''Fence'' is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

comic book series a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

written by

C. S. Pacat C. S. Pacat is a bestselling Australian author, best known for the ''Captive Prince'' trilogy, published by Penguin Random House in 2015. Personal life Pacat was born in Melbourne, Australia, and was educated at the University of Melbourne. She ...

and drawn by Johanna the Mad; both of them are co-creators. The comic book focuses on Nicholas Cox, the illegitimate son of U.S.

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, s ...

Olympic champion This article includes lists of all Olympic medalists since 1896, organized by each Olympic sport or discipline, and also by Olympiad. Medalist with most medals by sport Summer Olympic sports Winter Olympic sports A. Including military patrol e ...

Robert Coste, who aspires to become a fencing champion like his father. Despite being talented, he's roughly trained due to the hard conditions he grew up in. While at a competition, he's quickly beaten by the fencing prodigy Seiji Katayama and Nicholas vows to beat him. Managing to get into the elite boys school Kings Row on scholarship, Nicholas quickly finds out that Seiji is his roommate. The comic book was first announced by

Boom! Studios Boom! Studios (styled BOOM! Studios) is an American comic book and graphic novel publisher, headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. History Origins In the early 2000s, Ross Richie and Andrew Cosby had been working in Holly ...

in August 2017 to be published under their Boom! Box imprint in November. Pacat was inspired to create ''Fence'' due to her love for the sport, which she practiced in high school, and her interest in

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

like ''

Haikyu!! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Haruichi Furudate. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from February 2012 to July 2020, with its chapters collected in 45 ''tankōbo ...

''. The series has received a positive response from fans and critics; this positive response resulted in Boom! Studios promoting ''Fence'' from a limited series to an ongoing one. In August 2018, Boom! Studios announced that the series would change its format to original graphic novels. The last issue of the ongoing series was released in November 2018. The first original graphic novel, subtitled ''Rivals'', was released June 30, 2020.

Plot

Nicholas Cox, the illegitimate son of top fencer Robert Coste, and brother to Jesse Coste, is a wannabe fencer with a lot of natural talent but no professional training. In his first tournament match, his opponent is the legendary Seiji Katayama, who he is utterly trashed by- but not before they make a negative lasting impact on each other. Fast forward a few months. Nicholas has been given a scholarship to King's cross high school. His scholarship is for fencing, so him staying there depends on his being able to get on the team. Nicholas must go up against and defeat many other talented fencers for his spot, including Seiji himself. Nicholas is again unable to defeat Seiji, but does well enough to become one of the team's reserves along with Eugene Labao. Now that Seiji and Nicholas are teammates as well as roommates, they are forced to work together. Seiji gives Nicholas some pointers, apparently out of pure annoyance to the fact that Nicholas was such an untrained fencer.

Production

Development

''Fence'' was first announced by

on August 17, 2017, to be released under their Boom! Box imprint. It was announced that the comic would be written by

, writer of the ''Captive Prince'' trilogy, and drawn by Johanna the Mad. Regarding the collaboration between the two, Pacat stated that she had been a fan of Johanna for years, ever since she saw Johanna's

fan art Fan art or fanart is artwork created by fans of a work of fiction and derived from a series character or other aspect of that work. They are usually done by amateur artists, semi-professionals or professionals. As fan labor, fan art refers to ...

Mulan Hua Mulan () is a legendary folk heroine from the Northern and Southern dynasties era (4th to 6th century CE) of Chinese history. According to legend, Mulan took her aged father's place in the conscription for the army by disguising herself as ...

. Similarly, one of the elements that draw Johanna to the project was the chance to work with Pacat, and also because she's interested in

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

Q-related stories. The first issue was given a November release date. One of the variant covers for issue one was drawn by Shanen Pae, the artist of '' Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator''. On January 4, 2018, it was announced that Boom! Studios had upgraded ''Fence'' from a

limited series Limited series may refer to: *Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series *Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered *Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number of ...

to an

ongoing series In comics, an ongoing series is a series that runs indefinitely. This is in contrast to limited series (a series intended to end after a certain number of issues thus limited), a one shot (a comic book which is not a part of an ongoing series), ...

. Boom! Studios editor, Dafna Pleban, cited the positive response from "retailers, fans and press" as the main reason for upgrading ''Fence'' to an ongoing series.

Writing

Regarding her inspiration for ''Fence'', Pacat revealed that she fenced

épée The ( or , ), sometimes spelled epee in English, is the largest and heaviest of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. The modern derives from the 19th-century , a weapon which itself derives from the French small sword. This contains ...

in high school and fell in love with the sport; she particularly liked its

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...

aspect, as fencers are required to make "split-second decisions with everything on the line". Another source of inspiration was her six-year stay in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. While there, she became interested in

, including ''

'' and ''

Hikaru no Go is a Japanese manga series based on the board game Go, written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. The production of the series' Go games was supervised by Go professional Yukari Umezawa. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''Weekl ...

''. Pacat worked with an épée coach to

choreograph Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

the fight scenes to develop the fencing characterization of each character and ensure they all have different strengths and weaknesses that can change with the narrative. Regarding the portrayal of

same-sex relationship A same-sex relationship is a romantic or sexual relationship between people of the same sex. ''Same-sex marriage'' refers to the institutionalized recognition of such relationships in the form of a marriage; civil unions may exist in countries w ...

s within the story, Pacat stated that including queer characters and love stories within her stories is highly important to her. Additionally, she stated that she prefers to write "joyously and unabashedly queer" stories rather than sad ones. She also noted that quite often, sports

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

and comics are very " het

masculine Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors con ...

" and often exclude

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

characters.

Reception

Critical response

''Fence'' has received a positive response from critics. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Comic Book Roundup a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

, the comic has an average rating of 7.7 out of 10, based on 23 reviews, indicating favorable reviews. Reviewing the first issue, Kat Calamia from

Newsarama Newsarama is an American website that publishes news, interviews, and essays about the American comic book industry. It is owned by Future US. In June 2020, Newsarama was merged with the website GamesRadar+, also owned by FutureUS. History N ...

gave it a score of 8 out of 10, saying that "it kept erentertained with its character building and peek into the world of fencing", further stating the issue's

cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...

had her hooked regarding the future of Nicholas and Seiji's rivalry.

Sales

In October 2017, Shanen Pae's variant cover of ''Fence'' #1 was 17th most advance reordered comic book, while the main cover ranked 24th (out of the top 25 advance reorders).

References

{{Boom! Studios Boom! Studios titles 2017 comics debuts LGBT-related comics Sports comics 2010s LGBT literature LGBT literature in the United States