Dry Spell

by Ken Krekeler

I really enjoyed Ken Krekeler's series Westward, so was more than happy to find his earlier graphic novel, Dry Spell, in a pile of trade paperbacks.

Dry Spell opens with Tom, an apparently quiet guy who has a boring job, a girlfriend he mostly gets along with, and trouble sleeping.  As the book progresses, one of Tom's co-workers figures out that he used to have a costumed identity, as does he, and tries to convince him to come out of retirement.

We learn that when Tom was operating as part of the super-community (which centres around Apollo, a Superman analogue), he had to make use of psychedelics to motivate himself.  His co-worker spikes his drink, and soon enough, Tom is sleeping with a woman from his former life, and contemplating returning to that world.  He's also finally able to paint, something he's been trying to do for ages.

Krekeler's story is about people being true to themselves, even when that means embracing aspects of their personality that they don't particularly like.  He includes a great deal of character development in a short space, and has a couple of twists in the book that I didn't see coming.

Krekeler is a talented artist, and as a writer, has a very strong ear for dialogue.  I think he comes at superhero stories from an interesting perspective, and look forward to seeing some of his future work.  This book was recently re-released, and is worth tracking down.