If the title wasn’t tipoff enough, the flirty glances between (married) Janey and (also married, but not to Janey) Davis on page four of Christine Norrie’s graphic novel pretty much give it away.

As the story opens, Janey and her workaholic husband, Marc, are moving into a new apartment secured for them by their attractive friends, Anna and Davis, who live in the building. It’s clear that the True Romance has gone out of Marc & Janey’s marriage; five years of living and working together (Marc writes travel books which Janey coordinates marketing and publicity for) have taken their toll.

Having sexy Davis within easy reach (heh heh) is too much temptation for the attention-starved Janey. She pushes Marc the rest of the way out the door, metaphorically speaking, encouraging him to take the solo research trips she used to resent him for taking…and then, in a moment of drunken weakness, finally and fatally (for her marriage, anyway) gives in to the crush she’s been nurturing.

Drawn and written in the over-the-top, sex-as-cautionary-tale style of the old romance comics, cheat feels breezy and disposable—the graphic novel equivalent of potato chips—but the glossy surface belies the gut-punch of the story’s close. Perhaps it’s because, dramatic design and impossibly pretty character drawings aside, the story behind cheat is small, sordid and true. Have I used the descriptor "Chekhovian" around here lately? I’ll do so again. That krazy, konsumptive kossack knew that the mundane often makes for the most poignant and true storytelling.

cheat is a strange, sad little tale that uses an odd medium to sneak up on your emotions from behind. And damned successfully, I’d say.

Old Anton would be proud…

xxx
c

ADDITIONAL TECHNORATI TAGS:

graphic novels, illustration, Christine Norrie

TOPICS: reviews, reviews/books.

This entry was posted by the communicatrix on Friday, February 25th, 2005 at and is filed under The Useful Ones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.