Trade Review: Jamie McKelvie's Suburban Glamour

Like so many others, I was introduced to Jamie McKelvie via his collaboration with writer Kieron Gillen on their Image published project, Phonogram. I had heard the hype, read the praise and was finally ready to take the plunge and see what this duo was up to and I was not disappointed. The story sang, the visuals rocked and the comic wormed its way into my heart, infecting me with some type of incurable fever. In my first outing with their Singles Club trade, I read cover to cover five times in twenty-four hours, a feat yet that I have yet to repeat with any other piece of entertainment. Months later, not a week goes by where I don’t pick up my copy of The Singles Club and at least page through it a few times, discovering some new detail in McKelvie’s panels or making some new connection to a band I’ve just exposed myself to. To say I’m a fan is putting it lightly and having consumed their current works, my hunger led me to an Amazon search where I quickly came across a copy of Suburban Glamour, both written and illustrated by McKelvie.

For fans of Phonogram, Suburban Glamour doesn’t stray too far from the path. A coming of age story about a young woman named Astrid; human and magic intertwine as she lives out her teenage years amongst her friends and family, trying to understand her place in the world. The plot of course evolves from there as one might imagine and while the end results are predictable, there are a number of twists and turns along the way that help keep things fresh.

For his first real outing as a writer, McKelvie doesn’t get ahead of himself, keeping the script fairly light and trusting his pencils to carry most of the weight. The world of Suburban Glamour feels incredibly human, with realistic situations, believable dialogue and strong personalities. Even with a limited four issues of space, and minimal world building, the level of detail and planning that has gone into the story emanates from the page. Each character is quick to establish him or herself, staying memorable without being obnoxious. One of the biggest credits I can give to the book is how natural the dialogue feels. You would think it easy to write a seventeen year old accurately but that rarely seems to be the case anymore.


Where Suburban Glamour really shines however, is with its visuals. One of the things I especially love about Jamie’s art is its flexibility. While building a reputation for figures that are fairly grounded in realism, his style allows for the inclusion of all types of magical and fantastical creatures that possess their own unique look and yet never feel out of place in the world they’re interacting with. As mentioned, McKelvie’s artistic talent allows him to use the script as an outline, rather than a guide. With a masterful use of space, the panels and page layouts guide the eyes much easier than the words do, controlling the pace of the story. A master of perspective, Jamie’s panels are most often narrowly focused on the subject, but that doesn’t stop him from occasionally pulling the camera outwards and reminding us just how skilled he is at using his art to subtlety feed us emotional cues. My favorite use and one that has definitely stood out to me has been the use of size or vastness to evoke frustration from the characters. Compare these two panels, one from Marvel’s Siege: Loki one-shot, and one from Suburban Glamour:



                                                                                         


The size and vastness of the cities overwhelm our protagonists, objects of rage for them and reminders for us that while these characters may be the focus of the story we are reading, they are but a tiny piece of a much larger system, an organism that will continue to exist long after they are gone. Major credit also goes out to long-time McKelvie colorist Matthew Wilson who does a fantastic job bringing the pencils and environment to life.
This isn’t a book that is going to reinvent comics for you, move mountains or change your world, but it is cheap, fun and a fairly quick read. If you’re a fan of Phonogram, or even just fantasy stories in general, there is plenty to enjoy and loads to love. I’ll definitely be coming back to this story fairly soon. B+