Lars Brown’s North World (Oni Press), a collection of Brown’s webcomic, is a sometimes frustrating collection of strengths and weaknesses. Brown displays some good instincts in the development of concepts and characters, but his grasp on pacing and structure needs work.
He’s constructed some concurrent narrative elements that are mutually supportive in smart ways. Young adventurer Conrad wants to move to the next level of his profession; he’s stuck at the “giant beasts” plateau and wants to face the kind of menaces that “get the bards to come to [him] for a story.” Just such a challenge comes his way, but it forces him to return to his hometown after an absence of several years, just in time for his ex-girlfriend’s wedding. He’s also estranged from his family to some degree, particularly his disapproving father.
So Conrad is juggling career issues, possibly unwanted romantic closure, and unfinished emotional business that ties into his autonomy as an adult. The book has promising architecture, thematically linked but tonally varied. Unfortunately, I don’t think Brown is enough of a juggler to keep things in balance. There’s a lack of focus. It’s a book where everything almost works, but the storytelling is nowhere near as tight as it needs to be to succeed.
Conrad is a promising protagonist, and he’s at a believable impasse between adolescent self-indulgence and fully realized adulthood. Conrad isn’t so immature that he can’t listen to people who care about him, like his father, but he’s not so confident that he can figure out when his ex is jerking him around. (She’s always jerking him around in punishing, passive-aggressive ways, flirtatiously flaunting her current happiness when she isn’t trying to reel him back in.) It’s unclear as to whether a life as a bard-magnet adventurer would be Conrad’s best happy ending, and that’s all to the good. (He’d definitely be better off if he bought his ex a nice place setting and skipped the wedding.)
But Brown can’t quite seem to shape scenes in ways that give the story momentum. Sequences always feel like they’ve run too long, to the point that the concurrent narrative elements lose energy. A subplot that could have been illuminating and even mildly amusing – Conrad runs afoul with some present-day punks who are just as obnoxious as he used to be – goes on for what seems like forever. The subplot provides some fight sequences, but those aren’t really Brown’s forte as an illustrator, so they don’t really serve to change the pace of the proceedings.
It’s a book that’s badly in need of some rigorous editing. I don’t mind a story unfolding casually when that approach serves it, but there’s too much going on in North World to allow this much lingering. It’s somewhat against my nature for me to call for fewer slices of life and more plot, but this story needs to move farther and faster than it does.
(This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.)
(Updated to note that I can type the same wrong thing over and over, even though some part of my brain knows better. I don’t know where “Caleb” came from.)
Drama, drama, drama
March 28, 2008Over at Comics Should Be Good, Danielle Leigh once again demonstrates her great taste, listing her top five current shôjo series. This reminds me that it’s time to make a few more Great Graphic Novels for Teens nominations.
The sixth volume of Setona Mizushiro’s After School Nightmare (Go! Comi) features some juicy forward plot motion and some ruthless character development. Back when I used to watch soap operas and participate in that branch of online fandom, many of us would decry what we called “Knight in Shining Armor Syndrome.” Mizushiro thrills me to no end by ripping one of her characters to shreds for indulging in this kind of behavior. Seriously, you won’t find a more psychologically acute melodrama in this category.
The 19th volume of Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket (Tokyopop) makes me geek out a round of “The Gang’s All Here.” After some extensive focus on individual characters, Takaya rounds everyone up for what feels like the beginning a very satisfying endgame. It’s a testament to the excellent work she’s done developing her cast that I’m delighted to see so many of them return and that their complex dynamics are still so clear and emotionally effective. As usual, threads that previously seemed extraneous are woven into the story’s larger tapestry, which tells me that I should just assume that everything matters. It’s a marvel, and it really shouldn’t be dismissed on the basis of its commercial success.
“Mature Content” rating be damned. Teens are probably reading Ai Yazawa’s Nana (Viz) anyways, so I’m throwing the ninth volume into the mix. More to the point, if there’s a better portrayal of the fallout of capricious behavior, I can’t think of it. The happy, shiny world of the entire cast has been thrown into disarray by an unexpected turn of events, and friendships, romances and careers are fundamentally changed. Yazawa doesn’t give the material anything resembling a punitive quality, but hard choices and hurt feelings abound, taking the well-crafted soap opera to a higher level. And Yazawa even reveals the secret origin of Trapnest. (I have to watch the movie, as Kate Dacey swears they’ll seem less cheesy. I don’t know how that will alter the reading experience, to be honest.)