|
June 2008 |
By
James Moore
For many
teenagers there comes a time when they just don’t feel like
they belong. The place where they grew up seems small and
limiting. They can’t believe that their parents are really
their parents. Suburban
Glamour, a
miniseries by writer/artist Jamie McKelvie, concerns a
typical teenage girl, named Astrid, who lives in a small
suburb in England that she cannot wait to escape. After
some mysterious happenings, she learns that she is in fact
a faerie changeling, and on her seventeenth birthday will
be able to return to her to her birth family. In the
process of discovering her heritage and making her choice,
ominous forces pursue her.
McKelivie’s pencils, which were amazing in last
years Phonogram,
are the series strongest suite. His work balances a strong
grasp of storytelling fundamentals with a hip, contemporary
style. McKelvie’s pacing is smooth, with a finely
controlled panel rhythm. He draws teenagers that look like
real teenagers, and his faerie beings look suitably elegant
and alien. His art perfectly captures the energy and wonder
of adolescence. There are moments of mania, moments of
quiet reflections, and even the supernatural elements
reflect the way the world can seem strange and unknowable
when on the cusp of adulthood.
McKelvie also brings an eye-catching graphic design sense
to the book from its striking wrap-around covers that use
variation on similar basic design elements while keeping an
individual flavor. His panel composition uses that same
design sense, with individual pages having a certain
balance and flow despite not sticking to a particular grid
(the classic nine-panel grid being one of the more common
examples). Primary colorist Matthew Wilson brings a bright,
but subtle, palette that fits the pop mood of the story.
Color is an essential part of Suburban
Glamour’s
storytelling aesthetic, with background color and lighting
providing an additional layer of emotional subtext.
As a writer McKelvie shines in portraying his teenage
protagonists as actual teenagers and not as either
mini-adults or as MTV pod-people. They talk, think, and
dress as actual teenagers in the ‘00’s do. Many experienced
writers stumble with this, as any issue of
Legion
of Superheroes or
Robin
will
attest. It does help that McKelivie is in his twenties and
is not far removed from the experiences of Astrid and her
friends, but that should not detract from how much talent
it takes to capture what it feels like to be sixteen and
trapped in a small town without coming off as a bad WB
drama. Astrid is one of the most authentic teenage girls in
comics today.
McKelivie’s plotting, however, is a little ropier.
Suburban
Glamour takes
tells a standard tale, and while the ending inverts things
somewhat, the plot takes a relatively straightforward path.
It is not bad, but it is more than a little predictable.
Astrid’s choice about whether to go to Faerie or remain at
home makes sense and works on a character level, but lacks
dramatic tension. Likewise its story is not exactly the
most original idea, even taking into account its roots in
folklore and the patterns that structure entails. Taken
purely on a conceptual level it almost reads like the sort
of story Vertigo would have published a few years ago as
a Sandman
Presents miniseries.
Fortunately the execution is enjoyable enough to gloss over
any imperfections in plot. Suburban
Glamour is
funny, charming and wears its emo heart throbbing on its
sleeve. Like the teenagers it stars it may be a little
awkward but it is so darn likeable. If its story is not
new, the tone is fresh and as heartfelt as a Los
Compesino!’s single.
It is worth noting that the mini is clearly the opening
chapter of a larger story. It is a satisfying enough
conclusion and the final page will make you smile, but it
leaves the story open enough to continue in further
miniseries. McKelvie’s delightful characters and stunning
artwork will certainly make the world of Suburban Glamour
one worth exploring
.
