Life in a small town is more difficult than most people think. It’s even harder when said town is going under financially and there’s almost no employment. Sara Ryan explores this issue a bit too intimately in her newest comic ‘Bad Houses†with artwork by Carla Speed McNeil.
The story is about Lewis Gilbert, who runs a real estate and estate sales company with his mother. There are plenty of regulars at his estate sales and one of the newer ones, a photographer named Anne Cole, peaks his interest. They both share virtually the same struggles living in a town that’s basically bankrupt. They want to do everything to change that.
Anyone who has ever lived (or currently living) in these types of towns will identify with Lewis and Anne. They are almost lifelike in their troubles and their goals that the reader can swear that they are them or know people like them. These feeling are much stronger if the reader is now around the age of these characters.
Despite the strong characters the story’s biggest weakness is its message. Ryan spends plenty pages knocking into the reader’s head how bad the town’s economy is and how many businesses and jobs are gone that the comic becomes a bore to read. Yes, the whole point of the comic is to show how bad everybody in town has it, but must she really hammer it home almost every single page? After a while the reader will just skip most of these sections just to get to the actual story.
McNeil chose to use simple black and white pencil drawings for this comic. Even though it is simple, McNeil manages to give life to these characters and make it look more complex than it really is. It can be said that by keeping it simple it also keeps the whole bleak and desperate simple town vibe to the comic.
“Bad Houses†has identifiable characters and a strong art style, but the constant message of how bleak the town is weighs heavy on the overall quality of the comic. Perfectly good characters shouldn’t take a back seat to one’s views.
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