Tuesday, July 04, 2006
In Wish You Were Here #1, The Innocents, one first has to take notice of the artwork, because it’s this comic book’s most superior quality. Gipi is an excellent cartoonist, working in a highly developed European style that’s easy to appreciate. Semi-realistic, semi-cartooned, sometimes delightfully loose, lively - usually using lots of beautiful wash work, but occasionally (in flash back) going to a straight inky, almost minimal, line style that makes for a nice contrast with the more lush pages. His figure work is unique - and each character is easy to tell apart from the others (something many cartoonists seem to have a problem with). The story itself centers an a boy and his uncle - who is supposed to be driving him to a funfair, but instead makes a detour to visit with an old friend (just out of prison) who he hasn’t seen in a decade. The previous mentioned flashbacks focus on the uncle and his old friend’s teenage years when they got in some “trouble” with the law. The writing, particularly when working with the somewhat contentious relationship between uncle and nephew is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the plot doesn’t really go anywhere we haven’t been a hundred times before - that same old story - although it does go to those same places well. Perhaps if it had run on for twice as long, Gipi, might have covered a little more unique ground, but since the comic is actually really short (maybe a ten minute read at thirty pages / expensive eight dollar cover price too) there’s just not enough space for much to happen. Perhaps the story will be picked up further in future issues (making for a nice graphic novel sized collection someday)? As a stand alone comic it seems to be just lacking that little something extra to really make it stand out, but it is very well done for what it is, and it’s a pleasure to see those Gipi pages.
