Five stars out of five
To break in The Ontarion’s new book review column, we thought we’d begin with something a little unconventional. This One Summer, a comic book, tells the story of two summer cottage friends entering adolescence and discovering some of the complications the adult world has to offer.
I will digress momentarily from the review. I do not personally believe in the term “graphic novel.” To me, personally, and to many of my friends involved in the comics community, I believe calling a certain subset of comics “graphic novels” works to discredit other so-called “lowbrow” comics. The term “graphic novel” belongs to to the same elitist world that renounces pop-lit and I won’t have it. If, however, you will allow me to get a little “highbrow,” comic books are the easiest and most rewarding way to better your artistic literacy. Connecting word and image, through wonderful stories, is such a simple way to think about how deliberate illustrative choice communicates a message. Anyway, enough of that.
“…calling a certain subset of comics ‘graphic novels’ works to discredit other so-called ‘lowbrow’ comics.”
Canadian cousin superstars Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki have together and individually incredible portfolios of creative endeavours. Mariko, an acclaimed writer and performer, has published several novels and directed several films. Jillian is a highly sought-after illustrator and comics artist known for her personal works and highly popular ongoing web comic, SuperMutant Magic Academy. This One Summer is their second collaborative comic book, the first being Skim, published in 2008.
Rose, the narrator of the comic, visits Awago Beach with her parents every summer and spends much of her time hanging out with her summer sister Windy watching horror movies; heading down to the local convenience store; swimming; and discussing what it will be like to have breasts and what precisely a blow job is. Fundamentally, This One Summer is an unflinching, touching account of being a young girl just grasping the first changes of adolescence.
“Coloured with cool shades of blue, purple, and indigo…”
Coloured with cool shades of blue, purple, and indigo, the girls are drawn with soft lines and rounded curves. The girls’ smooth and rounded jawlines, noses, tummies, and knees are made all the more tender in comparison to the subtle difference in the rendering of the adults’ shapes; more angular, shadowed, cleanly delineated. My favourite panels in the comic are scenes in which the girls, without a literal trace of self consciousness, laze about the beach in their bathing suits.
All of this gentleness is not to say that Rose and Windy don’t face tough situations. Rose’s narration slowly reveals the increasing tension between her parents which, she finds later, stems from her mother’s miscarriage last summer at Awago. The two girls also get a glimpse of the complications which may soon enter their lives when they become spectators to the local teenagers’ drama.
Female adolescence and all the changes it entails is a story often deemed messy, ugly, or unnecessary to tell and there are so few representations of what it’s like to be a young woman. Ultimately, this is This One Summer’s greatest strength. It is an absolutely necessary text because of what it confronts, and what it confronts is an absolutely necessary conversation.
Photo courtesy of Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki.