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Well, Hunterwolf, how about we go back to first principles? This is a story. That is, the description of a series of events that happen in a particular order for a reason.(NB - not a perfect or universal definition of a story, but we can go with it for now).
So, if Ms Everywhere is made to behave like a transphobic oul' witch, why should this be?
For example, we might (1) want to have a transgendered Jenny Everywhere, because that is quite a cool idea. However, we also want to communicate that Jenny, although she may be feline, must be at least to start off with female. So, we need to insert a bit about how Johnny Everywhere is transitioning (the fact that transitioning and preop are rather loaded terms here we can prolly leave aside –that’s part of the discussion of Ms Everywhere’s character). We use Ms Everywhere to do this.
This option does not reflect brilliantly on the writing, as it presents Ms Everywhere as hidebound and a bit naive for no particularly good reason, when she could as well have said "Oh, that's Johnny, he's an FTM".so:
2) We want to communicate that Ms Everywhere is an ambiguous figure, and not actually as nice and motherly as might be expected from her other dialogue and role - she is not able to get her head round Johnny everywhere's gender choices, and so insists on calling him "Jenny" even though he does not thus identify. Possibly her identification with a solely female character has left her unimpressed by or unable to cope with men, geno or otherwise. Her suitability, therefore, as the spiritual leader/spokesperson/psychopomp is therefore questionable - what happens, for example, if Johnny himself bites the big one?
This is possible, although it would suggest maybe that something is being set up for another story.
Or, if this were written by Dave Sim
3) The writer does not like seeing pre-operative FTM transexuals described as "he", seeing it as a mockery of good sense, and decides to crowbar this dislike into his work in the voice of one of his characters.
This seems unlikely, because Sax is far too able and sensible. So, I think that there is a perfectly reasonable case to present for questioning this characterisation. So, Hunterwolf, I think it is worth, if you believe, perfectly reasonably, that it seems pretty clear…that our elderly Jenny guide is being mean and not respecting Jonny Everywhere, thinking about why the scene occurs and how the scene occurs might be useful, rather than just accepting that at this point the independent being that is Ms Everywhere revealed a transphobic or trad streak that had always existed in her character.
On other areas – I *love* Kit-Cat’s artwork. I am with Flyboy – the “untrained” look works for me, as it demonstrates that what is happening here is something other than a standard tale of derring-do. Also, amusingly, the “untrained” artist shows a good grasp of how bodies work – the hand and forearm in the second panel may be a bit strange, but look at the way the torso works. The art signifies, I think from the start, that this is not a physical, action-hero Jenny – it’s very good at normality and calm, and little additions like the pasta help this very much. Also love the little gags and refs – the appearance, for example, of what I suspect is a chalet school girl in the background of page 4.
Script – I liked it, with a couple of reservations. The tricky part is to express that I liked it when these reservations seem to cover every written element of every page. It’s not like that, really…
The Johnny Everywhere bit I found grating – as if the narrative wanted me to solve a jigsaw without giving me the pieces. Why is Ms Everywhere being “mean and disrespectful”, especially at a funeral? What is the *point* of the exchange. I did like introduction of the other Everywheres, although I couldn’t forget the same scene from Sam Slade: Robo-Hunter. I like the idea that blond could here be as antithetical as black, feline or A BOY, DAMNIT.
Annyway. I’m afraid I’m of the party that was not mad keen on the end-line. In fact, I’m not sure I see what the narrative adds, in particular, to the narrative (see below for a flip-flop on this one). We discover that Jenny has not realised what she is during the action, and her feelings of difference are not really expressed in the section where she is telling us that she is different, if you see what I mean.
On a wider level, I’m seeing this “I was always a bit different” as unnecessary because she is being so resolutely *un*-different. This is a bit of a tickly thing to express, because it could, perhaps entirely reasonably, be seen as “*my* Jenny doesn’t”, but the Jenny here seems aggressively normal – a single girl who drinks chilled white wine on her own, buys little black dresses more in hope than expectation and complains about the rarity of sex. This may be a structure to provide antithesis to the strangeness of the funeral, but it feels a bit modular. Perhaps Jenny is trying hard to be a rote-learned girl *because* she feels alienated, but again it’s a bit that jars slightly for me. I’d like to see her less distanced from emotion, less flip, so we can have more faith in her emotions later.
Oh dear. Good things, good things (and I *did* like this, honest). The characterisation of Ms Everywhere, apart from the bit already discussed – nicely Jean Brodieish and den mothery, and adds to the sense of the Jennys as a sort of vast girls’ school (Kit-Cat – who *are* the two Jennys in the middle of the centre panel on page 5 (one of the triplets?). I really like the way that nobody knows how she died, and the confused discussion – really caught the idea that there are all sorts of Jenny Everywhere stories going on all the time. I can’t quite see if the coffin has “JE” or “26” written on it, but I’m hoping for the latter – having Jennys numbered for identification is a v. nice idea.And the general sense is very well captured, which is art and script – of a ritual that is deeply confusing.
Ooh – and I’ve thought of a reason why the internal narrative at the end *does* do useful work – because the funeral has had an unexpected effect on Jenny. Rather than being sad about another Jenny dying, her main feeling is one of relief that she as a person makes sense, and that she is not alone – she’s *smiling* at the end. That’s nice – it’s a pleasant irony that the first time she becomes aware of the details of her otherness, it is a cheering thing wrapped in dark paper. |
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