I Was a Fashion School Serial Killer #1 // Review
Rennie Bethary really doesn’t want to be a murderer. She. really wants to be a designer. (That’s why she’s going to school. To be a designer. Not a killer. Really.) Ms. Bethary is going to have more than a little difficulty dealing with things without the urge to murder in I Was a Fashion School Serial Killer #1. Writer Doug Wagner weaves together some very clever bits of dark comedy with artist Daniel Hillyard and colorist Michelle Madsen. The opening chapter of the series feels quite well-rendered on multiple levels as Rennie Bethary makes her way through her first day at school and beyond.
There’s a lot going on. A lot of stress. Maybe she shouldn’t have included the leather she makes in her portfolio for consideration. It’s perfectly fine for her, though. She’s accepted into The New YOrk Fashion and Design Institute. The guy reviewing her protfolio even seemed kind of impressed that she made her own leather. And now that she’s been acceted, all she has to do is avoid killing people and make it through highly competitive classes and everything’s going to be fine. Really. And she won’t have the urge to kll anyone. Really.
Wagner’s anti-hero is a lot of fun to hang out with. Of course the entire thign is told from her perspective. The first-person monologue isn’t nearly so well-articulated as say...Brett Easton Ellis’ protagonist in American Psycho, but there ARE quite a few parallels between the 1980s novel and the first issue of this contemporary series. Wagner manages the tight, little bits of narrative choreography that are abbsolutely necessary to make Ms, Bathary seem charming and vulnerable while also being totally badass. It’s a difficult balance to manage, but Wagner does a relatively brilliant job of making it work.
A great deal of the narrative subtlety is drawn to the page by the art team. Hillyard makes Rennie’s largely affectless face look both powerful and fragile at the same time as she regards the world with a thousand-yard stare into them iddle distance. The constant scratching that Rennie engages in is an expression of stress, but it must be kept subtle in order to maintain the character’s cold detachment. Madsen does ome very clver work with red marks on her skin from the scratching and depth of shading around the edges. There are just enough other details to suggest a very well thought-out atmosphere for hte school in question.
Itchiness and scratching are really easy visceral things to throw-into a visual mix for an earthbound drama. Rennie’s constant scratching craws into the reader’s mind and before long...well...there’s a kind of empathy between reader and main character that can’t help but result in. scratching that fosters an interesting connection between audience and anti-hero. It’s sharp and clever stuff with a great deal of tiny intricacy that feels kind of overwhelmingly endearing. Very cool stuff in a very promising opening for the new series.
