Meta 4 #1

by Ted McKeever

I love Ted McKeever's comics.  I don't always understand them, especially on the first read through, but I admire his ability to construct atmosphere and dissonance in a comic without being too pretentious.  This new series, which is set to run for five issues, is a good example of his style, except for the fact that it lacks the urbanity of his earlier work, of which my favourite has always been Metropol.

This comic opens with an astronaut lying on his face in a sandy landscape.  He's in his space suit, and he's having a confused conversation with himself.  He does not know where he is (the moon in the sky being an early hint that he's on Earth) or what his name is.  It is slowly revealed that he's near a Coney Island-style boardwalk, but there are hints that it might be in Nevada.  There is a large man in a Santa Claus suit who seems to only speak in symbols, like a rebus puzzle.  There's a mens' room with a beaten woman in it, and a big beefy guy with a baseball bat and a communications disorder.

All of this is intercut with police dispatch radio traffic describing a shooting taking place somewhere.

It's way too early to understand this book, assuming that understanding is ever going to come.  McKeever describes this story on the cover as "A 5-issue Allegorical Series", and it would seem to be way too early to figure out what it's an allegory for.

None of this matters to me yet though, because McKeever's art is very pretty in that hideously ugly way that he draws.  His people are freakish (think Ben Templesmith vampires, if you have no other frame of reference) but his backgrounds and establishing shots are carefully constructed.  He has a way of drafting post-urban environments that are fraught with wasted potential.  His prose is sharper than its ever been.

I don't know if this is a book I could recommend to many people, but I'm definitely looking forward to the next issue and figuring a few things out.