Zero Girl was the return of Sam Kieth to comics after too long an absence, and it was a book that I liked quite a bit, but I didn't really see where he was going to get a sequel. As it turns out, though, the next Zero Girl series has plenty to interest the reader, with the main characters from the previous series becoming more supporting characters and the focus of the new series falling on a young and conflicted girl not unlike Amy Smootster but with quite a different relationship with Tim. Full Circle has the same mixture of teen angst and surrealist weirdness that made the original Zero Girl so entertaining, and it also has the same beautiful and strange artwork from Sam Kieth.
Sam Kieth's work has sensibilities unlike anyone else in mainstream comics. It's almost manga-esque in the different cultural mores it explores. Where the previous series explored relationships between people of very different age groups, this one throws in strange pseudo-familial relationships and gay politics that at times border on incestuous but nevertheless form a core of very interesting relationship dynamics. It seems at times very out there and occasionally veers into creepy territory, but the likable characters keep it intriguing.
It's been fifteen years since the events of Zero Girl in these pages, and that time has clearly changed the characters quite a bit. Tim, once the confident older voice, has become a symbol of lost opportunities and shame, while Amy has matured into a similar role to the one Tim had in the first mini-series. Mind you, because it's Amy, she has a wilder rebellious streak in her than the stuffy counselor that Tim represented. And then there is the newest character, Nikki, Tim's daughter, who is both protagonist and antagonist of this series so far. She's got the same rebellious anger and precocious intelligence that Amy had in Zero Girl, with added danger in her relationship to squares and added complexity in her obvious closeted gay tendencies. The scenes between Rat and Nikki are heartbreaking, because the relationship is so clearly right for both of them, but Nikki's rough exterior won't allow it.
However, the heart of the series comes when Amy meets Nikki. Though Tim eventually rejected Amy in favor of another woman (who we'll likely never meet in the pages of the comics), he has ironically wound up with a daughter who was very much like Amy. These similarities, including an aggressive pursuit of older romantic partners, make for some very odd and oddly sensual encounters in this issue. The interaction between Amy and Nikki is not unlike that of Francine and Katchoo from Strangers in Paradise, with a few extra levels of complexity added in to the relationship. But the humor, the sexy tone and the personal interaction is at that same almost believable, and definitely delightful, quality.
When Sam Keith is on artwork, it goes without saying that the book is going to be beautiful. The redesign for an older, wiser and more comfortable in her own skin Amy Smootster, not to mention the just plain older Tim, speak volumes about the characters without the dialogue having to say a word. And the strange designs for Nikki and Rat, less human in anatomy but with elements that exaggerate their roles in the story, are equally impressive. I was not quite as impressed with Four Women or Wolverine/Hulk, and I thought maybe my interest in Sam Kieth was down to an "absence makes the heart grow fonder" kind of thing, but with the return of Zero Girl, I'm right back to anxiously anticipating the next issue again.
