents, Nick and his pals turn their attentions to the mysterious pursuit of true love and the quest for loss of virginity. Hormones rule. Nick’s journal entries read like a cross between Holden Caulfield and Doogie Howser, or The Wonder Years with a dash of Philip Roth. There are a few truly funny scenes as Nick strives to outwit archrival Trent for the love of the brainy and beautiful Sheeni. Payne obviously has a vivid and ribald recollection of adolescence, but his recounting is overlong and lacking in real direction. Maybe you had to have been there.

But who do we want to believe? A librarian, or the 168 readers who gave the novel 5 stars? Haven’t read it myself, since it’s 500 pages long and if I’m gonna read a 500-page novel it damn well better be pretentious. If the movie is as self-deprecating as the book seems to be, then this might be worth a look.