Cover of Local, by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly; image taken from newsok.com
I’ve been trying to get into graphic novels and comic books lately. I’m not a big fiction reader in general, but they seem to read themselves. Plus, you know, pretty pictures. Anyway, I asked some girlfriends for recommendations and one of them suggested I read Local. To quote, ”Buy it right now! It’s about every girl you’ve ever known.” Strong endorsement.
Local is a 12-volume collection of short stories. Each volume documents the year in the life of vagabond Megan McKennan, who is the series’ protagonist, though sometimes a background character. Starting in 1994 when she is 17, each volume takes place in a different city. Megan moves from city to city, job to job, apartment to apartment, boyfriend to boyfriend, haircut to haircut. The only thing that’s ever certain for her is her backpack, her discman, and the road.
I’m not sure if Local is about every girl I’ve ever known so much as parts of every girl I’ve ever known are in Megan.
I also admire Megan a bit. She never lets herself feel obligated to stay when she feels the wanderlust. I guess a lot of folks had difficulty with Megan’s nomadic nature, but I find a lot of bravery in a young woman who refuses to be tied down to a person or a situation she doesn’t want. She’s also tough and resourceful, able to figure her way around whatever city she finds herself living in.
She’s also often alone, though not always lonely. She always has the city and its learned reference points. One treasure of the series is its emphasis on place. We meet her at 17 in Portland, trying to fill her crazy boyfriend’s prescription in Nob Hill. In Minneapolis, we can see every sleeve and promotional poster in the record store she works at. When Megan finds herself in Park Slope, the neighborhood is rendered so particularly that it almost becomes tangible. When she waits tables for bougie gourmands in Wicker Park, you can smell the entrées. And when she confronts the memory of her parents, she does so by visiting Norman to recreate a photo they took as students at the University of Oklahoma.
"Should I stay or should I go?;" image taken from flickr
We also meet other people, mainly dudes, who Megan is connected to in one way or another. There’s a musician retiring in Richmond after his band breaks up. When meet Megan’s skater cousin Nicky, who is suffering through high school in Tempe, we get a sense for the vast flatness of Arizona’s landscape and architecture as he ambles drunkenly from house party to house party. Her damaged kid brother bides his time at Beerland in Austin. And there are the two embittered brothers in Missoula who have a stand-off in a diner.
There’s also Nancy Bai, the precocious art student who’s an admin at 30-year-old Megan’s office in Toronto, who tries to steal Megan’s memories for the sake of art.
We also get flashbacks of Megan’s mother, a loving but long-suffering woman who permits her daughter to be a traveler out of fear that she’ll end up in an uphappy, abusive marriage. With this information, I think that the way Megan’s journey ends in the series is touching. In fact, I owe my mom a phone call.
In addition to cities, Megan always has music. She’s particularly fond of indie music, one time meeting the lead singer of Theories and Defenses, a fictitious band, while in Richmond. He’s a jerk to her, autographing one of his records for her before having her pay him for it.
Importantly, music helped the writer and illustrator shape their protagonist. The end of each issue comes with brief essays from both Wood and Kelly, along with the tracklists they listened to while putting the issue together. I really appreciated this kind of detail, as I liked knowing just what may be in Megan’s discman. Nicely, there are plenty ladies. Guys like The Replacements, The Minutemen, and Junior Boys occupy aural space alongside Cibo Matto, Björk, Sade, Neko Case, and The Be Good Tanyas, as well as mixed-gender groups like Lush and Superchunk. In addition, there are plenty of songs they used that I’ve never heard, so I’ve got some more listening to do.
Guess I’m gonna have to read Kelly’s Demo series next!
