(The following contains fairly detailed spoilers for Dramacon.)
In Dramacon (Tokyopop), Svetlana Chmakova displays considerable skill and real potential as a graphic novelist.
Her illustrations burst with energy and emotion. She has a strong handle on composition and panel flow, modulating both to suit her material, whether it’s comic, dramatic, romantic, or some fusion of those.
She also makes marvelous use of chibi sequences. Because I’m cynical and lazy myself, I often wonder if some cartoonists don’t rely on chibi style to crank the pages out faster. In Chmakova’s case, she’s chosen the chibi moments carefully and illustrated them with the same care she’s used in the realistic sequences. It’s impressive, purposeful stuff.
Chmakova also displays a strong sense of story construction. The volume ticks along from beat to beat, building in intensity in a carefully structured crescendo. Dialogue has a nicely conversational quality.
Overall, it’s a very accomplished debut.
But…
I wish she had more faith in her audience. She has a tendency to underline character traits and overstress mile markers in emotional arcs.
It’s clear from the beginning that protagonist Christie’s boyfriend Derek is a very bad bet. He’s thoughtless and smarmy. When Christie complains about his incessant flirting with other girls, he accuses her of overreacting. (This is the universal signal to get out of the relationship at your earliest convenience. If you’ve left any belongings at this person’s home, you can always replace them.)
But Chmakova wants to remove any uncertainty that Derek is a very bad bet. Over the course of the volume, she gives Derek a series of increasingly undesirable qualities, leaving him in such a ridiculous state of villainy that the reader is left to wonder why Christie is with him in the first place.
Fortunately, a new romantic prospect, cosplayer Matt, is on hand to offer plausible theories. In spite of his clearly articulated antisocial tendencies, Matt is still willing and able to offer pointed and accurate theories as to why Christie would stick with such a crumb, and why she shouldn’t. He isn’t particularly politic about it, but he’s right, because he’s That Shôjo Guy –moody and infuriating, yet gorgeous and sensitive, with just enough scars (one literal) to justify his mild case of misanthropy.
Between Derek’s glaring inadequacies and Matt’s jagged nobility, it’s hard to imagine how anyone could sustain a contest between the two. Chmakova does it by making Derek worse than one could ever imagine, even in light of the fact that Christie behaves in a lot of similar ways.
But it’s all a matter of justification. Derek flirts because he’s egotistical and insensitive. Christie flirts because she feels a mysterious connection to Matt. Derek abandons the booth because he’s selfish. Christie takes off because she’s earned the break. Derek takes a critique from a professional badly and dismisses the pro (Lida, a groundbreaking American manga artist for “Mangapop”) as “a bitch.” Christie takes notes to improve her work as a writer. Derek ditches Christie (who’s lied about having a headache) to watch porn with his friends. Christie misleads Derek and shares cocoa with Matt, but it’s all Derek’s fault because he flirts with girls and makes speeches about space and independence, allowing Christie to turn his rationalizations back on him in a snide, punishing sequence.
So Derek is a bastard, and if Christie behaves badly, it’s all Derek’s fault. And while it’s impossible to sympathize with Derek in the context of the story, it’s easy to shake your head at what a narrative whipping boy he is. Matt is faultless, because he’s That Shôjo Guy.
But for all of Derek’s well-documented loathsomeness, he faces very little in the way of consequences. I’ve seen some people note that his ultimate crime – a literal one, attempted sexual assault – isn’t entirely consistent with the tone of the rest of the book. I disagree, and find it a logical conclusion to his progressive deterioration.
The sequence of events of the assault is weird. Drunk and furious, Derek attempts to sexually assault Christie, but she fends him off. She runs to Matt’s room, where Matt and his sister offer her sanctuary. Matt is outraged, and his sister urges him to calm down, so he doesn’t wind up being arrested for assaulting Derek. (Nobody ever mentions the possibility of Derek being arrested for assaulting Christie, which is a fairly serious omission.) Matt, his sister, and Christie return to Derek’s room to fetch Christie’s things. Christie prevents Matt from assaulting Derek, who ridicules Matt’s disfigurement (because Derek needed a coda of repulsiveness). Christie strikes Derek, Derek pulls Christie’s hair (coda number two), and Matt strikes and threatens Derek.
Then the trio goes back to Matt’s room for pizza and a compressed post-traumatic catharsis. After a happy last day at the con with her new friends, Christie climbs into a car with Derek for the long drive back home.
So Christie is comfortable spending hours in a car with someone who tried to rape her why, precisely? Because she’s found a new boy who’ll treat her properly? We don’t actually see Derek apologize, though it’s implied. But the consequences of the assault are less important than the fact that Christie’s trauma turns out to be something of a breakthrough for Christie and Matt. And that creeps me out. I’m sorry, but it does.
Dramacon goes in a straight, sturdy line from “Christie has a bad boyfriend” to “Christie doesn’t anymore and is much better for it.” But along the way, Chmakova overstates obvious elements and underplays others that could have used more scrutiny or care.