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@ Pop Syndicate-- Phonogram: The Singles Club #5

"None of the characters in Phonogram: The Single Club are necessarily what you’d call completely emotionally healthy but issue #5 opens with a cringe-worthy scene as Laura slashes small cuts into her arms with a razor blade.  There are numerous cuts on both arms so you know she’s done this before even as she protests “I’m just me.  And I’m working on that.”  Laura is a work in progress, a little girl who tries to be tough and hard but has no idea how to do that other than by trying to inflict pain on herself or on the people around her."

You can read the full review at Pop Syndicate.

Over the weekend, I watched Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco and it reminded me of The Singles Club in many ways, particularly how both are using music as an entry point into their character's lives.  I think it's fair to say that one of the struggles with Phonogram: Rue Brittania was with just how rooted it was in Brit Pop music, or even music in general, that made the book a bit impenetrable.  Rue Brittania is about music as much as it's about David Kohl.

The Singles Club is a completely different beast.  Sure there's the music references (this issue alone is peppered with Long Blondes quotes,) but Gillen and McKelvie are telling stories about people here.  The music colors the story much in the same was as Matthew Wilson's fantastic hues do.  But this is about more than just the music.  I reread all of the issues of The Singles Club quickly before writing this review and I found I really liked spending time with these characters in a way that I didn't like spending time with David Kohl.  I may not like the characters but I like hanging out with them for this night.

I'm thinking when the series is done and the collection is out, I want to write a bit about the structure of this comic.  Until this weekend, I was thinking about Robert Altman and the way he used ensembles, comparing it in my mind to the way that Gillen and McKelvie have created a wonderful cast here.  But now I'm thinking about Stillman and how he was using his cast and commenting about a certain period in time in their lives.  The Singles Club is much more focused timewise than Stillman's movie but I think there's something as interesting going on in the comic as there is in Stillman's movie.