Review: Frater Mine #1-4

Matt and Colleen meet again, from issue #1

Here is a gay-inclusive fantasy comic, by a gay writer and an artist I assume is straight. But that’s ok. Some of my best friends are straight.
The first arc of Frater Mine (issues #1-3) is an interesting take on the classic reunion story. Matt, Jake and Colleen are old friends who haven’t seen each other in years. When Jake, seemingly in trouble, calls Matt (a disgruntled high-school teacher), he and Colleen (a writer and mother of a young girl) find themselves drawn again to the orbit of their unreliable friend–a friend who’d introduced them to magic a long time ago, with Colleen not trusting him for very personal reasons.
Writer Sean McGrath has created an interesting storyline. His characters are well-rounded, and the way he integrates Matt being gay in the small group dynamic shows that it isn’t the point of the character at all, just one of the facets of his personality. In fact, the integration of the main aspects of the story (lost friendship and love, the rush and danger of magic, trust and betrayal) in a convincing whole is the strong point of this comic.

Matt's life is not easy, from issue #4

The fourth, and latest, issue shows Matt trying to make sense of his life in the wake of the rather dramatic events of the previous issue, and clearly sets up an important change for this character. While Jake is more or less a cypher to the readers, the down-to-earth qualities of his friends contrast nicely with that. Those qualities also complement the fantasy elements, which don’t feel like pyrotechnics but rather like moments revelatory of the characters’ make-up.
Artist Juan Romera has improved a lot over the three issues he’s drawn (#2 was drawn by Andres Barrientos, who exhibited a more fine art-inspired style, but less mastery of it, in my opinion). He went from rather interesting to quite convincing, all the while retaining his identity, with a noir style reminiscent of early Mignola. His use of shadows and white space seem perfectly suited to a story where nothing is black and white, while his line art has become more assured and able to express emotions and body language. It’s good stuff.
The series is published by Making Comics Studios, and is available from them. Issues are supposed to be published semi-annually, and I hope the authors will be able to keep their schedule, because I’ve already grown attached to their very human and fallible characters.

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MAJ 07/2010: The first three issues are now collected in a tpb, and on sale at IndyComics.