Rock and Riot, written by Chelsey Furedi, is the story of two rival gangs: the Rollers and the Jaquettes. Feuding ever since they were kids, tensions started rising even higher after Rolly decided to leave the rowdy, narrow-minded Rollers for the more welcoming Jaquettes after she transitioned. Shortly after, Rolly draws the attention of Ace, founder of the Bandits, but their relationship isn’t the only one that’s been hiding in the shadows. It turns out the Rollers and the Jaquettes have a lot more in common than they thought.
How can there be so many queer characters in a 1950s high school comic?
At first, Rock and Riot starts off as a classic queer high school story: while Connie has feelings for Carla and is unsure how Carla would feel, Clyde is coming to terms with his newfound feelings for his best friend Gene. After those questions are answered, and the couples start dating, the tension revolves around keeping their relationship secret from not only the world, but also from their friends, most importantly. The fear of Frankie and Debbie finding out that they are queer leads to a short-lived, Romeo-and-Juliet scenario where Connie and Clyde are thought to be dating. It all comes crashing out of the closet, however, when both gangs involved come out to each other in detention. With all their sexual orientations and identities creating a wide spectrum, it certainly showed that this school is a lot less straight than anyone thought, but what are the odds of this happening though, especially at the time the story is set? That is the conceit of the story.
Credit: Chelsey Furedi
A five-panel page.
First panel: A view of Sasha from behind, standing on a field, foot propped up on a volley ball.
Second panel: Ace is in chemistry class, holding up a test tube, wide-eyed.
Principal (off-panel): Our school has a… struggling… reputation
Third panel: A close-up of the principal’s face, from the nose down, as she speaks into a microphone.
Fourth panel: A top-bottom view of Rolly, sitting at her desk, looking slightly worried.
Principal (off-panel): So any student not conforming to the dress code… Or with an inappropriate parter…
Fifth panel: A close-up of Connie at her desk, completely stunned. Some students behind her look annoyed while others look sheepish.
Principal (off-panel): …will not be allowed inside the premises.
In storytelling terms, a conceit is a device that establishes a fictional reality needed for the story. In Rock and Riot, for instance, the conceit is that a group of queer, gender non-conforming teenagers are allowed to express themselves in a relatively free manner during the 1950s. Given how the United States at the time was extremely prejudiced against racial and sexual minorities and any other forms of inconformity, this conceit could be such a stretch that the story might fall into the realm of the fantastic for some. Be that as it may, there are several instances in the story that reflect the times and ground the story. While the school is integrated, Connie still deals with segregation in public places and can’t be seen by Carla’s father. As seen in the panels above, gender conformity is enforced and heteronormativity is mandated at school dances, and the queer teens, while all in varying degrees of non-conformity, must ultimately keep themselves and their loved ones safe from the world. Overall, the conceit that a group of queer people unknowingly gravitated towards each other has very little baring on the setting at large.
Credit: Chelsey Furedi
A four-panel page.
First panel: A close-up of Connie’s foot as she kicks a garbage can down.
Connie: This is garbage!
Second panel: Connie is now crushing the garbage can with her foot, angrily.
Connie: Who are they to tell us we can’t have fun?
Third panel: Rolly is sitting down in an alley, hunched over holding up her head with her hands. Connie is standing towards the end of the alley, arms crossed with a determined look.
Rolly: I guess I can’t live my prom after all.
Connie: Ain’t no way in heck they’re makin me wear a dress, or Rolly a suit.
Rolly: If only we could switch.
Connie: Yeah — Let’s just do it! How can they stop us?
Fourth panel: Debbie and Triss are sitting opposite Rolly and Connie. Everyone is looking crestfallen.
Debbie: Look girls. I see your fighting spirit, but there’s no way we could make a difference.
As mentioned before, different people, depending on their own previous experiences and personal biases, will react to conceits in different ways. For some, the existence of a full-functioning time machine might be so great that it completely shatters their suspension of disbelief thus making the story a difficult text to engage with, which could lead to a negative experience with that story or others like it. The fact of the matter is, when examining storytelling closely, all fiction is rooted in conceit. “What if” scenarios are the basis of all fictional stories because, to varying degrees, some aspects of that story are simply not factual. Even a story that is completely grounded in realism is conceived by the conceit that the characters themselves existed and that the events transpired. Regardless of their size and how seamless their presence is, a conceit is a conceit, and without them, there would be no fiction. Without this brave group of teenagers, there would be no story to speak of.