Local

Written by Brian Wood and Drawn by Ryan Kelly

I bought Local on a whim, because it was a nice hard cover graphic novel from Oni Press and a quick flip through the book showed me it had these wonderful illustrations. I wasn't disappointed by the story either. Local stars Megan, a young girl who has a restless soul and can't stay still for too long. She moves from city to city, and every time she tries to take root in a new place, something always breaks the bonds she has with people and places, and she's off wandering again.

The book is actually a compilation of 12 short stories. Each story had a different situation, different location and different storytelling. Characters rarely follow Megan from chapter to chapter, but problems sure do. Megan has a tendency to shoot herself in the foot with bad decisions. In the first chapter, it looks like she's escaping a bad situation, and you're excited for to move on. While in the second chapter on, she seems to be making her own trouble, which he has to constantly flee from.

The stories were diverse over the twelve different chapters, ranging from quirky roommates problems to kidnappings with homicidal brothers. Each story really has to do with people and the relationships we build and destroy with them. Megan always seemed to keep a kind of distance with people. At arm's length is how she deals with everyone else, unless she was pulled in hard. It kind of kept me at arm's distance to, not getting very personal about her past or plans for the future until the final chapter. And maybe that's the whole point. You've just a passive observer this whole time, like someone who has been following Megan through her travels. She only stops and explains why when she's not running.

Creatively told and drawn with a solid strength, Local is a shinning example that graphic novels aren't for heros and villains. They are for stories.