Friday #1: Back in the Saddle

In a typical Ed Brubaker twist on a genre we meet Friday, Lancelot Jones and the Sheriff, a detective squad of yore reminiscent of a myriad of hardbound books aimed at 3rd to 8th graders. Bru shows us a young woman fresh out of college dragged semi willingly back into her high school life following Jones around in a move that is evocative of Freddy and Velma among others. Interestingly she follows him despite seemingly having developed a mind of her own in college in a twist on the classic leader/ follower dynamic so many of those classic stories had. Lancelot may well have been the star of this story in another life.

If I have one complaint and it’s really not a complaint Lancelot and especially the Sheriff aren’t very well fleshed out in this first issue and mostly serve as a device to get Friday to the woods. Once again this is a nice twist on a genre where characters (especially female characters) often only exist to stand and be amazed as the infinitely capable protagonist solves every problem. In such a tale it wouldn’t be unusual for a woman like Friday Fitzhugh to not even get a last name.

All that said this story is a bit bare at it’s face but nevertheless extremely interesting in it’s deep characterization of Friday and her town in no small part thanks to the rich setting work done by Marcos Martin. This small town is brought  to life in the luscious backgrounds and lively layouts. I’m also a big fan of the ubiquitous snow, which is harder than you might think to pull off.

As I’m sure we all know none of that gorgeous setting work would be possible without the vibrant colors by Muntsa Vicente, who helps to add a gritty realism to the story with an extremely lively palette. Especially in scenes of the town where lights and snow come together with the small town architecture to bring the reader in.

Friday is only available on Panel Syndicate http://panelsyndicate.com/comics/friday in a pay what you want capacity.