As much as the comic book and graphic novel landscape is made up of superhero, horror, science fiction or fantasy genre stories, there remains an immoveable place in sequential storytelling for the types of tales to which we can all readily identify.
These are the kinds of stories that we’ve all lived. They are the ones that affect us to our core because they are both true and universal.
Love, grief, fear and loss are the hallmarks of such fictions and today sees the much-anticipated release of one such story, nearly two decades in the telling.
Written and illustrated by Ignatz Awards-winning cartoonist, Jordan Crane (The Last Lonely Saturday, Col-Dee, Uptight, The Clouds Above), Keeping Two is the compilation of the near two decades long-running serialized story. This wonderfully moving 304-page book is published by Fantagraphics Books, known for their artful tales full of human emotion that resonate with readers everywhere. Keeping Two more than ably follows that important directive.
Here is the story of a young couple, on the road and stuck in traffic, reading a book to each other in order to pass the time. But traffic, and the time spent in it, has a strange way of surfacing buried thoughts and emotions. In an already strained relationship, suppressed fears and anger, insecurities and grief, come bubbling to the surface.
Crane is a powerful voice that utilizes the comic book medium to tell the story of Keeping Two across multiple time periods, each adding a sense of depth and truth to the physical situation that the two protagonists find themselves within, as well as their shared sense of loss.
At its core, Keeping Two is a multilayered romantic story about life and love and how, even in loss, something else, perhaps something greater, can be gained.
Perfect for summer reading, make the run to your local better comic book shop or bookstore and pick up the wonderful and emotionally gripping graphic novel Keeping Two today!
