By Max Eddy
I approach all links sent to me with trepidation, but it is with actual fear that I click on a link that I know leads to a webcomic.
In some ways, the Internet is where comics go to die, as demonstrated by the seemingly endless parade of anime-inspired, video-game jokey grotesqueries that will go unnamed. The ease of web publishing apparently uncorked the latent artist in everyone, often burying the best stuff under a menagerie of vile and twisted creations. Only a few gems shine out from amongst the eFeces, and Eliza Frye’s online mini-comic The Lady’s Murder is perhaps an exemplar for other would-be online comic artists.
Updated on a page-by-page basis, The Lady’s Murder covers the untimely death of a popular Parisian prostitute. The reader takes the perspective of detectives investigating the murder, meeting a cast of characters who each “knew” the lovely Marie Madeleine.
It begins with a butcher, a man as emotional as he is corpulent and bloodstained. We meet a doctor, a waiter, an old patron, an artist with a macabre sense of humor, a flower merchant and a Peeping Tom. The story ends with one last encounter true to the form of the best Agatha Christie novel, in which all the suspects are gathered at Madeleine’s funeral and the killer is quietly revealed. Along the way, the reader gathers clues to the killer’s identity, but mostly we encounter Madeleine herself. Through the short monologues, we discover her questionable career, her habits, her faults and the details of her grizzly demise.
That’s all. It’s a short work, clocking in at just 32 pages, but each page speaks volumes. It’s all about the characters as Frye effortlessly balances the demands of plot and character. Too often, creators seem to view these two as separate, instead of sides of the same coin. You know, like when an author shoehorns a short, awkward romance in the middle of an action story or when after an enjoyable slow-simmer, a story reaches a raging boil leaving nothing but the reader behind. Instead, Frye moves the story along by letting her characters speak for themselves.
The true joy of The Lady’s Murder is the quality of the art. Each page is painted with gouache, lending each panel a depth and texture not often seen in comics. The colors are vibrant, but don’t scream at you from the page. Colors come back as leit motifs, establishing moods better than words could: the smokey reds of Madeleine’s persona about town, the blues of her desolation, and the jarring yellows of outrageous eroticism (as well as snakes). Some of these images will likely stay with me for a long time – I revisited the twisted rictus on the jaundiced face of The Patron on several occasions.
If you’ve found yourself drooling over Red Sonja covers, this comic will likely not turn your crank. While there is a lot of nudity, it is tasteful and never graphic. Frye knows how to use color, but more importantly, she knows when not to use it at all. In a clever use of negative space, Frye leaves Madeline’s body white and empty, with only a few lines for her face. Ostensibly, Frye does this so that a naked woman can romp across nearly every page without being overtly obscene, which I think ramps up the eroticism without posing bodies awkwardly in efforts to conceal. But presenting Madeline as negative space also helps to underline her absence from the story. Though she slinks across nearly every page, Madeline never speaks for herself. She’s empty, defined only by the stories around her.
What’s most refreshing about The Lady’s Murder is the sparse dialogue. Web comics are particularly guilty of verbal diarrhea, though print comics are far from innocent. In The Lady’s Murder, some pages pass without a word, which is especially bold considering that these pages stayed posted on Frye’s website for days before a new one emerged. Frye treats every spoken line with careful attention, obviously as purposefully chosen and designed as each image.
Of course, The Lady’s Murder is certainly is not for everyone. Fans of the BIFF POW action/superhero comics are going to feel left out in the cold. There’s only one violent act in the whole comic, but it comes in a rumbling climax. In fact, the comic is so short that many readers may be disappointed by its brevity. It is well planned, well constructed, and well written; but epic it is not. It can stir the soul, certainly, but in a subtle way.
Frye has produced a print version of The Lady’s Murder, but I am unconvinced that it will be as impressive as it has been an internet experience. Perhaps I am biased, since I read the comic episodically – page by page, day by day. For me, the story unraveled over the course of weeks, giving me time to appreciate each frame and anticipate the next. But for a reader reviewing the website or in print today, this experience will take less than an hour.
Frye’s new comic Savannah & Georgia, is running in the same page-by-page manner as her previous comic. Though this one has stalled for several weeks, I can only patiently wait for its revival.
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Previously by Max Eddy:
* Invincible Iron Man #1
* Deja Desolation Jones
Posted on July 19, 2009