Brian Defferding’s School
The first impression you get of Brian Defferding’s School is from the format itself. It doesn’t look like a standard comic. Instead of the familiar six by nine format you are presented with a square. It looks for all of the world like a very dark children’s book. Like a Little Golden Book gone horribly astray.
I’m impressed by the line quality on the cover. All of the figures look like they were drawn with a technical pen or something else with a fixed width, but the art on the cover and inside is incredibly dark containing huge patches of black. I can just imaging Defferding sitting at a drawing table scribbling away at a background trying to cover a vast area with a sharpy without burrowing a hole through the page.
I only bought the first of the three issues of School that are available. But I’m certain I’m going to pick up the rest. I admit, I was a little apprehensive about Defferding’s drawing style; dark backgrounds and children with too big heads and too small arms. However, the strange nature of their appearance compliments the story that Defferding is presenting. I’m not sure if he’s setting this up as a murder mystery or supernatural horror or something else entirely. At the end of the first issue it can go either way, which is something I find compelling.
Defferding presents a number of questions in the first installment that I hope will be answered when I read the rest of the story. The obvious one being, why is Lindsay trapped in the school. But why are all of the student’s eyes sewn shut? And what about Scott Myers, why can we see his eyes? And what’s up with the guys in the smiley masks that can see and interact with Lindsay?
I was quite apprehensive of this comic, to be sure, and there are still a few things about the art and writing that bother me a little. Such as, sometimes Defferding’s illustrations can be a little confusing, he plays with perspective a little too much on occasion. And sometimes he’s a little more wordy than is really necessary, or his phrasing comes across as awkward. I’d try to play that off as the narrator is a dead third grader, but then he drops in some profanity and speech patterns that seem a little strange for an eight year old girl. But all of that is fairly minimal. The story is compelling and I actually am curious about what is going to happen next. Go check out Defferding’s site for a free preview of the first issues, and see for yourself. It’s not for everyone, but it’s certainly worth a look.
Technorati Tags: Brian Defferding’s, comic, reviews
