So there's this guy, and through a completely fluke of fate, he ends up meeting an incredible woman, one he can't stop thinking about. Their first meeting holds the promise of an amazing relationship, but the problem is that the relationship has to be a long-distance one. They talk on the phone all the time, visit each other whenever they can and worry about one another as each deals with crises and frustrations.
Here's the kicker... though I could be talking about True Story Swear to God, I'm not. I'm actually talking about my own life, as it has been for the past few months. I'm in the midst of an incredible relationship, but we live in different cities (only an hour's drive apart, fortunately). My point is pretty clear -- I no longer just long for the sort of relationship that has unfolded in this series, but I now identity with it. True Story has never seemed so true to me.
Hurricane Georges rages over Puerto Rico, and Tom frets away in California, unable to reach Lily in the middle of nature's wrath. Lily has holed up in her rather wet but safe apartment with two friends. Her cellphone can't raise a signal, and she doesn't want to deplete the battery with nonstop attempts. Tom's and Lily's friends prod them about the relationship and about the obvious next step: moving closer to one another.
I live in the eastern Canadian province of New Brunswick. Hurricanes are pretty much unheard of around here (though our neighbors in Nova Scotia got smoked by Hurricane Juan a few months back). The simplicity of Beland's style doesn't hold him back, though, when it comes to bringing the wrath of such a storm system to life in the artwork. He makes excellent use of darkness and silhouette here. I love how the greys and blacks of Lily's apartment contrast with the openness and white backgrounds of Tom's home in Napa Valley.
It's not just the art that brings the storm to life. Beland's plotting and script really give one a sense of the experience of holing up during a hurricane. I left as though he exposed me to a different culture, a culture of nature at its worst and its best all at once. The previous issue was about how the storm was tearing two lovers out of each other's embrace, but this issue is about the individuals and how they weather that storm.
This issue is something of a transitional one. Beland wraps up the hurricane storyline and turns the reader's attention to a new focal point, and that's the characters' desire to be together all of the time. One could argue that this issue is the quieter eye of the entertaining and emotional storm of this powerful relationship. There's a greater sense of separation between Tom and Lily here as they communicate little in the script. Though it's a solid issue, it makes for one of the less extreme chapters in the story, but it reinforces the reality of it all. This is Beland's true story, after all, and here, the rollercoaster he rides with Lily has hit one of its more level straightaways. The promise of more ups and downs lies ahead, though.
