SKIM - Mariko Tamaki - Graphic Novel

Comic books and graphic novels have become the realm of the outcast, with GHOST WORLD, BLANKETS, and PERSEPOLIS exemplifying the genre's acceptance of the generally socially rejected. Kim, the protagonist of SKIM, falls snugly within this category in a number of ways. She's an overweight half-asian teenage wiccan, a budding lesbian, and a goth. Her best friend is also an outcast, and the popular girl has just suffered the double setback of her boyfriend breaking up with her and then committing suicide. If you follow the threads of teen genre cliches, you know what's going to happen--as the girls grow into puberty, they will leave each other behind, one embracing boys and the cool crowd, and one sticking with her individuality and her art; the popular girl will turn out to be not so bad, maybe even a little weird herself; the misappropriated affections directed toward a teacher will be softly rebuffed, and first heartbreak will wax and wane. The plot is not the strong part of this story, it's the little jokes--"if I was taking someone to an AA group, I would have mentioned that EARLIER"-- and the short reversals of a few of the teen angst conventions. When Kim and another shy girl are kicked out of the popular girl's slumber party, Kim frames it in terms of race, wondering if that's how her foreign friend assumed parties ended--"Asians first." When the final memorial service is held for the boy whose death sparked a crusade against depression and suicide in the girls' school, the rumor going around is that he killed himself because he was ashamed of being gay, and remarkably, nearly all of the girls seem to accept this in stride, without having to go over the conventions of the homophobic majority stood up to by the plucky outsider. Perhaps it's because it's Canada, but the girls, most of them smokers at 16 and adept at finding dates, seem more mature than their American counterparts.

Despite the story's focus, the art is inconsistent, and the most adeptly rendered characters are Kim's caucasian father and her shakespeare teacher, fair and freckled. Kim herself has a lumpy, highly mutable face that seems to morph through an array of ages and nationalities, never settling on anything remotely pleasing or recognizable. There are similar problems with Lisa, Kim's friend, and for the most part the Asians in the story are portrayed quite unattractively. If it was a conscious choice, it's a disruptive one, because the storyline practically begs the reader to sympathize with Kim, but doesn't give enough of a mental image of her to hold on to, even when she stars in nearly every frame.