The Virgin Read: Turns Out She Doesn't Like Indy Comics That Much Either, Whoops

The Great Unknown # 1
By Duncan Rouleau
Published by Image Comics, 2009

HI!  I know we don’t know each other very well.  But I believe we have something in common.  All of us. At one time or another we’ve all had to bear the burden of that one annoying friend--you know the one. They have the "syndrome."  The syndrome known as “I am the piece of shit that the world revolves around.”  (I'll call it P.O.S.T.T.W.R.A. just to be a pain.)

Uh-huh, that one!  You know, the self-pitying, “unlucky”, I-never-get-the-guy/girl/bulldog-of-my-choosing. And for all the self-hate it’s almost unbelievable that this ego co-exists within them--or maybe not.  After all, only someone with an enormous rampaging ego could think that we (you & me, we're cool) want to hear about the POSTTWRA's crap ALL THE TIME.  Only someone with the arrogance of un-earned self-confidence would be so bold as to talk about themselves--problems and complaints only--NON-STOP, right?   I know!  This friend of ours is a walking oxymoron.  So much love for one's sound, yet so much loathing for one's self!

Here's a warning, by the way: it gets worse when this friend enters therapy (finally).  The young buds of self-awareness only exacerbate the situation.  Now all this “POSTTWRA” can talk about is the fascinating inner-workings of their self-pity and "how they came to be that way," and why, therefore they’ll never __________. (yeah, fill it in.  Something about family.  Wait, make sure: something uninteresting about family.)

This is what came to mind while reading The Great Unknown.  This may be far from an accurate description of the comic book or it's main character.  "May." But...that's the feeling it gave me.  It gave me that feeling of being around that person.  The POSTTWRA in the early days of therapy.  Just enough self-awareness to be fascinated with their own dysfunction, and still enough self-centeredness to think that we--you, me, co-workers--will find it entertaining, unique, necessary.

I can recognize a POSTTWRA because, well, I was one.  (Yes!  Ugh!)  I believe I am a recovered POSTTWRA.  Many are not so lucky, you know?  Some will never escape.  But while one is in this state, shoo-wee!  One might think that they should, say, write a comic book about themselves?  Or star in a made-for-TV movie that they're dad produced?  Or appear on a reality show?  Or quit their job?  Yes, I realize that the author of this comic has enough awareness to realize the ridiculousness of the main character – though I'm still sitting here wondering:  is there enough distance?  Yet?  Clearly, whoever wrote this still finds this sort of behavior somewhat, um, cute?  Adorable?  Endearing, at the very least?

So, yeah, maybe it’s my age showing.  But here’s the other thing, this comic doesn’t go anywhere.  (We're warned of that, of course.  Ever hear the saying that everything you need to know about someone you learn in the first 5 minutes? Well, at the tail end of the "fuck you reader" introduction, our "hero” tells us this: “But where my story starts, that is a little more difficult to pin down.  When it gets to things as heady as beginnings and ends, I have a hard time.”  So, like you might be great at “middles,” but where does that leave us, your audience?  We generally come to story with the most base level expectation of a beginning, a middle and an end.   If you fail at that, I don’t know that you can call yourself a writer.

Oh, that feels so mean.  I don’t like to be mean.  But I’m starting to get angry when I put time aside to read and write about a comic, and you basically tell me at the get-go that you’re bad at writing, but, hey! Read on!  And maybe that isn't true, and maybe I'm laying something onto this comic that isn't there, but hey, if you don't want "beginnings" and you don't like "endings" and you want me to pay attention to a main character who is just...pathetic, neither mean enough to laugh at nor funny enough to root for...what do you expect?  I don't know this comic, this is the first issue!  Why should I get on board a big "fuck you, stupid" train?

So, what is there to say?  In these pages are the escapades of a lazy self-proclaimed genius alcoholic. Hooray.  I know enough of these people in real life, I don’t need to read about mundane versions in my spare time, too.   I’d almost prefer a superhero comic.  (Now THAT’S saying something, coming from me!).

Well, okay:  I mainly picked this comic because of the art.  A full book of blues, blacks and whites, seemed cool.  And it was cool!  But it’s another one of those comics that has so many thought bubbles and dialogue that you almost don’t look at the pictures.  I know that one person has both written and drawn this book, but it seems like it’s two different people…..like an artist and a writer who can’t seem to tell the story together.  But no, it’s just one dude, so I don’t know what to say about that.  Remember that it’s a comic book?  Pictures?  Pictures can say a lot that sometimes words cannot say as well.  I mean--isn't that why it's a story for a comic, anyway?  If it could be told just as well in a book, then...why have comics at all?  Aren't these comics for the stories that books can't tell?  That movies would screw up?  Use the art.  Say less.  Show more.

I guess this feels like an product on its way to "almost finished" but not quite there yet.  As a writing exercise, it’s exceptional, but the teacher in me would say, “Don’t stop NOW!  Go further!” 

Because if this is it as a finished work?  I’m not diggin’ it.  But that’s just me...

-Nina Stone, 2009

Comments

[Kenny]

Hi Nina!

Great review as always! I'm writing from my phone, so forgive me if I spell the name wrong, but Reauglu always seems to write vague, middleish stories. So, spot on review!

[Amy]

Oh god...this makes me really wonder if I am a POSTTWRA. I can tell you this though; I will not write a comic book about myself. EVER. Manga though? Possibly...

[Guy Smiley]

You're the best reviewer of comics on the web. I am damning you with faint praise, I suppose, but seriously, no one else makes visible that they engaged with the work, tried to figure it out, get into it, and then talks about whether it worked or failed as a piece of art. Not how it stands against 50 years of a character's history, or whether it's part of a "grim" movement or a "fun" movement, just, "There were words, there were pictures, I played fair and really tried, and here's what I got." And you bring yourself in, in doses which both contextualize your positions and make the piece more entertaining than your subject matter often deserves.

So, hey, thanks for these. Don't stop.

(Aside: I find myself wondering what made the introduction a "fuck you reader" intro ...)