Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

            Reading through Skim was like reliving the awkwardness of being a teenager in high school.  Take some of the content and diary-style of Blankets and throw in the type of cynicism you’d find in Daria or Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, and you have a basic feel for the style and tone of Skim, with gorgeous ink work by Jillian Tamaki.

            The story follows a young teenage girl attending Catholic high school, and dealing with the aftermath of a recent student’s suicide.  Being an outsider and something of a Goth, Kimberly, or “Skim,” is particularly targeted by schoolmates and faculty due to her slightly acrid personality and mannerisms; sometimes this is for the better, sometimes it’s for the worse.  Skim is essentially a coming of age story that, personally, felt like a smaller part of a greater whole – while the way the story ends is relatively satisfactory, I have to wonder if it could have been elaborated on, much like Blankets was.  It felt like there wasn’t quite closure due to not seeing how Skim’s life turned out years later (alongside the supporting characters that played a large role, like Katie, Lisa, and Ms. Archer), but despite these feelings I believe as a whole it was definitely worth the read due to its authentic feel in the narration (I felt like this was something myself, or certainly a friend could have written, which brings a certain kind of nice familiarity to the comic).  

            Aside from the sense of familiarity, I really enjoyed the comic due to the artwork.  I absolutely adore Jillian Tamaki's ink-work and wound up immediately looking her up.  Why the artwork can get very complicated (there are a number of gorgeous two-page splash images), it's still clean and simplistic enough to get the point across.

            Since this week was meant to focus on female comic authors, I will mention that I feel anyone can enjoy this particular comic, be they male, female, or somewhere in between (or even other).  The issues covered in Skim, I feel are applicable to most any teenager who grew up in the suburbs, as it deals with themes like discovering and coming to terms with sexuality (Skim finds herself attracted to her older female teacher, while at least two other, minor male characters are implied to possibly be gay) as well as dealing with issues like death or suicide.  A female audience may be able to connect and identify with Skim easier due to shared gender, but for anyone who's ever faced similar issues, I think they may be able to find themselves relating to Skim more than expected. 

The narrative voice unintentionally took on Daria's (and I never even watched it growing up).  Seems to fit though.