The War at Ellsmere

By Faith Erin Hicks
Read: April 2009
Rating: Squee

Not as good as Demonology 101, but by no means awful. It’s very rare to find someone who has a natural talent for very long works, but Faith Erin Hicks is one of them. Her long projects, like D101, are fantastic. This book is 156 pages, and it just doesn’t feel like all the elements are there, or given all the space they need to breathe.

Juniper is a scholarship student beginning at an expensive boarding school. Par for the course, she makes an enemy right off the bat: a snotty, competitive girl called Emily. Luckily, her roommate, Cassie, is a sweetheart and the two of them bond. Em preys on Jun until Jun lashes out, and she’s threatened with expulsion. When Cassie steps in to help her only true friend, things get weird.

There’s a fantasy element that I’m just not feeling. We’re nearly a third of the way in before we get 4 pages of backstory. Then 8 pages at the climax and nary a peep in between. That’s less than 8% of the total book.  Sure, comics can be in incredibly elegant in their economy, but this felt tacked on, a deus ex machina that provided a quick way out.

Faith Erin Hicks is better than this. Her art is emotive, and her storytelling is typically brilliant. Considering the amount of time she spent on D101–several years, beginning at a fairly young age, with several breaks between chapters–she’s an instinctive genius. This book doesn’t do her justice. At all.

Come on, publishers. Give Faith a chance to put Ice or D101 to paper. Give her a full volume. We won’t be disappointed.