9/23/08
Local
A few months ago I saw this movie Tran Siberian, a suspense thriller written and directed by Brad Anderson who also wrote and directed Session 9 and The Machinist, two of my favorite films. The film takes place on the train from China to Moscow and there are these two female characters. One is a woman in her thirties and married to a church leader with a dork-penchant for train sets. The other is a young , maybe 17 or 18 years old girl, tramping all over the world with her drug-smuggling, Euro-trash boyfriend. The older woman sees the girl as she used to be, and eventually tells her that she was not always married to a church leader. She had a drastically different life when she was young, similar to the on-the-road, here today, gone tomorrow lifestyle the young girl is living. When they confide in one-another, they mention the need to move, the restless itch that drives one from ever settling down. I know I’m supposed to be talking about Local. My point is coming. The movie wasn’t that great, kind of a disappointment, but all I could find myself thinking about during these scenes was Megan McKeenan in a Local movie. Megan is the main character in Local and she is my iconic teenage drifter.
Local is a 12-issue series written by Brian Wood and drawn by Ryan Kelly about a young girl becoming a woman, all over the United States…and Canada too. The story spans about 10 years or so and each issue takes place in a different place and a different time like we’re dropping in on Megan every six months or so to see what she’s up to. Each issue stands on its own as a story, but laced throughout is the story of a young woman’s search for her place in the world. Did you ever have one of those moments when you thought “I’m just going to get on a train, leave everything, and just see where it goes?” That’s exactly what Megan does in the first issue, and every issue after we get to “see where it goes.”
Besides the endearingly fallible Megan McKeenan and the concise “done in one” storytelling, the other thing that I love about Local is its title. Every issue takes place somewhere different, and the words and the art do everything to make you feel like “locals” and not tourists. Local takes distinct snapshots of America (and Canada) that would no doubt evoke nostalgia among the actual residents of Megan’s travels. What’s really cool, is that Local’s locales inspired readers to send in pictures of their own neighborhoods which were eventually included in the book for a section called “My Local.” Hopefully these were included in the trade.
For those of you who’ve read DEMO or New York Four and liked them, this is a no-brainer. If you’ve never heard of those books, or Brian Wood, or Ryan Kelly, this is a great place to start.
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