Tricked (graphic novel)

Tricked is an American graphic novel written by Alex Robinson, published by Top Shelf Productions in 2005.

Tricked was written over a period of four years, beginning after the publication of Robinson's last graphic novel, the award winning Box Office Poison. It was nominated for several American Comics awards in 2006, winning two of them: the Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album of Original Work and the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Graphic Novel. Tricked has also been translated into German (Ausgetrickst), French (Dernier Rappels), Spanish (Estafados) and Polish (Wykiwani).

The story centers on the lives of six seemingly unconnected people over a period of a few weeks. As the story progresses, relationships and encounters between the characters form or are revealed, and they all find themselves in the same place at the story's climax.

There are six lead characters who switch off short chapters; one will be the focus of the story for a few pages, then another, and after all six have been featured the cycle repeats. Ray Beam and Steve are the only characters who narrate their stories.

When the novel opens, Ray Beam is mulling over the decline of his career; he's still making money from residuals, but he's unable to write new music. He's shaken up when a cute temp at his promotional office asks for his autograph - the machine that automatically signs autographs is on the fritz, so she asked him to do the job himself. Ray invites the temp, Lily, into his limo, where he does a line of cocaine and attempts to seduce her. She rebuffs him; he realizes that she isn't one of his fans. This intrigues him, and he offers Lily a job as his "personal assistant."

At the same time, a girl named Phoebe is taking a bus to the city from New Mexico. Her eventual destination: The Little Piggy Diner, owned by Richard Krinker, whom she believes is her father. The diner is well known, featured on TV travel shows, but it has a relatively small staff included a waitress named Caprice. She ends many years of awful relationships when she meets Boyd, a bartender, during a double date that's going nowhere. She starts dating Boyd around the same time Phoebe reconnects with Richard. Phoebe is integrated into the diner's life, making a little money with the waitress and hanging out with Richard and her other "father," Richard's partner Frank. As she's showing her new friend around the city, Caprice takes Phoebe to a sports memorabilia store called The Dug Out to buy a gift for Boyd.

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