Me and Edith Head
Story:
Art:

Written by Sara Ryan
Art by Steve Lieber
Price: $2.00

My Verdict: Excellent.

Katrina Lansdale is a young lady that many of us can relate to. She's not reviled at school, but she's not exactly one of the Beautiful People, either. Katrina tries out for a school production of Midsummer Night's Dream and winds up in charge of costumes, which puts her in a bit of a bind for ideas. Not helping matters are the facts that the popular chik who has the lead thinks Katrina is a total unworthy misfit and Katrina's parents have turned their home in a war zone of exchanged arguments. So out of all this insanity and uncertainty, is Katrina going to figure out how to make something good from the bad?

It's easy to see why this thing was nominated for an Eisner. These days, most writers have no sense of pacing. If they do manage to get an interesting idea across, they have no idea how much time to take doing it. They'll blow through what could have been a nice solid three-issue arc in a standalone issue, much to the detriment of the story they're trying to dish out. Or worse, they'll take months to get anything accomplished ("Bruce Wayne: Shmoe", anyone?). Ryan has a very short story here--fifteen pages--and the fact that she's able to tell it without missing a beat in that amount of space is downright refreshing. Not to mention the fact it's a universal theme handled in a novel way: the application of Edith Head into a story of growing up and coping. Helping matters is the art by Steve Lieber, who handily uses very subtle changes in character's faces to put across volumes.

This is something we need more of in graphic fiction--writers who understand young people and artists who know how to draw them. Me and Edith Head is a great appetizer for any kid who feels isolated from the "popular" whackos of the world and who needs to be shown that comic books can actually provide an outlet. Recommended for readers of all ages.