Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley review

One of my favourite comics of the last decade was Scott Pilgrim by Canadian cartoonist Bryan Lee O’Malley. It became its own little phenomenon and everything built to an exciting final volume followed, just a couple weeks later, by the release of the film adaptation by fan favourite director, Edgar Wright. It’s a modern comic book success story and ever since the release of Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, that I and many other fans of O’Malley have been eagerly anticipating the release of his next comic. It’s finally here and Seconds doesn’t disappoint.

My initial reaction to Seconds is that it feels hefty at over three hundred pages. I had no idea how long the book was going to be because I haven’t really read much of anything about the comic. I knew O’Malley was working on something new and that was enough for me. My second reaction is just how familiar his art style is. It’s simpler than what his art developed into during the Scott Pilgrim volumes. Because of that the manga influence in the character is as strong as ever before. The characters look like chibbi manga characters with large heads, big eyes and expressive faces. There is another vein of influence that is new to works by O’Malley and that’s European comics. Specifically more modern series, not Franco-Belgian adventure comedies like Astérix et Obélix. The influence of European comics can mostly be seen in scenes that take place outdoors. Those panels focus on scenery and architecture and it add quite a bit to the overall feeling and tone of the comic. Both influences fit well with the story and despite the cartoonish art style, O’Malley is able to tell a well-crafted story with meaningful themes. The story is a made up of layers of more serious fantastic realism and light-hearted rumour.

What made Scott Pilgrim so good for me is that it captured a specific energy and time during a young adult’s life. It’s was also a very good representation of a specific generation during the first decade of the 21^st Century. Seconds does something similar by crafting a story around a different part of an adult’s life, the late twenty (and early thirties). Katie is almost 30. She is a chef working at Seconds, a restaurant she opened with the help of friends and business partners over four years ago. Since Seconds opened she’s been saving up her money to open her own restaurant in which she’ll be an equal partner of the business. She’s been working hard and waiting for a long time. She’s getting impatient and her life takes several turns for the better (but also for the worse) when a house spirit appears in her dreams and she finds a magic mushroom. What follows is a story about making choices, fixing mistakes, the rewards of hard work and the shortcomings of taking the easy way out. The comic is about making friends, growing up and learning to be responsible for your actions. There is a Groundhog Day like morality component to the story that combines well with the lighter themes and the humour of the comic. 

There are a lot of little things I really like in this comic. The way Katie and the Narrator interact is used very well. She can hear the Narrator and she sometimes replies to it, most often when the Narrator is informing the reader of how she feels. Her reply is often to deny what the Narrator is saying and most times it’s pretty funny. I quite like that O’Malley steals a joke form the movie adaptation of Scott Pilgrim and he apologizes for it by writing “Sorry!” in pale yellow letting outside of the panel borders. There is also a nice cameo of Scott and Ramona dining at Seconds. I’m already mentioned that there is a comforting simplicity to the art but that’s not to say there isn’t any detail. Keep your eyes peeled and you’ll find some nice embellishment in the background and added definition to some characters physique and their actions.

I also like having a comic by O’Malley that is in colour. I’m never read any of the coloured volumes of Scott Pilgrim and though I would love to own them, I can’t convince myself to buy a comic I already own. This is the first work of his that I read in colour and it was pretty enjoyable. The colours are simple, as it should be in order not to clash with the simple (but effective) cartooning. Unfortunately, I don’t have much more to say about the colouring. It supports the art and the storytelling without getting in the way and that’s already better than a lot of comics colouring.

The underlying message of Seconds is a more serious but equally life affirming than the rest of O’Malley’s body of work. The winning combination of a story about continuing to grow up, even once you’ve reached adulthood, mixed up with plenty of humour and magical realism, Seconds is another example of O’Malley’s successful storytelling formula. It’s not a ground breaking comic but I dare you to find a comic that is as fun to read and will make you think about some of the deeper meanings of life. I love Seconds because the themes connect with me on a personal level. I’m not unique in that regard. O’Malley’s ability to connect with his audience on a personal level, with the style and content of the humour and with the story and its themes, is one of his greatest strengths as a comic’s creator. There’s no news on what his next project will be, but I’m already looking forward to the next chance I can read a comic by O’Malley. 

Lost at Sea review

Lost at Sea is a wonderful book by Bryan Lee O’Malley that successfully captures the pain of a broken heart and the healing process that follows. Said like that it makes it sound like a squishy overly emotional comic but it’s more about the lessons we need to learn in order to grow up and become a stronger person.

The story revolved around Raleigh who on vacation to California meets up with an internet romance and her slow and meandering return home accompanied by students from her private school in British Columbia. What makes this story so great is the way O’Malley chooses to tell it. The book is narrated by Raleigh through the use of her journal entries and it’s raw and unfiltered much like a real teenager’s journal or blog or whatever. The narration works really well because it puts in right in Raleigh’s head. Because the narration comes from Raleigh herself, we get somewhat of an untrustworthy narrator. Not because she’s trying to hide the facts but because she’s trying to work through how she ended up in this emotionally fragile state. She eventually figures it out and we get to puzzle the pieces together along with her. It’s just complicated and difficult for her to wrap her mind around it.

The tone of the narration and the dialogue by the other teens clashes drastically. The tone is very different. The other teen’s dialogue is snappy and funny and strange and it’s kind of alien. Who talks like that? Teens. Bryan Lee O’Malley used a similar dialogue in his Scott Pilgrim series and it works. It’s something I probably wouldn’t like if someone spoke to me like that in real life but it works very well in comics.

I’m surprised by how well this emotional heavy comic works. I think it works because the emotion isn’t needy.  Raleigh doesn’t try to burden anybody with her problems. Raleigh is trying to work through her problem, in part by writing it down and later on by interacting with people who accept her for who she is. It’s interesting how important friends are to the healing process. I think that’s part of what the title refers to. Raleigh is lost in a sea of emotion; she’s her own island of misery. She’s also lost in a sea of people and only once she starts to realize she’s with people who genuinely care about her does she realize she’s not lost at all.

There is a scene where Stephanie and Raleigh on in the bathroom talking while standing in front of the mirrors. Stephanie admits that she always wanted to be tall like Raleigh to which Raleigh admits she always hated it. Stephanie replies in her strange teen speak telling her how jealous she is all the while commenting Raleigh on her beauty and posture. She walks away seemingly content in the knowledge that she’ll never be tall and that she’ll have to settle with what she has. That’s kind of how the world works. You can’t always get what you want and you need to accept that. It helps when you have friends around.

I like O’Malley’s cats. They are playful little devils. They’re the teenagers of the animal kingdom. They wander around aimlessly, they freak out easily, they do weird things, they’re kind of jerks but they can be very loving too. It’s almost as if O’Malley is telling us if you don’t have friends cats are the next best thing. If so, I feel sorry for Raleigh because she hurt so badly she needed friends and cats, lots of cats, to help her figure things out.

I like that we know next to nothing of Stillman, the guy Raleigh loved other than the fact that he urged her to come visit him in California. It’s better that way. O’Malley might have been tempted to give us some backstory to this guy but he wisely chose not to. What would it add? This could have been the best guy in the world or one of the worse but all that matter is that Raleigh loved him and she’s clearly upset over it. That’s all we need to know and that’s about all we get.

I need to talk about the art but it’s difficult. I really like O’Malley’s art. It’s simple, yet expressive. He has a nice economy of line that lends itself well to black and white art. His characters are drawn short and a little blocky but they still keep a normal looking anatomy. He has knack for drawing clothes that suits the age of his characters. Overall it’s simple and effective. It’s very good and he only got better with the years. Bryan Lee O’Malley is a very good comics creator and it’s unfortunate that Lost at Sea isn’t as well-known as Scott Pilgrim, its big brother. I highly recommend reading Lost at Sea.