Writer/Artist: Jamie McKelvie
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.50
Jamie McKelvie first came to the attention of the comics buying public as co-creator and artist on Phonogram, the issue mini-series from Image, which merged magic and music into a magnificent tale. Phonogram was a co-created project with journalist Kieron Gillen, with whom McKelvie has a long-standing relationship. This month sees the release of issue one of Suburban Glamour, McKelvie’s first foray into solo comics work. Fractal Matter was lucky enough to be granted a preview copy of said book, and I was lucky enough to be allowed to read it.
Suburban Glamour is a 4 issue mini-series, published by Image, that tells the story of two 17 year olds living in a small Worcestershire town, desperate to finish their final year of school and escape to the wider world. I’m not sure if McKelvie was nervous about going it alone for the first time, but if he was then he shouldn’t have been because this first issue is everything a first issue should be and more. Unlike some first issues the pace isn’t cranked up to pump out as much information to the reader as possible. Things move at a natural pace and the reader is given a chance to sample a chunk of the main characters lives as they unfold. There’s no unnatural exposition and no clunky dialogue forced in to help the reader along. You just get to see some kids living their lives, and by seeing that come to understand what kind of people they each are and what their relationships with one another are like. That is exactly how things should be done, and in this case it’s done brilliantly.
Throughout the issue, as with Phonogram, McKelvie demonstrates a true understanding of the people and the culture he is writing about. I don’t think the environments and ideas that McKelvie picks to write about are accidental. He picks things he’s lived and understands. A lot of people might say that that’s lazy. Personally I think it’s eminently sensible, and what’s better it brings out the absolute best from the writer, and in this case the artist. Everything in this comic feels real. The setting is just spot on; it just is a small English town. The characters all feel like people you could actually meet, hell they feel like people you actually know or knew. It just can’t be faulted in terms of pulling you in and making you feel the story is alive. However where the writing is good, the art is just genius.
McKelvie has a fairly distinctive style, or at least distinctive amongst current comic book artists, in that his work has something of a pop art feel about it. Clean lines, fairly simple, often blank wall, backgrounds and not a tremendous amount of depth or shadow used. What all this simplicity does, rather than dumbing the art down, is make room for other kinds of complexity. McKelvie says as much in this book with facial expressions, body language, inventive panel layout and eyes as he does with word balloons, and it is truly beautiful to behold. Rarely has a group of characters seemed so animated and alive, and like the writing it’s the little touches that make all the difference. The bits of jewellery, the way Astrid holds a hair band in her mouth while talking on the phone, the way her palms squash against the shop window when her hands push against it. There is an attention to detail displayed here that most people probably don’t associate with a more “cartoon” like style of art, but believe me it is here and here in bags. It’s also worth mentioning that if you thought McKelvie’s art looked good in black and white you won’t believe how it looks coloured. The colourist Guy Major has apparently won awards; well I can see why.
To be honest I was expecting Suburban Glamour to be good, so I went in to this with a bias. That said this comic is just brilliant. Obviously the subject matter and the pacing aren’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and if you weren’t a fan of Phongram in terms of style and tone, then you aren’t likely to enjoy this. That said the third page is almost iconic in its greatness, you could buy it for that piece of art alone, and I cannot urge you strongly enough to do so.
Having recently finished a PhD in Immunology Ross is currently working for a UK biotech company. He lives in Cambridge where he reads comics, spends too much money on music and attempts to learn Portuguese. He owns at least 7 lightsabers, yet still manages to have a very attractive girlfriend who he misses very much, thus proving anything really is possible.