The latest graphic novel from Vertigo is an excellent example of what has made the publisher of Enigma or Fogtown a great publisher: an original story, striking art…and gay inclusiveness. Set in three time periods and telling three, seemingly independent stories, this graphic novel also shows how to believably recreate times past.
Artist Colleen Doran is no stranger to gay characters, as her own sci-fi series A Distant Soil features a gay couple (it’s being serialized online too), but I didn’t know writer Derek McCulloch’s work, and so was pleasantly surprised by the presence of a main gay character in Gone to Amerikay1, the stories of Irish immigrants to the USA.
Johnny gets a kiss
In 1870, Ciara O’Dwyer and her baby daughter Maire arrive in America, discovering the reality of poverty in the country of their countrymen dreams, as they await the coming of their husband and father. In 1960, young acting hopeful Johnny McCormack drinks his first drink in an American bar where his friend Brian Fritzgerald works, welcoming him with open arms. And in 2010, rich businessman Lewis Healy flies to New York, his wife Sophie about to give him the solution to a mystery he’d been chasing for a long time. A mystery named Ciara.
From this description, the identity of the gay character should be obvious, and I hope you won’t mind me being spoiler-ish. What I really enjoyed about the character of Johnny was that his being gay and falling in love (I won’t reveal how this plays out) was only part of his story. Johnny also plays a very important and unexpected role in tying the three stories together.
Doran's fully-realized past
Drawing stories in three different centuries is no small feat, and Doran shows once again that she’s one of the most versatile artists working nowadays (for a different facet of her talent, see the recent and wacky Mangaman). I must also say that José Villarrubia’s colors are stunning (Villarrubia is an artist in his own right, see for example The Mirror of Love), as detailed and evocative as Doran’s completely researched recreation of two rather different decades of New York life.
McCulloch’s writing is dense and rewards multiple readings. Besides the plot itself of the stories of the three main characters and the careful structure of the whole book, there are numerous references to historical characters and events, as well as a large use of Irish folk songs, which were mostly unknown to me. It’s very interesting how McCulloch and Doran integrate music and singing in a silent medium (McCulloch seems very taken with songs and comics, as his previous graphic novel Stagger Lee proves). No fancy effects here, just the faces of singers, both at home and on stage, singing their hearts out2.
Indeed, integration in a larger whole of apparently disparate elements is one of the strengths of this graphic novel: as I said before, Johnny’s story is not only about his being gay, as Ciara’s is not only about being a woman without a husband. Though I’ll say a few more words about gay themes, since this is the angle of this site: there are some very good ideas about the handling of gay situations, such as the use of the song Strange Fruit as two guys face an homophobic acquaintance, McCulloch making a subtle connection between racism and homophobia. Intimacy between men is also handled well, with scenes both sensual and sensitive.
Gone to Amerikay is a graphic novel I’d recommend both to seasoned readers who appreciate superior storytelling and to casual readers who are looking for interesting gay characters and themes in comics. It might be one of the best things I’ve read in a while, and I’ll certainly read it more than a few times.
Notes:
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