They say romance is dead, but it seems nobody told Tom Beland that. Beland's comic is both a love-letter to his wife Lily and a reminder to the fans that romance comics can be sappy, sweet, sentimental and still damn funny and entertaining at the same time. A good romance story can make you fall in love with the idea of love in the first place, and Beland does that for his readers with True Story. In sharing his very personal story of finding true love, Beland has created a surprisingly universal story that could do for modern romance comics what books like Sin City and Stray Bullets did for crime comics.
I'm honestly floored by Beland's courage in revealing so much of his private life to readers. The honesty of his approach is a big part of the appeal, because there's never a sense that Beland is trying to manufacture feelings in his readers. The sense of romance, the sense of destiny, may come from a well-developed sense of storytelling, but the likability of the characters and the empathy I feel for them comes from the feeling that Beland is holding very little back. I can only imagine how hard it must have been to write parts of this issue, but the book is stronger for it.
While honesty, a great premise and a likable style all combine to make True Story approachable and fun, one can't deny Beland's storytelling instincts, which are fantastic. Little details, such as when to use a panel to have Lily flash an undeniably beautiful smile and look, or the three-panel sequence where she discovers his T-Shirt and the readers can see what is coming (even if it doesn't spoil the actual revelation moment), speak to expert pacing. And with relatively few lines in his art, Beland establishes emotions including joy, bemusement, exasperation, sadness, puzzlement. In past reviews, I've compared Beland to Brian Bendis, and I do see a lot of similarities between the writing and art styles of the two creators still, but Beland also shares a strength and simplicity of artwork that I've come to associate with Andi Watson.
Even those of us in happy relationships can't live on sweet romance stories alone, however, and Beland wisely seasons this story of two people finding each other with the idiosyncratic humor that comes with real life. The revelation of the priest's, er... little problem is played out with deliberate and hilarious pacing, and the toast at the wedding (and reaction to it) had me on the floor laughing. Beland is as adept at humor as he is at drama.
This is, truly, one of the best books currently being published today. It's got an origin that is just magical, and Beland is creating the story with an affection for the material that is tempered by a professional approach and skill that many less-inspired creators can't boast. Bottom line, if you're not reading True Story, you need to be. And if you are, you're now in the same boat I am... waiting impatiently for the next issue.
