Get down with the sickness.

Faced with the fast-spreading plague common to all shared living experiences, our three ladies deal with their illnesses in their own way: Esther buries herself in blankets and avails herself on mystic healing rites; Susan combats the needs of the body versus those of Nicotene; and Daisy gets hold of some unregulated cure-alls.  (I can just see her singing “I’m so excited” before breaking down into tears . . . )

John Allison knocks another one out of the park with this issue, and I now realize why.  It didn’t hit me in the first issue (I was so excited by the great dialogue and interesting characters, I guess.), but he’s able to perfectly translate that weird, quasi-time that exists in school (or camp or touring in my case. I never lived on campus in college.), where the normal day/night schedule that is imposed by parents while we’re kids and scheduling when we graduate has no power over us, and the odd march of time when you have nothing to do from 1 p.m. one day ’till 5 p.m. the next leaves room for incredible solitude or amazingly ridiculous adventures.  This is another layer of what Allison has been able to nail, and it hits me now because of the added time warp of illness and how it affects everything.

The artwork continues its fun, Freshmen-esque style, feeling like Peanuts grown up.  I dig the fun, easy style and great color scheme.  This isn’t a world of picturesque panels of galactic grandeur; it’s the real world with a fun, cartoon bent and it’s awesome.

I really enjoy this series, and if you’re a fan of great, coming-of-age-but-not-sure-if-you-did stories like Freshmen, Mission Hill, FLCL (without giant robots and metaphor, of course), or Big, you’ll find a lot to enjoy here.  There’s also a wonderful touch of nostalgia here, as well, and it gives it an extra nudge of love for these characters.

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