Looking for an age-appropriate comic book for the recalcitrant tween in your life? Here's a late-breaking event that fits the bill: Tonight Raina Telgemeir, creator of the well-received graphic memoir Smile, will be at Bridge City Comics signing copies of her new book Drama.

In a warm review of Drama, the Times called Raina Telgemeir the "Horatio Alger of graphic novelists," for her "up-by-their-book-bags characters who value hard work and seize a chance that has nothing to do with looks or even with love." Smile was the true story of Telgemeir's rough history of dental work and braces; Drama is the fictional account of a girl heading up her middle school tech theater crew.

I love the idea of a comic about theater, because it's a weird truth that there is a lot of overlap between comic book kids and theater kids—look no further than our arts section, where the newest theater-contributor byline belongs to the great local cartoonist Dylan Meconis. Or, for further evidence, the comics reading series Erik and I host, which regularly sees cartoonists tapping into their most flamboyant impulses. Hey, that reminds me, there's a Comics Underground next Thursday*! Fancy that.

Telgemeir will be at Bridge City Comics, 3725 N Mississippi, from 6-8 pm tonight.

*Shameless, Alison, just shameless.