Broken Frontier

Childhood… I have vague memories, fortunately Joshua Cotter is here to remind us all of the good and the bad.

A socially awkward cat (no, I’m not trying to sound like Jack Kerouac, he is a feline) and his family go through trials and tribulations in the Midwest. No matter what life throws at them, he and his little brother persevere with the strength of their family and their very active imaginations.

It is almost impossible to describe Cotter’s book. It is a monumental achievement in serial literature. He takes the cartoonist side of the medium and firmly plants it in the middle of a story that Clowes or Chris Ware could have written. It is an intelligent piece that is often hilarious.

If I had to guess, and that’s all it would really be, Cotter is showing us the absurdity of what we would refer to as mundane through the actions of a family of anthropomorphic cats. His subject matter is as big as Blankets or Exit Wounds , but his art recalls Maurice Sendak. Much of it resembles an old wood carving. Like something you would find on an old dusty German storybook’s cover in an antique book store.

Thematically he touches the loss of innocence, the mentality of religion, the unknowable nature of God, death and life. Cotter manages to touch on the turbulent times of puberty. Awkward and living in an ill fitting skin, our nameless lead tries to find his niche. His parents don’t understand him, his brother nags him and the kids at school, well… they are kids at school.

Stylistically, Cotter uses every trick he can think of. He merges short vignettes of the life of his character set, both the family and the townies, as well as magazine articles, year book pages, letter columns, sunday funnies, at one point there is even a comic book. At times the reader is lost in the child's mind. Is what is being read an honest narration or a flight of fancy?

All through out the book, our protagonist has his toy robot, his favorite comic book hero, Nova Stealth. This guy is his idol, his god, his friend and his shield against the unpleasantness of life. Yet, he can’t comprehend the security blanket of his little brother’s need to carry a stuffed dinosaur. In this you see that this kid is messed up. From his trusted cowboy, Skinny Kenny, who curses and belittles those looking for advice in his letter column, to the mother who gives the fifth grader a toy robot back pack, he just doesn’t seem to have viable role models.

Somehow, through all of it, you root for him. You want this kid to find his peer group. You feel his lows and rejoice in his highs. Cotter has a unique understanding of the human condition. He employs it in a unique tale the likes of which Warren Ellis has called "odd" and is as demanding of the reader as Charles Burns' Black Hole.

Skyscrapers of the Midwest is a powerful and insightful piece of literature. It belongs next to works by John Irving and Tom Robbins. Newer readers to alternative comics might find that surprising, but then they have yet to discover the cartoonists listed in this review. There is powerful stuff being done in comics. Many would refer to it as transcendental, but with a large and ever growing catalog of smart comics out there, when does that adjective stop being applied?