They talk of going to clubs, house parties – but we also don’t see either of them interacting with anyone else but each other, at least on a meaningful level that would give us that insight into self that we the reader crave. All of these aspects of character are wonderful narrative avenues to explore, but that lack of follow-through that would help the reader care more about their world.Īnd truth be told, there isn’t much else to that world besides the two of them.

We also find out in a fleeting comment that they are trans. We know that they have (or had?) some sort of relationship. We know a little bit about Kiki and Hana: one’s a scenester, one’s more quiet. Just like Kiki and Hana, it floats from moment to moment, scene to scene (in a very short 136 pages), without something to hold it all together. Without these things in “920London” I found it hard to connect to the story, even with these universal themes of the pursuit of what life means are front and center. Even the film Garden State, released one year before when “920London” takes place and exploring similar themes, had a framework to it: a character, their development, a conflict, a resolution. Unfortunately, it sacrifices plot structure and story in the pursuit of this tone. That’s what “920London” captures beautifully: that sense of floating through life on a raft of ambivalence. That same idea that made the film Garden State, released one year before this graphic novel takes place: waiting for Something to start. I approached “920London” with that in mind: a story about a search for Something, whatever it was. I may not have been the emo kid with skinny jeans and My Chemical Romance on the iPod shuffle, but I had one thing in common with those traditional emo kids: that search for Something. And when I look back on where I was 15 years ago, the time period of “920London” I remember how similar I was to protagonists Kiki and Hana: young, with the world seemingly at my beck and call (or what society and capitalism want you to believe) but unsure what to do with all of it. My birthday is this week, and as one is wont to do when the march of time starkly confronts you, one reflects on where they have been in life and where they are going.

Solo graphic novel debut by REMY BOYDELL (THE PERVERT), fully painted in watercolor. More than friends, less than lovers, they’re trying to grow shrooms before the world ends.

920London by Remy Boydell