Oct 14 2008
Waiting For Something To Happen
Greetings from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Welcome to my comic book review blog – thanks for tuning in. Today is Tuesday, October 14th, 2008.
Today’s Issue:
Waiting for Something to Happen #1 (of 12) – written by Norrie Ko (this is her very first comic book – congratulations Norrie!), with art by SCCG’s fearless leader, Jason Dube (Scattered Comics, Panda Days). This was published by Scattered Comics (Jason Dube’s publishing company). Check out Jason’s website at www.scatteredcomics.com and the official Waiting For Something To Happen website at www.myspace.com/waiting4something2happen
Premise:
This book is about an ordinary girl who “finds herself stuck in a life that she is dissatisfied with on all points.” (That’s from Jason Dube’s synopsis of the comic book.) She doesn’t like her job, she’s constantly worried about being fired, she doesn’t seem to have any friends, and she tends to drink herself to sleep at night. Waiting For Something To Happen #1 is a day in the life of this girl (since the comic mirrors the creators’ life, perhaps we can call the character Norrie.)
Awesome Parts:
This character that I’m currently calling Norrie is extremely relatable. We get inside her head with the great use of the too often forgotten comic book convention of thought bubbles. We also get to see her fantasies enacted as she dreams of running off to Canada or slapping one of her co-workers. We are in her head and I think we can ALL relate to the types of things she’s feeling and going through.
The Less-Than-Awesome Parts:
I don’t like that the character goes unnamed. That’s why I’ve decided to call her Norrie. I hope the real Norrie is not offended by this. I recognize that this girl is everybody – but I don’t think she needs to go unnamed for us to relate to her. I want to know who she is – and in our culture name is a large part of identity. I also found the voice of the comic to be slightly off – there were phrases that just didn’t quite sound like something a real person would say. For example: her boss - after asking to talk with her - says simply, “It is no big deal.” That’s his entire dialogue balloon. And standing on its own like that, the phrase just sounds funny to me. Those types of odd phrases are littered throughout the comic.
My Recommendation:
If you’ve ever felt alone in the world or that you want to lash out people who take advantage of you or if you’ve ever just felt like running away to Canada and starting a new life then you’ll absolutely be able to relate to this comic book. However, it is slice of life - meaning that if you read comic books for action, adventure, supernatural stuff, or superheroes, then this won’t be your cup of tea.
That’s all for today. As always – thanks for reading – see you next time. And remember to let me know if there are any comic books that you would like me to review for you. Before you fork over the cash, give me the chance to let you know if the book is worth your hard owned money!
-Searnold
