‘Look Straight Ahead’ by Elaine M. Will

Reviewed by Ian Goodwillie (originally posted Jan. 7, 2014)

The work of an auteur is deeply personal, regardless of the medium. It’s painful and cathartic at the same time. And that is doubly true of an artist and writer working on a graphic novel that draws directly on personal experiences. To both write and draw the piece gives the creator a level of control few can dream of. That’s often kind key to the process when the work is semi-autobiographical.

It’s hard to imagine what Look Straight Ahead would have ended up being if Elaine Will hadn’t taken on the role of both artist and writer. It is a singular piece that explores aspects of her own life in a fictionalized setting. That being said, the reality behind the story clearly shines through in each word and in each line stroke. It’s that reality that breathes life into the narrative and makes the art tangible.

Originally self-published as individual issues, Will gathered her previously released work together and packaged it with the unpublished final issue as a graphic novel. To be blunt, it works much better as a complete story in a graphic novel than it did as individual issues. This is a story that needs to be read as a complete work, from point A to B, to truly understand it. The narrative is definitively clearer in this format than it was as separate issues and it’s a far more powerful story because of it.

The main character is Jeremy Knowles, a high school student and artist struggling with a myriad of mental health issues. None of those issues are more severe and detrimental to his well being than the utter ignorance of the student body around him and their responses to his issues. Few, if anyone, in Knowles’ life are at all helpful, contributing to the problems more than anything else. The boy’s life is a swirling maze of abstract hallucinations fueled by an overwhelming sense of dread. He knows his life is in shambles but is too crushed by his disorder to even make the simplest of decisions to improve. His life, in the most basic of ways, is almost impossible to navigate. He yearns to find ways to express himself, only to be blocked by his own mind and the world around him, yet still struggles through. It’s a bleak world punctuated with glimpses of hope.

Reading this graphic novel is truly a journey. Will’s writing effectively conveys this simultaneous sense of torment and wonder. While it would be foolish to suggest that one could understand the trials associated with mental illness from reading any book, Look Straight Ahead does a great job of giving you a fleeting clance into the mind of someone navigating the world in that fashion. Knowles’ life is not an easy one but the reader is engaged in it and wants to see the story through to its end.

The art complements the story perfectly. It is realistic, yet a bit cartoonish at the same time. The realism brings you deeper into the narrative while the cartoonish aspects allow Will to bring in some more “supernatural” elements when the story follows Knowles into his hallucinations. The creator uses specific imagery and well places splashes of colour in an otherwise black and white publication to punctuate these moments. The impact of this effect is strong, showing the reader when a moment happens and dragging you deeper into the story.

Will also brings her hometown of Saskatoon into the mix, albeit not explicitly. While she might not flat out state that this story is set in Saskatoon, numerous landmarks appear throughout it. This adds a sense of realism to the read. That being said, if you’re not familiar with the city some of those references might be directly lost on you but their utilization in the story isn’t. A bridge is still a bridge regardless of its name or location so its importance to the story would not be negated.

Look Straight Ahead lives in the same realm with other great graphic novels that are autobiographical or semi-autobiographical or in nature. Readers of works like Craig Thompson’s Blankets or Sarah Leavitt’s Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me would be drawn deeply into this world. It’s not to say that the content is exactly the same, just that these are all stories with depth and meaning. They are the type of graphic novels that rise above the stereotypes of the genre and show what comic books are truly capable of.

Alternative Comics | 256 pages |  $14.75 | paper | ISBN # 978-0991866908