Yeah, there’s a dead body, and yes, there are more than a few unscrupulous characters, but the latest graphic novel from this superstar creative team is more of a slice-of-life story, a stylistic fusion of Anne Tyler and S.A. Cosby. Made for me, in other words.
Despite its title, it’s actually less concerned with the body, and more interrogating the lives of the people living on the picturesque street of Pelican Road in the summer of 1984. There’s a real hodgepodge of characters here, exquisitely rendered in Sean Phillips’ inimitable style: a cheating wife and her husband; the checkout guy at the local liquor store who masquerades as a cop with his dead father’s badge; two juvenile delinquents in a tempestuous sometimes-romantic relationship; a masked roller-skating eleven-year-old; the homeless man she has befriended; and a private detective searching for a missing person.
“Where the Body Was” is framed as a true crime documentary, with characters (decades later) recounting their memories of that fateful summer on the street. Brubaker deftly establishes his characters and their relationships, then sets off the key chain of events pivotal to the story’s plot.
But actually, it’s the quieter moments I most enjoyed here, ruminations on young love and choices made, and the subtle changes in Phillips’ presentation of the characters as they recount their memories of the summer. We don’t get much exposition about their current lives; instead, Phillips’ artwork does the talking. You can tell a lot about a person by the sadness in their eyes, and there is no artist better equipped to show this. Infused with an elegiac and wistful tone, “Where the Body Was” is a quintessential Brubaker/Phillips production.
Written By Sime 