At first glance North Country looks a little too slick for me. The glossy full-colour pages hint at superhero comics in panel structure and drawing technique. Thankfully North Country goes beyond a well-polished surface to reveal a story with depth and substance. There are no heroes, no perfectly delineated good guys and bad guys-just painfully flawed and complex human beings.
North Country is the story of a man revisiting memories of his troubled childhood while on a flight home. Set in the sparse and unforgiving countryside of upstate New York, Shane White beautifully depicts open fields buried in snow, a fitting backdrop for a story about a child suffering from loneliness, fear and abuse.
The present day scenes are crisp digital renderings, but it’s the flashbacks that truly showcase the talents of White. As if seen through the soft focus lens of memory, these scenes have well-motivated shifts in colour palette and a loosening of style. Often resembling old photographs, they evoke a sensation of nostalgia that proves to be bittersweet in the context of this story.
North Country is well paced, insightful and tightly woven. White’s honest examination makes for a compelling read and although it’s a short book, I was left feeling satisfied. The graceful depiction of challenging subject matter is reminiscent of Craig Thomson’s family explorations in Blankets, which is fitting because like Blankets, I expect a great deal of worthwhile buzz to surround this graphic novel debut. (Suzy Malik)
by Shane White, $13.95, 96 pgs, NBM Publishing Inc., 555 8th Ave, Suite 1202, New York, NY 10018, nbmpublishing.com