Comic Book / Club Kick Out!

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Club Kick Out! Volume 1, Into the Ring, is a graphic novel about a group of plucky middle school students who take matters into their own hands (or fists!) when their principal unexpectedly cancels all creative extracurricular clubs. First published in 2023, Into the Ring marks the full length authorial debut for writer-illustrator Steph Mided.

Seventh grade was supposed to be Sasha Peters' time to shine, but everything is going wrong all at once! On the first day of school her dreams of becoming the Video Game Club's president are crushed when the new principal cancels it alongside every other non-sports extracurricular at Custard Creek Middle School. That includes the theater, cosplay, art, and band clubs, leaving tons of kids without a space to let their creativity shine. On top of that, Sasha's best friend Sage has all but abandoned her for cheer squad and the remnants of the Video Game Club have unofficially reformed under the heel of her despotic classmate Declan.

Just when all hope seems lost, a class project leads Sasha and some new friends to a local wrestling match. Between the cool costumes, secret identities, signature moves and hammy catchphrases, it's everything these misfits have been missing about their old clubs. It’s there they get the idea to form a new sports club, one that the principal will have to support: a club dedicated to professional wrestling!

But not everyone is on board with this wacky scheme, so when the newly formed wrestling club takes their performances too far trouble starts brewing. With friendships on the ropes and unexpected injuries in the ring, it looks like the end for these up-and-coming performers. Can Sasha and her friends make a comeback in time for Club Kick Out to give the school a match they’ll never forget, or is their club officially down for the count?

Tropes in Club Kick Out!

• Acquainted with Emergency Services: Downplayed — Sasha Peters has always been clumsy and uncoordinated and frequently injures herself. By the time Sasha hits 7th grade, the school nurse has Ms. Peters' phone number on speed dial.
• After-School Cleaning Duty: After their unofficial pep rally in the cafeteria inadvertently turns into a Food Fight, the wrestling club gets stuck cleaning up the mess other students made.
• Badass Teacher: Nurse Bebe Boltares is secretly the wrestler Queen Bee. When Sasha and her friends figure this out, they beg her to become the wrestling club's faculty advisor and coach.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • Noah posts videos and vlogs on "ViewTube"
  • One of the video game club's favorite titles is the "Tobi Vulture" skate simulator (a riff on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater)
  • The wrestling club forms when Sasha, Andi, Artemis, Clover, and Emi have to write a book report on J.B. Balinger's classic American coming-of-age novel The Baker in the Pie.
  • Artemis and Emi pick up craft supplies and decorations at Festivity City.
  • When Sage sneaks over to Sasha's house in the middle of the night, Sasha compares her stealthy antics to video game character Solid Iguana.
    Sasha: I'm can't believe you snuck over here!
    Sage: Well, you snuck downstairs to meet me, so I guess we're both like spies.
    Sasha: Just like Solid Iguana!
    Sage: I'm surprised we didn't wear boxes!
  • Mari ran an exposé on vending machine price inflation, including items like Diet Doctor Piper.
• Birthday Beginning: The comic begins on Sasha's 13th birthday, a week before the start of 7th grade.
• Cheap Heat: During the Wrestling Club's first big match, Artemis hams up her Wrestling Monster persona by calling the audience "pathetic mortals" with bad math skills. Sasha drums up support from the crowd by claiming Custard Creek Middle School has great math skills.
• Club Stub: Zig-Zagged, overlaps with Save Our Team — the newly formed wrestling club needs to get approval from school management and recruit additional members in order to be recognized.
• Cruel Cheerleader:
  • Played Straight with Aurora, one of the newly minted cheerleaders — she actively disparages the Pro Wrestling Club and teases Sage for being friends with Sasha.
  • Subverted with most of the other cheerleaders, who are friendly towards towards the Pro Wrestling Club and happy to help them put on a halftime show.
  • Zig-Zagged with Andi's older sister Charli, captain of the Cheerleading Squad. Andi and Charli's dad is extremely proud of Charli's athletic endeavors... but less enthusiastic about Andi's Cosplay Club (when Andi asks for permission to join the Pro Wrestling Club, Mr. Brooks says he's glad they've got another athlete in the family). While Charli initially dismisses the Pro Wrestling Club as "whatever my sister is doing", she later supports her sister and the club in putting on the big halftime show.
• Drunk with Power: Declan goes on a power trip after naming himself president of the video game club. His iron-fisted rule winds up driving away all the other members. Even Noah (who'd stuck it out longer than everyone else) gets fed up with Declan's bad attitude and habit of constantly putting Sasha down. Noah quits to join the Wrestling Club instead.
• Embarrassing Relative Teacher: Sage's father Harvey Key is the new principal at Custard Creek Middle School. At an all-school assembly on the first day back from summer break, Principal Key points Sage out in the audience to let everyone know she's his beloved daughter (right after announcing that he's cutting all the non-sports extracurriculars). For the rest of the semester, Sage gets teased mercilessly about her dad.
• Fantasy Sequence: As the Wrestling Club attends one of their first meetings with Coach Boltares, Sasha imagines kicking Declan's butt pro-wrestling style as payback for how he treated her at the last Video Game Club meeting. She snaps out of it when Coach Boltares reminds her to pay extra close attention during the safety briefing.
• Food Fight: The Wrestling Club's first "pep rally" in the cafeteria accidentally turns into a food fight. Even though they didn't start the food fight, the club members are blamed for the mess and the club's already provisional footing is called into question.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: Sage made a promise to Sasha that she would attend the Wrestling Club's first exhibition match. The match is set to take place right after cheerleading practice ends. Sage just joined the cheer squad and is very dedicated to the team, but she's determined to keep her word and provide moral support for Sasha. As Sage is getting ready to dash over to the wrestling match she's offered the starring role in the cheer squad's routine for the final game of the season — she just has to stay late and go over choreography with the more experienced cheerleaders. Sage stays behind and misses the wrestling match. Sasha winds up with a bad case of stage fright when she can't spot her best friend in the crowd and bungles a stunt, injuring her arm in from of a huge crowd that includes the school Principal. Sage arrives at the auditorium just in time to see Sasha crying in pain and hear Principal Key announce that he's shutting down the Wrestling Club for being unsafe.
• The Gimmick: Members of the wrestling club are given the assignment to come up with a wrestling persona, complete with costumes and a Signature Move to set them apart from their opponents.
  • Sasha's persona is Nova Star, an intergalactic traveler with space-themed attacks and dialog
  • Andi's persona is Princess Ribbon, a magical girl who fights for truth and justice while wearing frilly lolita-style outfits
  • Clover's persona is "Clover 'the Wild Card' McQueen"
  • Emi's persona is Rebelle, a trash-talking vampiric thrall and Heel
  • Artemis' persona is Moonshade, a thousand-year-old vampire Wrestling Monster who wants to conquer the world of puny mortals
• Heel: Artemis is convinced to join the club because she's offered the chance to play the villain. Her wrestling persona winds up being a Vampire Wrestling Monster bent on conquering the world of mortals. Emi also plays a hammy villain as one of Artemis' vampiric thralls.
• The Klutz: Sasha is extremely clumsy, to the point that the school nurse has her mother's phone number on speed dial. Starting the wrestling club and learning the basics of wrestling helps Sasha with her coordination, but more importantly Coach Boltares teaches her how to fall safely.
• Masked Luchador: Rising Star of Wrestling performer "Queen Bee" wears a mask and a bright pink wig when she performs. This disguises her true identity as Bebe Boltares, school nurse at Custard Creek Middle School.
• Performance Anxiety: On top of being a pushover who can't stand up for herself (or a "crybaby" according to Declan), Sasha gets some pretty intense stage fright when she's put on the spot. She reports how she deliberately flunked out of the first round of the 6th grade spelling bee just to get off the stage as fast as possible. Emi tries to coach her through the nerves by confessing to her own experiences with stage fright before joining the theater club.
• Playing Sick: Nurse Boltares starts going to cartoonish lengths to avoid members of the wrestling club once they deduce she's the pro wrestler Queen Bee and request that she become their faculty advisor. Sasha pretends to trip and hurt her arm during gym class in order to get sent to the nurse's office (where Nurse Boltares will have to sit and listen to Sasha's plea while treating her arm).
• Pro Wrestling Episode: "Pro Wrestling Episode" the club/ the book. After all their non-sports extracurriculars are canceled, Sasha and her friends decide to start a wrestling club at their school with all the costumes, signature moves, and theatricality of pro wrestling. Then they have to keep the club going in the face of administrative hurdles and personal challenges.
• The Promise: Sasha and Sage are best friends, but 7th grade has been hard on both of them (Sage's dad is the unpopular principal who cancelled all school clubs, Sasha lost her video game club) and they've had zero time to hang out or catch up. When Sasha asks if Sage can attend the Pro Wrestling Club's first exhibition match as moral support, Sage promises to be there. Unfortunately Sage's cheerleading practice runs late and she misses the match. Sasha gets stage fright when she can't find Sage in the crowd and misses a cue to duck one of Artemis' attacks; Sasha gets knocked down and hurts her arm. Principal Key sees Sasha get injured and immediately disbands the Wrestling Club. Sasha falls into a depression and thinks her friendship with Sage is over.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes:
  • Clover uses puppy-dog eyes when they ask their parents if Sasha, Andi, Emi, and Artemis can come to the pro wrestling match with their brothers.
  • Sasha, Emi, Andi, and Clover offer up puppy eyes (and the promise that she can play the Heel) when trying to convince Artemis to join the club.
  • Sasha's plea for Nurse Bebe to become the wrestling club's faculty advisor and coach involves big, sparkly puppy-dog eyes. It works.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Wrestling Club is founded by a handful of students who've had their non-sports extracurriculars canceled by Principal Key as a cost saving measure:
  • Sasha's video game club got the axe, and she gets the idea to start a pro wrestling club as a way to bring her favorite fighting games to life.
  • Artemis and Emi's theater club was closed, but Wrestling Club gives them an outlet to use their acting skills AND show off the fight choreography they'd been working on.
  • Andi's cosplay club was shuttered, so when a Wrestling Club is proposed she immediately gets excited about the designing and making the wild costumes that go with pro-wrestling personas.
  • Clover's improv commedy club got the boot. They were already a fan of Professional Wrestling, and the Wrestling Club gives them the chance to get others excited about the sport.
  • The original five are later joined by refugees from the art club and the band club.
• Rhyme Theme Naming: Clover's older brothers are named Bowen and Owen.
• Save Our Team: Overlaps with Club Stub— Sasha's newly formed wrestling club is a refuge for students who lost their arts-centered extracurriculars when Principal Key decided to divert all funding to sports programs, but the club needs to prove that it's serious business in order to be recognized by the school administration. They need to show a commitment to genuine athleticism, prove they can keep their members safe in the ring, and get a faculty advisor to supervise their activities.
• School Newspaper Newshound: Middle school student Mari Ramirez hosts her own news segment, "Mari Meets," which is broadcast live on classroom TVs throughout the building. She frequently ambushes the main characters to conduct interviews or chase down leads on a breaking story.
• School Nurse: Bebe Boltares is the resident nurse at Custard Creek Middle School. She's also secretly the wrestler Queen Bee. Bebe has a good heart and caring personality, but most of her fellow teachers automatically assume she's a bleeding-heart pushover because of her job as a kiddie nurse.
• Secret Stab Wound: Clover injured their foot when they dropped a heavy box on it, but pretended they were fine so that there would be enough wrestlers for the club's all-important halftime show. When Sasha spots Clover favoring the injured foot and hesitating to get into the ring, she steps up to cover for Clover in the Tag Team match.
• Show Within a Show:
  • Sasha and the gaming club are huge fans of the "Fisticuff Frenzy" fighting game and "Tobi Vulture" skateboarding simulator.
  • Queen Bee and Destiny are members of the "Rising Star of Wrestling" league.
• Signature Move:
  • Rising Star Wrestlers Destiny and Queen Bee both have flashy signature moves. Destiny's is the elaborate "Fallen Angel" flip, while Queen Bee's is "Royal Rocket."
  • Members of the Wrestling Club are encouraged to come up with a flashy move that reflects their wrestling persona: Sasha's move is the "Starlight Express."
• Sore Loser: When Sasha challenges Declan for presidency of the Video Game Club (or what's left of it after the school takes away their funding and the club is reduced to meeting at Declan's house on weekends), she beats him fair and square in a "Fisticuffs Frenzy" tournament. Declan petulantly declares that the match doesn't count and refuses to give up the presidency. He says Sasha can't lead the club because she's a crybaby who doesn't stick up for herself... and because the club is meeting at his house and using his game system (with the implication being that if he doesn't get to be president, no-one else will get to play).
• Suplex Finisher: Queen Bee wins her match against Destiny by kicking out of a pin and delivering an impressive suplex.
• Tag Team: The halftime show is choreographed as a tag team match with Artemis and Emi facing off against Andi and Clover. Clover injured their foot before the match and can't participate, so Sasha jumps in at the last second to tag Andi out and save the day.
• Title Drop: The Wrestling Club is renamed to "Club Kick Out" after their successful exhibition at the football team's halftime show, taking their new name from the club motto (which itself comes from the "kick out" wrestling move used to escape pins).
• Trash Talk:
  • Destiny and Queen Bee start their match at Rising Star Wrestling with some punchy insults:
    Destiny: Queen Bee? Showing your face here? After such a crushing defeat last summer? You really are a glutton for punishment. Don't tell me you are trying to take my title away from me! You're so small no one would be able to even see you behind the belt! Why even call you Queen Bee anymore? You've been dethroned. You are noth—
    Queen Bee: You've always been all talk, Destiny. It's time someone took the mic away from you!
  • Sasha and Artemis use their match to trade verbal blows and drum up some Cheap Heat for Artemis' "evil vampire" persona:
    Artemis: Let's make this match quick, shall we? I'm sure all these disgusting humans have more important things to do--like failing algebra and aging poorly.
    Sasha: I-I've traveled all across the galaxy and I have yet to find beings with better math skills than Custard Creek! So grab a calculator and start typing-- Because your days are numbered!
• Wrestling Monster: Artemis' wrestling persona is "Moonshade", a thousand-year-old vampire lord who wants to conquer the land of mortals... starting with Custard Creek. She can recruit other wrestlers to her cause by biting them and turning them into her vampiric thralls.