Greetings, Maniacs, and welcome to another week of The No-Fly Zone! This is Mania.com’s alternative comics column, where we cover the many genres that the medium has to offer. When we’re not making up lists of the 5 ugliest super-heroines or whatever, we like to highlight comics that deserve your attention in a feature called Comics You May Have Missed. This week, we have Von Allan’s the road to god knows…, which he wrote, drew, and self-published through his own imprint. And, what’s even more awesome is that Von’s a Maniac himself and a regular reader of the NFZ. You can check out his site here, and see some of the great press the road to god knows… has received thus far.
Allan’s graphic novel is short, but often difficult to read—difficult not because it’s bad, but because it’s very frank and doesn’t hold a lot back. Marie is a 13-year-old girl living in Ottowa. She’s plain and a bit dumpy, and she lives with her mother, Betty. Her mother suffers from schizophrenia, and thus Marie often takes care of herself. Her father comes by occasionally, but he remains emotionally distant throughout the story, only stepping in when absolutely necessary. At the start of the story, Betty returns from a stay at a psychiatric hospital. Marie has high hopes that things will get better, but her mother remains listless and erratic. Sometimes, she just wants to sleep. Other times, she threatens suicide or yells at Marie with no provocation. Marie suffers in school, frequently missing class and enduring endless bullying. But, she has a friend named Kelly, with a precocious younger sister. And, she has an obsession that helps her escape into a comforting fantasy world: professional wrestling. Marie channels much of her energy into a series of odd-jobs with Kelly and her sister, all meant to earn money for tickets to an upcoming bout. As her mother’s mental illness worsens, Marie focuses on her work and the show she desperately wants to attend. The distraction keeps one foot in the real world—away from her mother’s, which slowly falls apart.
Cover art to the road to god knows... by Von Allan
Let’s get the bit about the wrestling out of the way. Marie lives in Ottawa in the 1980s, and she watches professional wrestling, like a lot of kids did. Allan really succeeds here, because he never laughs at Marie for her interest. Even if pro wrestling is a bit silly to people outside of its fanbase, it clearly comforts Marie in the same way that many of us look back fondly on escaping with comic books. Even if school was awful and your parents yelled at you, Spider-Man would make everything right in his world, if not yours. By using wrestling instead of rock music, vampires, comics, or something trendier, he immediately forces the reader to pay attention to Marie. She isn’t a checklist of teenage clichés. She’s an original character grappling with an all-too-real problem.
Allan succeeds in presenting a side of mental illness not discussed often enough. Yes, Betty suffers for her schizophrenia. But, Marie suffers along with her. So often, the media and mental health professionals focus on the afflicted, without acknowledging the intense hardship suffered by family members. Marie barely has time to just be a teenage girl. She has her interest in wrestling, but it’s really working alongside Kelly that brings her out of her shell. Outside of that, she has few friends except for her mother. Most of the time, they get along well enough, but between Betty’s endless fatigue and erratic behavior, it’s hard to have a close relationship. All Marie really gets are breaks from her troubled home life. Even by the book’s abrupt end—one which distinctly parallels its opening—we realize that she can only escape briefly before returning to a cold reality.
Without giving away too much, the ending really highlights the greatest flaw in the road to god knows… So many of the ideas and subplots feel underdeveloped. We see just enough and then Allan withholds much more. For instance, there’s a brief foray into Marie’s burgeoning sexuality, but it’s never really mentioned again. She clearly escapes into the fantasy world of wrestling, but that tendency is only touched upon. And yet it’s a double-edged sword, and one that often works in Allan’s favor. Sometimes, less is more. We don’t see or feel much from Marie’s father because he isn’t there. We share the absence with her. Similarly, the ending leaves the reader asking what happens next—not in the sense of giddy anticipation, but wondering if that’s all there is. But, that’s just it. The clues are there—that’s all there really is for her. Marie will go back to exactly the same situation with her mother. The story doesn’t continue, because there’s just more of the same waiting for her. This is a dark book, with only flashes of hope and whimsy. While it ends on a high note, we know that it won’t last. We all find our little pleasures and our tiny escapes, but for many people, life is a grim experience. No amount of pep-talking, optimism, or negotiation can change the fact that some people have it bad. Marie has grown a bit by the book’s end, but she still has an ongoing tragedy waiting for her at home.
Allan drew the road to god knows… himself. Working in black and white with half-tones, he employs a fairly straightforward cartoonish style. Everything is a shade exaggerated, but not by much. For an independent graphic novel, it’s a pretty familiar style—if that section of the market even has a dominant look of which to speak. Think Strangers in Paradise or Box Office Poison. Regardless, Allan’s art is enjoyable to look at. Some of his characters’ facial expressions—in both joy and abject terror—are nuanced and very nicely done.
Definitely check out the road to god knows… and support a fellow Maniac. Von’s book is available at Amazon.com and comic shops everywhere. Check out his site here. That’s it for this week, guys. Thanks for reading, and keep supporting independent comics.
You are now exiting The No-Fly Zone.
Kurt Amacker is the writer of The No-Fly Zone, Mania’s weekly alternative comics column. He is also the author of the comic miniseries Dead Souls, published by Seraphemera Books. Dead Souls is available from the Seraphemera Books website, Amazon.com, and at comic shops everywhere. He can be reached at kurt_amacker@seraphemera.org.
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I felt that I had to comment on this...
My brother is a paranoid schizophrenic with delusions. When I was growing up, our family life revolved around him; keeping him happy and calm, keeping him entertained, giving in to his demands. A lot of my life was pushed aside for him. To this day this trend continues.
For those who are curious about this type of disease, I highly recommend seeing "A Beautiful Mind." starring Russel Crowe. And as a point of reference... my brother's disease is worse than the one depicted in that movie.
The life of family members who have a close relative who is mentally ill is a very tough one. The disease, due to the way it functions, affects the lives of everyone around them for the worse. You are afraid all the time, afraid that something will set off their delusions and put your own life in danger, or the lives of those you love. You build a wall around yourself and your feelings, just to protect yourself from harm. You retreat into any sort of fantasy world you can find... sci fi, fantasy, wrestling, movies, sports, comics, religion, anything to take your mind off of what your own life is like.
For the most part there is no hope that the person who has the disease will get better. There are rare cases of people going into spontaneous remission with schizophrenia. Some of the afflicted find ways to cope or work around their disease, but for the most part it's drugs or self treatment with drugs, such as alcohol or illegal drugs.
So the next time you hear about someone with schizophrenia, remember that there are a lot of people out there who are suffering because of the disease... those that love the ones who are afflicted.
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