Rehagen, Amanda – Lovely Ugly Cruel World #8

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Lovely Ugly Cruel World #8

Why do so many comics people not put their names in their books?  I’ve seen one good reason for this so far (a teacher asked me to take his name off the page because he didn’t want his students to google him and find his comics), other than that it always seems like a simple thing that was forgotten.  At least this one was easier to find than most, as it’s right there on her website.  So if anybody out there knows a reason why I shouldn’t put Amanda’s name up here, by all means let me know.  How about that comic?  It’s clearly a transitional issue, so it makes me happy that I picked up #9 too.  A young man named Francis whose mother has just died has a conversation with an older man, and a young woman named Amelia (who is either the girlfriend or the regular friend of the young man) strikes up a conversation with the roommate (Sam) of Francis.  These separate conversations are going on at the same time, with pages flashing back and forth between them as the comic goes on until Francis finally gets home by the end.  We learn that Francis has written a book that his friends think is quite good (but he has no interest in trying to get it published), that he’s looking for a job at the library, and that Sam and Amelia don’t talk to each other, but that they’ve found something in common by the end of the comic.  An intriguing book, but it’s always weird to jump into the middle of a big story, especially without any sort of recap of the previous issues.  Like I said, I have the next issue to read still (it should be up in a few weeks), but so far I’m cautiously optimistic.  Amanda has a great ear for dialogue anyway.  $1