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Review: Memorial #1

By | December 23rd, 2011
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Written by Chris Roberson
Illustrated by Rich Ellis

New York Times best-selling author and Eisner-nominated creator of iZombie, Chris Roberson, delivers a magical ongoing new series. Memorial is the story of Em, a young woman who arrives at a hospital in Portland, Oregon, with no memory of her past. A year later, she has rebuilt her life, only to find her existence thrown into turmoil after she inherits a magical shop. The kind that appears in an alley one instance and disappears the next. Em is drawn into a supernatural conflict between beings that not only represent, but are, fundamental elements of the universe itself. All of existence is at stake, so there’s only a little pressure on Em, the magical shop, and a talking cat. With art by the fantastical Rich Ellis, and covers by the legendary Michael WM Kaluta.

Chris Roberson is here with a brand new creator-owned ongoing, and this time he’s brought Rich Ellis along for the ride.

Let’s go through the shifting door and see if Roberson and Ellis’ shop of goodies is all we could hope for — after the cut. (I swear that line makes sense if you’ve read the comic.)

If there is generally one thing I would say that we need in comics, it’s more fantasy. If you think about it, the amount of regularly published high-profile fantasy titles are quite limited. If we strip away any offering from Marvel and DC under the consensus that these are all superhero books, what are we left with? Mouse Guard and Mice Templar, to a certain extent, from Archaia. Skullkickers from Image (and even that could be put to a different genre, in some cases). Fables and Unwritten from Vertigo could probably count as well. Sure, there are some licensed properties out there, but there is a definitive lack of creator-owned books that exist within the fantasy genre without dipping heavily into other genres as well.

This is, assumedly, where Memorial comes in. As a brand new fantasy title, the book finds young girl Em discovering a door to the Memorial shop, full of various collectibles and antiques. All is going well until she finds herself attacked out on the street by an unknown army, and is locked in the store with nothing but a talking cat named Schrodinger to keep her company.  Memorial draws on the familiar with its own new twist to the mix, and represents a cultural mesh of ideas transformed into a brand new one. The book somewhat seems to channel classic fantasy tales like Neverending Story, Labyrinth or Phantom Tollbooth with “real” characters getting drawn into what they believe was a fictional world due to curious circumstances outside of their control, and that in and of itself is intriguing.

Roberson and Ellis make a great creative team, even with only one issue in the hatch. Roberson has in the past shown his ability to transcribe his imagination into his scripts, and the varied scopes of the Cinderella minis have proven this beyond the shadow of a doubt. Memorial, in a nutshell, reads like Roberson had about a billion or so ideas that he wanted to play with, so he designed a device that would allow him to do so, via the door to Memorial and Everglade/lands. To have Rich Ellis then come in and bring that world to life is fantastic, as Ellis’ artwork is crisp and and personal at a singular level yet still intricate on that of a more broad scope. Ellis’ detailed linework here is essentially what makes the comic book sing, channeling a sleek and readily apparent Miyazaki influence. While the book only gives brief looks of what will assumedly become the mainstay visual element of the book, those quick bursts are intriguing and quite handsomely rich (no pun initially intended).

The only major downside of the book is that the book’s overall tone is a bit absent from a first read of the issue. The book, while assumedly in the future focusing on the idea that Em will be traveling to different locations, spends the majority of the time introducing characters in isolated environments with no real sense of direction. While the appropriate amount of world building is there, and Roberson and Ellis certainly establish the main players and the grand scope of the book, at no point is it easy to tell what specific type of story we’re being given outside of “fantasy.” Is it humorous, or is it a dark drama? Is it a young adult story, or for mature audiences? It has just enough of everything, yet never takes a firm stance. This isn’t ostensibly a bad thing, though; despite the book’s tone shifting between pages and scenes, it doesn’t somehow make the story’s content from being any less endearing. This also somewhat keeps you at Em’s level throughout, offering up just enough dramatic irony to intrigue yet not enough to tip Roberson and Ellis’ hand. It is simply just a bit difficult to otherwise get a firm grip of what kind of story Roberson and Ellis plan to tell in conjunction with the one they’ve just told, though.

Continued below

Therein lies the inherent quandry of Memorial: I almost implicitly trust the creative team, because a) through reading his work and interviewing him in the past I know Roberson is a competent and talented storyteller and b) I love Ellis’ art, but the first issue doesn’t make a grand impression beyond “I enjoyed this.” It’s not a book that leaves you salivating anxiously for the next issue, but it’s also not a book that creates a lack of faith in the future of the story. Memorial certainly makes an impression, but it’s not one that creates a true mark in either a positive or negative way.

I would wager that by the end of the first arc, we’ll fully know the true scope of the book, in terms of its quirks and overall tone. Memorial has a great device which should open up the book to a lot of directions, and the first issue is a good entry point to both the players and the world of Memorial. It just needs less overall use of dramatic irony and more of a singular focus to truly display all that Roberson and Ellis have to offer. I can only guess that it will be quite enjoyable to see this book unfold over time, however, and I would certainly recommend giving the first issue a chance.

Final Verdict: 7.5 – Plus, it has a talking cat!


Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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