Becky Cloonan’s trilogy of self-published stories conjure a stunningly beautiful world full of heartache, horror, and despair. “By Chance or Providence” is the kind of book prized by those fortunate enough to own a copy.
Written and illustrated by Becky CloonanIn 2011 Becky Cloonan self-published her short story Wolves to critical acclaim. The Mire followed one year later, winning an Eisner Award for Best Single Issue. Finally in 2013, Demeter was released, completing the trilogy.
These stories cast a hypnotic melancholy, weaving their way through a medieval landscape of ancient curses and terrible truths that will haunt you long after you’ve set the book down.
Becky Cloonan is one of those creators who I feel like I can pick up practically anything she’s worked on and know that I’m going to enjoy it. With that in mind, “By Chance or Providence” is, in my opinion, her best work to date. It’s really that good.
There are three stories in the collection: “Wolves,” “The Mire,” and “Demeter.” There’s no connection between them, except perhaps in their overall mood. Each story is hauntingly melancholy, dealing with love, death, and isolation. With Cloonan both writing and drawing, there’s this beautiful tandem act going on where one element suggests an idea and another gives it a mood, and together they evoke something that’s never explicitly stated or portrayed on the page. This results in an elegant ambiguity to the tales that deepen their core themes and make them feel like they’re coming from an emotional place.
The most simple joy of these stories is that the art and writing share the same sensibilities—what Cloonan likes to write about, she also likes to draw. In a tale about desire, Cloonan draws eyes with unmistakable hunger in them in a way that summons up a thousand words without uttering any of them. This is very important, since all three stories have a ‘calling’ in them. The characters feel something tugging at their soul that they cannot ignore. It’s a call that must be answered. And yet the call is never specifically mentioned. The characters and narration talk around it. That sense of inevitability weights heavy, and you can see in a character’s eyes when they feel the call. I’m in awe of Cloonan’s ability to take something so ineffable and make it feel so specific.
Actually, I find Cloonan’s work very good at bringing to life senses beyond the visual. In “Demeter” Cloonan gives Anna, the female lead, a fear and a secret which she keeps from her husband. Within the first few pages, Cloonan ties this secret to the ocean, and then plays with the association. So when Anna awakes in the middle of the night and outside she hears the surf, without saying anything we know what preys on her mind and what stops her from sleeping. The ocean becomes such an integral part of the story, I can’t read it without hearing the sound of the surf while I read, to the point that the sound even changes with the mood of the scene, from gentle lapping at the sand, to waves crashing against stone.
All three stories are extremely tactile. Even on the cover, Cloonan’s art seeks to elicit sensation: the way it feels to caress a lover’s hair, to feel their breath when they’re close. There are so many panels of hands touching things in these stories, and the characters become proxies through which we feel this world. Though these are relatively short stories, they linger long after reading.
In terms of narrative, each of these stories starts in the middle, and as the they progress, they explore both past and present, often simultaneously. Cloonan sets the stage for her tale, deliberately leaving things unsaid and lets our expectations and assumptions fill in the blanks, then over the following pages she toys with those expectations and assumptions; these are not passive reading experiences. Events are not necessarily told chronologically, with the past bleeding into the present. They are stories that are meant to be read more than once. Different details become important on a second reading, and I found it a more rewarding experience than the first (and the first was pretty damn good).
Continued belowOf the three, I think “The Mire” demonstrates this aspect the most obviously. It’s the kind of story you won’t just read again, but you’ll likely read it again immediately, or at least flick back and look at earlier portions. There always seems to be more story than is actually on the page, which is why I always finish “By Chance or Providence” feeling satisfied, yet wanting more.
With “By Chance or Providence” finding a home at Image Comics, I must admit it’s kindled hope that there may be more stories to come. In the past Cloonan has spoken about an epic story she’d like to tell someday and how “Wolves” was her way of stepping into that world and seeing what the setting and atmosphere might feel like. It’s a project I’d dearly love to see come to fruition.
The self-published hardcover edition of “By Chance or Providence” remains one of my most prized books. I originally bought several copies and gradually gave all but one away as I discovered friends that would appreciate Cloonan’s storytelling. Since it’s been out of print, recommending the digital version of the each story on Comixology just isn’t the same. When “By Chance or Providence” is rereleased in July, pick it up. It is truly a pleasure to read the passion-project of a creator like Cloonan.
