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Rating: 
Summary: Realistic unreality
Review: I'm glad to have this book (actually I have the serials) in my comics collection. Even leaving aside the excellent - somestimes even stunning - artwork, this book is well worth owning because of it's powerful story and characters.The main character, Phoebe, is a wonderfully developed 3-dimensional character. You get a real feel for her as an acutal person, like the kind of cruel, fascinating girl who lived down the hall from you in college. Perhaps it's because Pete (as he's admitted in interviews) has suffered the same sort of loss as his protaganist, but the texture of this loss in all its highs and lows comes across with great effect. This isn't some sob story or a Lifetime uplifting movie of the week. It's a story of a recognizable person dealing with both real world grief and increasingly unreal adventures. Phoebe is wracked with pain, making her weak in some ways (and maybe leading to her slipping into Evenfall), but you also see the strength that she's earned by dealing with this pain. The people she meets - and often the reader - expect her to go along with the "terrorized heroine" script, but she's far too strong that. She shows to great effect and laugh-out-loud humor in the "Kermit the Frog" scene. She's confused, she's grieving, and she's afraid she's going crazy, but she doesn't back down. This doesn't feel like a first effort. The story telling, the characters, and the drawing seem to come from an experienced artist and writer. I'm eager to see how much better Pete can get. Buy the book, get it signed. I'm willing to bet it's going to be worth money some day.
Rating:
Summary: Realistic unreality
Review: I'm glad to have this book (actually I have the serials) in my comics collection. Even leaving aside the excellent - sometimes even stunning - artwork, this book is well worth owning because of it's powerful story and characters. The main character, Phoebe, is a wonderfully developed 3-dimensional character. You get a real feel for her as an actual person, like the kind of cruel, fascinating girl who lived down the hall from you in college. Perhaps it's because Pete (as he's admitted in interviews) has suffered the same sort of loss as his protaganist, but the texture of this loss in all its highs and lows comes across with great effect. This isn't some sob story or a Lifetime uplifting movie of the week. It's a story of a recognizable person dealing with both real world grief and increasingly unreal adventures. Phoebe is wracked with pain, making her weak in some ways (and maybe leading to her slipping into Evenfall), but you also see the strength that she's earned by dealing with this pain. The people she meets - and often the reader - expect her to go along with the "terrorized heroine" script, but she's far too strong that. She shows to great effect and laugh-out-loud humor in the "Kermit the Frog" scene. She's confused, she's grieving, and she's afraid she's going crazy, but she doesn't back down. This doesn't feel like a first effort. The story telling, the characters, and the drawing seem to come from an experienced artist and writer. I'm eager to see how much better Pete can get. Buy the book, get it signed. I'm willing to bet it's going to be worth money some day.
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