queen of the black black >> by austin english >> *spark-online issue eighteen

Queen of the Black Black by Megan Kelso Highwater books: $12.95

Megan Kelso's work has a refreshing directness, similar to other female cartoonists such as Julie Doucet or Aline Kominsky. But Kelso takes this directness further, which is unmistakable in her non-pondering, to-the-point short stories from her self-published (and, of course, Xeric funded) comic "Girlhero." These stories, along with two new features (the title piece and "The Daddy Mask"), appeared next to Kelso's epic "Bottlecap," but the author explains in the introduction that even though quite a bit of her effort was going into the epic, it was the short stories that turned out best. I couldn't agree more.

Flipping through "Black Black," one notices Kelso's style has changed quite a bit from her first five years in comics. What is discovered after reading all the stories in this volume is that Kelso's writing remains wonderful and compelling despite her developing drawing skills. The fully formed Kelso can be seen on the stories produced specifically for the collection, and her clean line style is perhaps the best in comics today.

Kelso has discovered (and refined) something that takes other artists years to find: the simplification of images, without compromising the quality of the artwork, leads not only to a more pleasing story visually, but a happier marriage between art and writing (a good example of this simplified style is Chris Ware). I assume Jason Lutes (Berlin), a friend of Kelso, had a lot to do with this. Again, Kelso's writing is top notch at all points, but when her artistic skills reach the level of her writing, it's impossible to ignore the power and importance of these stories.

The best part about Kelso's work is the looseness of her concepts, coupled with her precise execution. Take "The Daddy Mask," for instance. The story deals with a small girl waking up and stumbling upon her parents in the middle of a party. The mood of the story shifts from aspect to aspect, and Kelso is able to show us the situation from the eyes of a child. Again, it's a loose concept that might fall apart in the hands of another creator, but Kelso is able to keep the feeling of confusion and energy without sacrificing her attention to detail or ever letting the reader remember that someone is drawing this story. You're that caught up in the illusion of pen and ink. (Of course, this does not apply to Kelso's earlier work. The craft is more obvious, but they're still good pieces.)

"Daddy" is a good example of another innovation of Kelso. It's her third attempt at drawing music, and though she says she's not satisfied yet, her efforts are certainly unique. Music is hard to express in the comic book form, yet Kelso doesn't back down from it, even though she's pretty much a rookie in the comics industry. She wants to experiment with the comic form, but unlike other creators, she can pull it off without letting the reader know she's experimenting.

Published by Highwater books, the production is superb. One of the best books of 2000.

Austin English is *spark-online's window into the world of serial art.