I've been a fantastic relationship for a year and a half now. Marriage is a foregone (and happy) conclusion at this point. We look forward to wedded bliss, and since we've talked about that, the notion of family has popped up as well. It's a daunting proposition, but with the right person, it seems like the right and natural thing to do... even something the most cynical person might wish for in the right circumstances. Child-rearing in our society has become this sugar-coated notion. In this new limited series, Andi Watson brushes off the sugar and explores a world in which fathers are viewed with suspicion, in which children are not the angels we make them out to be and in which our expectations almost universally prove to be wrong.
Simon Adams has everything he thought he wanted. He has a wife he loves, a job that provides for his family, a cute little daughter and a home to call his own. What he really has is a tag-team partner in parenting, a part-time gig that's not personally satisfying, a little devil who spurns his love at every opportunity and a place that's too small. Simon figured that by this point in his life, everything would fall into place. Adulthood was supposed to bring with it stability and certainty. So much for that theory.
As always, Watson's simple style serves as the reader's gateway into a world of universal emotions and middle-class realities. The fatigue and frustration on Simon's face, simply conveyed with a few lines, are feelings we can feel betrayed on our own faces from time to time. The most interesting aspect of the art is how Watson conveys the extreme behavior of the child with his usually reserved style. Exaggeration isn't something for which Watson is known, even though his minimalist approach could embrace such a technique easily. I love the opening and closing symbolic scenes, as they convey not only how lost Simon feels, but his sense of isolation and powerlessness.
Every new parents tells stories about the amazing experience, about the miracle, about the rewards, all while tell the war stories with a humorous spin. Watson doesn't do that here. He pulls back the curtain and shows parenthood without the magic, without the giddy, gooey glitz so many people to dress it up in. It strikes me as refreshingly honest, the sort of honesty in storytelling I've come to expect from such comics creators as Tom (True Story Swear to God) Beland, Damon (A Strange Day) Hurd and, of course, Andi Watson, the man behind such poignant slice-of-life works as Dumped and Breakfast After Noon.
This isn't really a story about parenthood. It's not about marriage or work or relationships or disappointment. It's about growing up. "Grown up" is a synonym for adult, but it's not an accurate one. Using the past tense form of the verb indicates a finality, that one has reached a pinnacle of a process. There's no such finish line. I'm in my mid 30s. For years, I waited for that feeling to arrive, that feeling that I was an adult, that I was my father. That feeling never came, and I know why: it doesn't exist. Be it 21 years or age, 41 or 81, there's no "grown up." There's growing up. And I think that's what Simon Adams is in the process of learning in this series. 9/10
