The 40 Years of Comics Project - The Weekly Graphic Novel: Week 45 - Post Script v.3, 2011

At last year's Calgary Expo, I picked up the first volume of this excellent series, and I was overjoyed to see that Mr. Moogk-Soulis was at this year's con so I could keep up with the after-tale adventures of this motley crew.

Much of this volume is dedicated to a retelling, after the fact, of the story of the Three Little Pigs, starring one of my favourite characters from the previous book, Sisyphus. Sisyphus is one of the pigs, and his dislike of his two brothers coupled with his predilection for bacon makes for, as I noted in my previous review, a story that looks somewhat adorable, but is actually really quite chilling. But, y'know, pleasantly so.

Though I had hoped for some further development of characters from the previous book (the Prince is nowhere to be found in this volume), what we really get is more development of the world within which Graham and his compatriots are telling their stories. There were at least four more volumes of the series on display at the con, so I can't help but wonder if much of the world-building that takes place in this volume sets up more complex stories later on. Though, if that's not the case, and what the next volumes do is simply to tell short, smart, funny stories like this one does, the series will still be every bit as rewarding. I think what I'm getting at is that at this point in the series, three volumes in, the setting and characters are cemented enough to start demonstrating a number of potential routes for future development.

With any luck, I'll be able to get up to the Edmonton con and, should the Post Script team be about, I'll be able to find out which route gets taken.

Onward.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - The Weekly Graphic Novel: Week 7 - PostScript, The First and Second Collections, 2016

Of late, one of my favourite things to do at a comic convention is to wander the indie artist's aisles and pick up strange and interesting pieces. It's not a habit I've been in for much of my con-going life, which, in retrospect, I'm quite sorry for. I've found some really great pieces of art and of comics over the last few years at conventions, and I wonder how much I have missed at previous cons when my focus was on the boxes and boxes of comics for me to pour through.

(That said, one of my gripes with the Calgary Expo was that there was very little as far as boxes of comics to go through. I had to keep reminding myself that it was an entertainment expo, not just a comic con.)

PostScript takes up a relatively common narrative device of questioning exactly what is meant by "happily ever after" at the end of a fairy tale. Works like Castle Waiting and Fables take up just such a question as well, and what strikes me is that it's a question that can be taken up by numerous writers and the answers they come up with can be strikingly dissimilar, given the commonality of the source material. Which is a roundabout way of saying that PostScript offers a fresh take on what happens after the tales of the Three Little Pigs, the Gingerbread Man, and various other characters embedded deep within the collective unconscious.

Mr. Moogk-Soulis's art is adorable, and there's a danger in judging a book by its cover that one might think that all this collection is is adorable. But it's not. Sisyphus, the third little pig, continually tries to eat Ginger, his baked compatriot. The princess and the dragon have a strangely domestic arrangement going on, one in which she seems to hold the upper hand. The valiant prince is occasionally naked, and isn't really particularly smart. PostScript reminds us, in much the same way that the sadly short-lived TV series Galavant did, that while the fairy tale can certainly continue, its characters have to grow and adapt to the new status quo that's asserted after their gently traumatic tales.

As with many inaugural collections, we can see both the artist and the characters searching for their voices in this collection. I enjoyed immensely the interaction between the princess and the dragon, and look forward to seeing more of them in later collections. Sisyphus and Ginger have a strange and slightly unhealthy relationship, and I am interested to see how that develops. I'm not that interested in seeing the prince develop much more, but that's because I actually think he's pretty great just the way he is. His squire, on the other hand, is wonderful, and I can't wait to see more of him.