Broken Frontier

What’s love got to do with it? With Amour, everything.

With three issues of Amour, writer Bart Thompson tells nine short stories about falling in love… and some with twisted twists. His stated intent is to bring back the glory days of the romance comic but with a modern spin – stories that are not sugar coated or sappy or sexist. Does he achieve his aims?

Each issue of this title contains three short stories, each story focusing on a different person finding love (maybe) or keeping it: A young woman who finally gets up the guts to meet the guy she’s been e-mailing, a pair of movie extras who find some on-screen chemistry of their own, a young, pregnant woman who begins to wonder if her husband is faithful, among others. The stories are varied in regards to setting and personalities involved but it is really the third issue that is the stand-out of them all. In the third issue the tales of love meet a supernatural and horror bent that result in something that is very close to some of the classic Tales From the Crypt. There is a neat tribute to The Little Shop of Horrors here as well as another couple of stories that make you think that not only does the path of true love not run smooth – it takes a detour through the cemetery as well.

Despite Thompson’s aims, with the exception of the third issue, Amour more closely resembles a soufflé – light, airy, and with a tendency to fall a little flat. The potential is there in every story but the decision to make each a short story to fit three in per issue makes the tales feel a bit too short. These read like vignettes – the reader does not ever really get a chance to feel like they know these characters or understand them; everything stays on the surface. For me, personally, I would rather see two stories per issue if it meant getting a little more meat. The other problem these stories suffer from is that the path to true love has a tendency to run a little too smooth. I believe that part of this is the result of the limited space as well; there is just not enough room to generate any real sense of conflict or drama in many of these pieces. The exception is issue #3 – the aforementioned horror issue. Here, despite the short nature of the stories, there is conflict, drama, a sense of tension, and some truly unexpected twists. There are a few clichéd moments and a little forced action but this is compensated for by the originality of the vision and the unexpectedness of some of the endings.

Artist Ezequiel Pineda has a rather comic book friendly style and a good grasp of anatomy. There are a few places where some of his figures look a little odd but for the most part he has a solid style. Even more interestingly, even though working only in black and white, he makes subtle changes in his penciling and inking between each tale so that each one has a different look. A spare, simple style for a stark, winter tale, an interestingly lit look for a Hollywood story, and bright details for a vignette taking place outside the San Diego Comic Con.

Taken as whole, Amour has a potential to fulfill its promise of telling romance stories for a modern age but right now most of the stories are a little too easy and a little too straightforward. The mix of horror and romance in the third issue, however, is clever, inventive, and well done.