Crazy Latte Thing Called Love is a comic written by Adriano Ariganello with art by Mattia Monaco. An office worker falls hopelessly in love with a barista at his local coffee shop. This is a crime and romance comic with comedy, violence, and two protagonists. The main man for this tale is Liam, he works for an insurance company as an adjuster and he is a very determined individual. The leading lady here is Ruby, she works at a coffee shop during the day but moonlights as a criminal. The story begins with Liam entering the Crazy Latte and seeing Ruby, at which point he becomes infatuated. She is all he can think about after leaving the shop and he is trying to figure out a way to woo her. The violence in this comic is mainly physical with some blood and gore. The pacing is steady with a rom-com tone. The intensity here comes from danger, violence, and conversations. The dialogue has a good amount of back-and-forth with a significant amount of narration from Liam. There are no word-heavy pages. This is an interesting comic about a man hopelessly in love and a woman who isn’t fully aware of his existence.

            The art here is drawn in a slightly stylized and cartoonish way while still looking modern. The color range here is realistic with the sky/time of day playing a big role in the shading and lighting of different areas. This takes place entirely in the downtown area of a city so there isn’t much natural scenery but a lot of concrete kind. Some of the primary locations here are the Crazy Latte coffee shop, the office where Liam works, and random isolated areas. The backgrounds here nearly always show the surroundings which make scenes have more impact. The expression level here is very high as the looks displayed are just as important as the words being said. The main emotions here are happiness, shock, anger, sadness, and plenty of confusion. The faces have a decent amount of detail and they get animated which helps the expressions come across clearly. The violence involves fists with some hard hits and a little gunplay. The action scenes come in bursts with a decent amount of panels and smooth flow.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like stories that mix romance and crime with two leads and one-sided infatuation as well as violence, drama, and comedy then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

PG-13. Violence.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“I just need to find the right approach.”

 

Physical Link: https://www.pestocomics.com/product/crazyLatte-A/13

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pestocomics/crazy-latte-thing/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 32

Violent Pages: 4, for 13% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 1, for 3% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 4

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 2

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”