The Example

I was considering making this review a single word, but didn’t figure an interjection like ‘wow’ would do it enough service.  Most people would probably not even give this book a second glance, given that it’s black and white, weighs all of eleven pages, and is produced by some company no one’s ever heard of, which is a shame.  The thing of it is, this book should be used in writing classes everywhere, and should be the primary example (no pun intended) for aspiring comic writers to reference when trying to learn how to write dramatic and compelling dialogue.

Two people are on a train platform:  the woman, Sam, has been a resident for a half hour, and Chris, a business type, has logged three-quarters of one.  Their train due in is ten, now fifteen, now twenty-five minutes late.  Small talk typical of disgruntled passengers ensues, and Sam postulates that it’s a sort of game-of-chicken that the trains play where as soon as one would-be rider leaves in disgust, the train will arrive.  It’s a boredom alleviator, railway style.  And sure enough, someone from the platform leaves.  But…

He left his briefcase behind.  Right there.  In the center of the platform, clear as day and in the great wide open.

What follows is not only arguably (and I will if pressed) some of the best dialogue written in comics, but some of the best composition of the sequential medium.  Each page is a block of nine panels, where said briefcase is the central character, sitting in Paul Lynde’s favorite spot, with the dialogue as a framing device.  In this post-9/11 era, anyone who’s done time in our country’s subterranean transport system can understand and appreciate what terror a lone briefcase can instill.  And with the turn of each page, the center square gets subtly bigger, indicative of the stakes-raising with each passing minute.

Now, you may think, “You’re telling me that eleven pages of yakking about a briefcase is great?  Really?  That’s Bendis on any given day.”  Except it’s not.  This isn’t banal back and forth for the sake of filling space, nor is the reader fed fiberless trivia about each character.  We learn what we need from what they say and are quickly drawn to turn the page as Tom Taylor expertly winds up the tension to a climax that will have you wincing as you turn to the final page.

It’s a book that tastes like Mamet, Beckett, or maybe even Frayn.  And it’s funny that I mention these Broadway masters because that’s what I thought as I read this:  “What a fantastic play this would be.”  Turns out I was on to something, since The Example is the comic adaptation of Mr. Taylor’s ten-minute play of the same name, that has won awards and been performed across the globe from Edinburgh to Sydney (I learned this on Mr Taylor’s credit page after reading it).

Gestalt is an Australian company, and if the rest of their line is as compelling as this tiny one-shot, I might become their biggest fan. The Example is fantastic storytelling in a compact form and should be in everyone’s pull file.

But it’s still a neat story. A man in a train station (Flinders Street Station in Melbourne, to be specific) gets grumpy because his train is late. He announces that he’s going to take a bus, and a woman sitting on a bench tells him that’s what “they” want him to do – her theory is that the train is ready to go, but they wait until someone gets fed up and leaves, thereby making him “the example” – see what happens when you suckers leave the station? So then Chris (the man) and Sam (the woman) see a different man leave, meaning the train will arrive soon. However, the man left his briefcase behind. Oh dear.

They begin speculating about whether the briefcase contains a bomb, which leads Chris to remember that the man wasn’t exactly white and wasn’t exactly dressed in business-like attire. Plus he had a beard. You can’t trust beardos, man! In only a few pages, Taylor manages to bring up so many hidden anxieties that white Westerners have and how this world has become a place where trust is a fragile thing. Chris and Sam debate whether they should turn the briefcase in or if they should just leave it, and they argue about their racism and what it says about them. It’s a clever device and Taylor does a nice job distilling the debate into a fine focus. The reason I think it would work better as a play is because good actors can add so much to the tension, and while Taylor does a decent job with the writing and Wilson does a fine job with the art, I imagine something is lost in the transfer to print. I could be wrong, though.

Wilson, as I mentioned, is very good, which isn’t a surprise. He basically has to draw two people on a train platform for 11 pages, so it’s going to be a tough sell, but he’s good enough to nail it. He does a nice job altering the camera angle to add some tension, and he continually drops in panels of the briefcase, sitting ominously in the middle of the platform. He and Taylor structure the book (they write about how they put together the book in the backmatter) so that there’s even a cliffhanger toward the end, which is kind of neat.

The Example is available now (it came out on 15 September), and for $1.95 (USD), it’s not a bad comic to check out. It’s also going to be included in a new collection of short stories about briefcases (yes, you read that right), so that should be neat.

“This Schrödinger’s Cat scenario is explored comprehensively via Taylor’s rhythmic dialogue. Sam and Chris riposte to and fro with the sort of casual offhandedness afforded to transient relationships. It’s almost flirtatious, but never dull, and the naturalness of their humour contrasts beautifully with the silent menace of the briefcase… a burst of applause to all concerned, and a note to other creators and publishers out there – this is an example worth following.

- (Cool) Shite

“For anyone new to comics, this is a great entry. For any wannabe writers, this is a great lesson in pacing and suspense. For wannabe artists, this is a great lesson in panel design. Like Watchmen, it uses a simple 9 panel grid on almost every page, but you won’t even notice. I mean, this is just two people talking at an empty suburban space, yet you’ll be lost in the world it creates.”

- Comic Book Jesus