Palefire

Written by MK Reed
Art by Farel Dalrymple

Palefire is a very attractive graphic novel that makes for a quick read.  The artist, Farel Dalrymple, is someone I have a lot of respect for, both for his solo work like Pop Gun War and The Wrenchies, and for his collaborations on Omega: The Unknown and Prophet.  I'm not used to seeing him draw such a straight-forward drama story, so I was curious to check this out.

Alison is a pretty typical small-town teenager, who finds herself drawn to Darren, a kid with a reputation for starting fires.  When they attend a party together, Darren gets singled out and angry, and so they end off going into the night together, and Alison gets to discover the truth behind what everyone says about him.

The story is charming, but ultimately kind of slight.  The thing about realistic stories about teenagers is that teenagers are a little boring - especially the ones who just want to party and complain.  I'm not saying that this book is boring, just that the characters are pretty typical, and not all that compelling.

Dalrymple's black and white drawings, however, are lovely, and he brings a lot to the project.