“Fence” #12

With tryouts over, it’s Nicholas last chance to get on the team and stay at King’s Row as “Fence” finishes out its run in periodical publication.

Written by C.S. Pacat
Illustrated by Johanna the Mad
Colored by Joana Lafuente
Lettered by Jim Campbell

Tryouts are coming to a close, and the three available spots on the Kings Row fencing team are almost all locked up. It’s just a question of whether or not Nicholas can push through and earn a spot for himself—or if he’ll have to leave Kings Row altogether.

With issues #12 “Fence” ends its run being published as a traditional ongoing comic, as it shifts to an OGN format in 2019. This is a move several comics (“Motor Crush,””Moonstruck,” and “Astro City”) have made this year the effects of which is yet to be seen. The change in format might be for the best. From a writing perspective C.S. Pacat paced things well enough, issues largely worked as episodic units and tracked the overall dramatic arc of a given collection. Issue #12 somewhat subverts that pattern as Pacat shows some more tools in her repertoire. However, artistically, Johanna the Mad’s work feels rushed and lacking the striking qualities that her work had even an issue ago.

Dramatically issue #12 finds itself in a bit of an odd in-between space. The core dramatic question of this first year worth of story, will Nicholas get on the fencing team, was answered. Yes, he would be an reserve on the team. This wasn’t formally taken care in issue #11, here that formality takes all of four pages as both Nicholas and Eugene are made reserves. With formality out of the way and still three quarters worth of comic left to fill, the issue becomes an epilogue showing the after math and that King’s Row is indeed a school.

“Fence” #12 turns into a bit of a episodic jaunt through Nicholas’ day and lets Pacat show her skill at writing one to three page scenes. The past chunk of issues have been time compressed and centered around major set piece fencing matches. This has let them function rather well episodically as everything was built around one or two matches with little narrative time in between an issue. While these issues could be subdivided to scenes within scenes, it didn’t have the space to show a day like was shown in #12. It didn’t have the space to do one like the opening three pager between Nicholas and Seji, which is the best overall scene in the issues.

The three pages don’t say much new on the odd couple, opposed, nature of Nicholas and Seiji’s relationship, but it lands those beats. The three pages are visually built around the yin yang like structure they have to their room, with the ducky shower curtain is used to make panels within panels at times. It’s also the scene where Johanna the Mad’s fluctuation between the full detailed realistic cartoon style and a more minimalist cartoon approach is the most coherent. Mad has done these sort of fluctuations in her style throughout the series, but without the fencing action the juxtaposition wasn’t nearly as effective. In the first page, the replicated cartoon image of Nicholas spread over three panels works comedically because the two more detailed horizontal sandwich panels at the top and bottom of the page. The page setups the contrast between Nicholas’s desire for some kind of meaningful interaction with Seiji and Seiji’s cat-like disinterest. The cartooning on Seji’s face as he puts his headphones on is excellent and tells the reader everything about the tone of the moment.

That sort of synergy between macro page designs and micro panel by panel decisions doesn’t flow through the remainder of the issue as characters go between cartoon realism and chibi-like at a rapid clip. Since this is all done by Johanna the Mad and colorist Joana Lafuente there is still a sense of unity to everything, it isn’t like early issues of New 52 “Secret Six.” But the unsupported shifts frequently took me out of the issue and had me looking for the why of it all. Take the school assembly sequence. Nicholas and Eugene being reduced to cartoons in shock as they are both named to the reserve unit makes sense, the image creates and captures their sense of shock and awe. The same cannot be said for when the Captain and, I believe, Eugene are reduced to a similar state a couple pages later when commenting on Nicholas and Seiji shaking hands, set against a bland brown gradient background. The latter image is a boring one that takes up the lower third of the page and fails to use the space the same way the other panels on the page did.

The minimizing also leads to characters looking a bit too similar to one another. As the fencing team leaves the assembly Johanna the Mad setups the upper half that page balanced between opposing ascending and descending lines. On a macro level it is a well designed image. Panel to panel, however, as Bobby talks with a character named Dante it falls apart because Dante looks like chibi Nicholas … who is supposed to have past them already. These sudden and often ineffective shifts in art style make me wonder if Johanna the Mad was running up against deadlines or something. With the shift to an OGN format, maybe this will provide the Mad artist more runway to flex her considerable skill as seen in the previous 11 issues.

“Fence” #12 feels like a narrative exhale after a years’ worth of tense competition. Pacat’s structure of the issue is a readable, elliptical, change of pace as Nicholas slowly discovers his new normal. While the art within panels is at times tonally puzzling, the overall page layouts are readable and engaging. “Fence” has been a series that was consistently great to read this year. This issue is just good enough, but not the great finale to build momentum for the next chapters.

Final Verdict: 6.5 – “Fence” ends periodical publication in the after math of team selection and what that means for Nicholas and Seiji going forward, I just wish the art was a bit more consistent.