I've had nothing but praise for True Story Swear to God in the past, and that hasn't changed. However, this issue is particularly notable as a jumping-on point for the long-running series, for those of you out there who have been intrigued by the positive reviews but not convinced enough to jump full-on into a trade paperback. Beland's story has become not just about his impossibly magical romance with Lily, but more and more about the difficulties of long-distance burgeoning romance, and with this issue, the focus shifts just a little bit. It's still a story of a true-life romance between two likable (and often very funny) people, but it is now also about Tom Beland making the transition from his long-time home of Napa, California to Puerto Rico to be with his new girlfriend. Even readers who have never done the big move will be able to relate to the anxiety and difficulty of a big change in life (new job, new home, whatever), and those who have tried to settle into a new place will find a lot of familiar situations here, as well as any number of very funny and touching ones.
What I've always liked about Beland's style is the honesty that goes into the storytelling. Sure, relationships are streamlined a little bit for dramatic effect, but the general feeling of loving your family and wanting to throttle them at the same time or loving your significant other while being completely terrified of how they might react to you is not an easy thing to write about. Tom's frustration with his brother this issue, and his (justified, but maybe a little bit out of proportion) blow-up at his brother, is a very human moment, and it's a good shortcut indicator of the kind of stress that Beland is facing in his move.
Of course, if that more subtle clue doesn't work, Beland also comes right out and addresses some of the issues of moving to a new place, particularly one as different as Puerto Rico. He nails the feeling that comes when all the small changes pile up and become essentially one big change, and the anxiety and nervousness, not to mention hit to the old self confidence, that can result. It's not even remotely comparable, really, but when I moved to New York, I remember my biggest adjustment was getting used to totally new restaurants, a small reflection of all the other changes that were going on. Beland addresses that kind of thing when talking about how hard it is to locate the family jewelry shop, mere minutes away on foot, when he used to be able to navigate California without a problem.
While True Story Swear to God is sweet and touching (some might even go so far as "sappy" at times), it has also featured no small amount of humor. There are two truly funny scenes in this issue, each of them good enough to make me laugh out loud. The first relates to learning the names of your new relatives, again a familiar chore for anyone who has been in a serious relationship, and Tom's reaction is quite funny, especially in his mildly embarrassed but honest captions where he admits "I really love Annie. Or Nelly. Or whatever her name is." Even more funny is Tom's encounter with a gigantic cockroach, which features some spectacular pacing so that the reader is drawn into the same "what is that?" feeling before getting an amazingly rendered version of a truly disgusting beast invading Tom's space. The end of the gag is a recycled one from Beland's strips, which took some of the humorous sting out of it for me, but the actual delivery of the encounter with a bigger-than-normal (for California, at least) bug was really funny.
The weird thing is, much as I loved True Story Swear to God right from the start, I wasn't sure the story really had "legs." Once the two of them have gotten together, moved in together, the real story is over, right? Especially since we know that in real life they got married and lived as happily ever after as real life allows. Turns out that's wrong, as Beland has made a subtle but important shift to showing how the magic of a new relationship becomes the magic of a developing serious relationship and the serious (but often funny to the outside observer) changes that develop in both lives as a result. As always, this is an excellent, funny and touching read, and if you've never given this highly underrated book a chance, this is the issue to insist that your retailer order for you. It's the one with the beauty of a Scott Morse cover. 9/10
