Broken Frontier

After a fantastic opener, Felicia Day and Jim Rugg keep the momentum going in The Guild #2.  In this issue, Cyd, dives further into the world of the game and as a result, learns more about what she wants in real life.  Once again, Day does an incredible job developing the character of Cyd, both through her own thoughts and her interactions with others.  Artist Jim Rugg’s work in this issue is even more impressive than the first.  If you haven’t started reading this series yet, it’s not too late to jump on—you won’t regret it. 

From the first page, Day and Rugg suck the reader into the story with stunning visual layout and quirky indie humor.  Rugg’s wheel of Trevor’s dating history immediately catches the eye.  The page itself has a symmetrical layout which keeps it from being too distracting, but the variations between panels, both in design and color, make the page interesting and fun to look at.  This first page also sees Cyd progress through a wide range of emotions.  She’s entranced at the beginning, sad throughout the main part of the page, happy, then hesitant, and finally passionate. 

Day throws in some funny remarks about advice from a “skeevy women’s magazine,” but squeezes it in between the wheel of her boyfriend’s many hookups and a large panel of her kissing said boyfriend before make-up sex.  It’s that kind of subtle humor that makes this book so charming and enjoyable.  The character Cyd is so very oblivious—she lets everyone take advantage of her, but for some reason is happy about it.  This quality of hers is both infuriating and endearing. 

Day’s writing throughout the book is very clever and fun.  Her other characters are very well constructed and remain true to their counterparts on the webshow.  Usually, the majority of each episode is spent dealing with the real lives of each character, so it’s strange to see the opposite happen in the comic.  Most of the first issue was spent in the real world, but as Cyd invests more of her time in the game and builds a community within it, the comic begins to focus more on the virtual world. 

The interaction between the two worlds is handled masterfully.  The characters take their real issues into the virtual world and have what happens in the game affects their real lives.  At the same time, a strong line is maintained between the two, so that the comic is still firmly based in reality.  There’s an amazing example of this a couple of pages from the end, when Cyd is asked whether she’d like to pursue another quest line.  Rugg quickly cuts back to reality, where Cyd is sitting at her computer at 3:14 a.m., with a disheveled look on her face and dark lines under her eyes.  It quickly cuts back to Cyd’s avatar, Codex, who looks exactly like Cyd except she’s bright-eyed and energetic.  

Day and Rugg collaborate to create a comic that both reads as and looks like a true nerdy indie comic.  If that sort of book is your cup of tea then give this book a chance!