Writer: Tom King / Penciller: Elsa Charretier / Colour Artist: Matt Hollingsworth / Letterer: Clayton Cowles / Image Comics
17th August 2022
The Pitch: From superstar award-winning creators Tom King & Elsa Charretier comes a new ongoing series set in a world as frighteningly fantastical as any found beyond the stars: Romance Comics! Joan Peterson discovers that she is trapped in an endless cycle - a problem to be solved, a man to marry-and every time she falls in love, she disappears into another teary saga. Her bloody journey to freedom starts in this breathtaking, groundbreaking first issue.
Life for us adults can often feel repetitive. We get up and go to the same jobs, see the same people, sleep in the same bed, rinse, repeat. Behaviourally, too. We do the same things. Look for the same mates. Fall for the same types. Partly it's comfort. There's a rhythm to it all, a sound we find soothing. At least on the surface. Deep down, does it unsettle and disturb? And what if there was something else, something more elemental or unexplainable keeping us in the loop? Something that had nothing to do with us? Such is the world that Joan Peterson finds herself in, a kind of '50s melodrama pastiche, as directed by Douglas Sirk. There, she is a small-town girl in the big city who gets a job at a firm run by her flighty best friend's lover, George. But all is not well. She falls in love with George, and he with her. But her best friend is George's lover... What will they do??
THING IS, LIFE CAN BE REPETITIVE
But, you know, life can feel a little repetitive. We get up and go to the same jobs, see the same people, sleep in the same bed, rinse, repeat. We do the same things. Look for the same mates. Fall for the same types. Partly it's comfort. There's a rhythm to it all, a sound we find soothing. At least on the surface. Deep down, does it unsettle and disturb? And what if there was something else, something more elemental or unexplainable keeping us in the loop? Such is the world that Joan Peterson finds herself in, an ode to the free-love '60s, maybe directed by Mike Nichols. She's a rich girl, with certain expectations placed on her. She meets a musician, Kit, a man her father just wouldn't approve of... What will they do??
The thing is, life can feel a little repetitive. We get up and go to the same jobs, see the same people, sleep in the same bed, rinse, repeat. We do the same things. Look for the same mates. Fall for the same types. Partly it's comfort. There's a rhythm to it all, a sound we find soothing. At least on the surface. Deep down, does it unsettle and disturb? And what if there was something else, something more elemental or unexplainable keeping us in the loop? This is the life that Joan Peterson lives on the American Frontier, as directed, perhaps, by John Ford. The daughter of a cattle owner and farmer, and who already has a potential husband picked out for her, Joan lives a simple life but years for more. When her father hires a new ranch hand, it's love at first sight. But Joan is promised to someone else... What will they -
IF YOU JUST MEET THE RIGHT GUY, ALL YOUR PROBLEMS WILL BE SOLVED
Wait.
Something's not right here.
All of this feels familiar and frustratingly so. Like we're going 'round in circles, doomed to repeat the same mistakes. You feel it as a reader. Joan feels it too. Caught in a romance loop. Romance comics, especially those of the silver age and before are a black hole in my comics knowledge. But King and Charretier make it feel familiar. They're in on the great con of it all. The lie: that if you just meet the right guy, all your problems will be solved. They won't. Joan is living proof of that. It's nice to see the 'loop' mechanics of other fictions be ported across to this one. By doing this, other avenues begin to open up, especially as Joan becomes aware of her loop. So many questions come at us: who is Joan really? How did she get caught in this? Is it (and this is a reasonable one to ask given King's past work) some kind of superhero thing? It's the answers that will keep us coming back.
CHARRETIER’S PENCILS ARE EMOTIONALLY DYNAMIC
King writes the period dialogue well, recalling lazy Sundays watching old movies. It feels like he studied for this, digging into what goes on underneath the outward emotions of female characters in this genre, regardless of medium, and understanding that they may have questions of their own. Although this falls into the arena of King's speciality (trauma), you can feel him stretching. Charretier's pencils are emotionally dynamic. Her expressive line captures that encroaching emotionally fist that's coming for Joan. She captures the nostalgia inherent in the story periods beautifully and I have to say after reading this, I feel she might just be the natural air to Darwyn Cooke's throne as the King of chronicling America's past by blending it with entertaining comics forms. Matthew Hollingsworth does a gorgeous job with the colours, shifting through the periods and adding to Charretier's impeccable work. He replicates the colour tones that are familiar to us from those old movies we love. Cowles work is, as always, excellent. Seriously, has the guy ever lettered a bad issue? Not to my memory. I don't know how long this love will last, especially since Joan really needs to catch a break, but there's part of me that hopes it goes on for a very long time.
