In Phonogram: The Singles Club, Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie set up a tricky little challenge for themselves; how do you portray music and dancing in a static comic book page? Somehow, this lack of sound and movement in their first story Phonogram: Rue Brittania wasn’t a big issue because David Kohl’s journey in that book was more about the idea of music than about music itself. His journey there was much more symbolic, even traditional, quest andBrittania was his Grail. For this new story, Gillen and McKelvie have set up three easy rules for their characters: 1) No boy singers 2) You must dance and 3) No magic. Those three rules should be a clue that The Singles Club is going to be a different story than Rue Brittania.
The stories in The Singles Club take place in a single night but each issue centers on a different character. While the spotlight in the first two issues have been on new characters, issue #3 gives us two familiar characters from the first series, David Kohl and Emily Aster, the “hero” and “accomplice” from Rue Brittania. Neither of them are very nice but David seems to have grown up or, at the least, mellowed out a bit from the first series. Emily, however, appears to be just the same– a self centered witch (both literally and figuratively) who is only on the lookout for what she thinks is a good time. Usually that means hurting someone and she sets her sight in this issue on our DJ Seth, who she’s had “idealogical differences” with in the past. Those differences are that Emily thought his girlfriend should have slept with her and Seth didn’t. That’s just how Emily is. Or is it?
In The Singles Club, the past exists as ghosts more than as memories. For a night with “no magic,” some strange voodoo is happening that’s bringing back past lovers and past selves. The past is haunting this club and making the people in the club confront people who aren’t and can’t be there. In Emily’s case, she has a discussion with herself; or at least a discussion with Clair, the person she used to be before Emily cast he into some repressed limbo. Looking in a mirror, proper and stylish Emily sees Claire, with her sunken-in eyes, her auburn brown hair and the scars running up and down her arm. This is the person Emily was and, just maybe, it’ll be the person she’ll be again some day after a moment of weakness. Through the mirror, Claire tells Emily, “One day, I’m going to come back. And you won’t be able to stop me.” We’re never really done with the past, are we?
Emily Aster and Claire are both brought to life through Jamie McKelvie’s. Whether it’s a sardonic smile, a reaching tilt of the head or the way she brushes a lock of hair out of her eyes, McKelvie’s Emily shows off her brashness and confidence as she is so obviously above everyone else there. The contempt in her eyes just burns. And as her confidence is shaken at Claire’s promise of her eventual return, you can see Emily lose her confidence through a slight slumping of her shoulders and a softness in her eyes that weren’t present before. And as quickly as she lost it, you watch her recompose herself and lash out at the closest available target. McKelvie knows Emily and knows how she smiles and laughs and how she lashes out at whoever happens to be in front of her.
On top of McKelvie’s artwork, Matthew Wilson’s coloring defines this world as much as the black, white and gray artwork defined Rue Brittania. Wilson’s colors make me want to dance along with David, Emily and Kid With Knife. The electric pink hue that lays over most of this issue creates a fantastic energy around the characters. How do you portray dancing and movement in a comic? Combine art and coloring to produce the energy and excitement that should exist when music is playing and you can’t help but move to it.
A lot can happen in one night and Gillen and McKelvie’s The Singles Club is proving that. We’ve seen unknown loves, lost loves and now we’ve seen Emily’s lost self. If there’s “no magic” at the club on this night, where are all of these ghosts coming from? Maybe it’s all in the way that a piece of music or a song will take you back to that one moment in time or that one emotion that you felt that’s tied into someone special. Gillen and McKelvie are creating comics that are like those songs, touching the open emotional nerves that cut straight through to the heart of the reader. We’ve all loved and lost, all tried to hide who we were or who we really are. We all have those ghosts that creep into our heads and hearts and refuse to let go.
Phonogram: The Singles Club #3
“We Share Our Mother’s Health”
Written by: Keiron Gillen
Drawn & lettered by: Jamie McKelvie
Colored by: Matthew Wilson
[...] Phonogram: The Singles Club– Most of the time, I have no idea what music Kieron Gillen is writing about but it doesn’t matter. Once I learned to not pay attention to the specifics but to try and take in the love of music, Phonogram made a lot of sense to me. The Singles Club has been a great series, showing an ensemble cast enjoying one night at a club. What Gillen and McKelvie are doing here for some reason reminds me a lot of how a director like Robert Altman used his large and sprawling casts. Gillen and McKelvie are separating out out the stories a bit more, with each character getting his or her own issue but all of the stories are weaving in and out of the same larger narrative. There’s a lot of magic that can happen in just one night and Phonogram: The Singles Club is doing a nice job at showing us just what can happen. (reviewed here, here and here.) [...]