Local #8 – Food as Substitute

By Brain Wood
Art by Ryan Kelly

I cannot say enough good things about the Local series. I am obsessed with it and as it doesn't seem to be running on any sort of schedule it is very frustrating to wait for.

This issue of Local takes us to Wicker Park, Chicago (part of the charm of Local is that each issue takes a place in a different location, the illustration of which is as accurate as possible). Meghan, the main character of the series, is now working as a waitress. She is involved in a relationship with one of the cooks and is not sure if it is what she should be doing.

This uncertainty about her relationship comes to a head when a customer comes into her restaurant and begins to shower her with compliments and huge tips. Meghan decides that she is tired of the loser boys she has been dating and would like to try to date a man who is at least financially stable

Meghan has won my heart back in this issue. I have grown more and more frustrated with her throughout the series as she has become more and more self-centered and unwilling to look at the world from anyone else's point of view. But in this issue she has finally started to grow up. She has finally begun to realize that the most important moments in a person's life are the ones that you share with someone you love.

Brian Wood seems to be pulling this story together into a, hopefully, happy ending. He is certainly giving Meghan more maturity than she has been granted throughout the rest of the series. But that really makes sense, since Meghan is growing older throughout the series. I, for one, hate to think about how mature I was ten, even five, years ago.

Local is a moving series that always incites a reaction in me. I might be enraged, I might be frustrated, or I might be moved almost to tears (which always makes the guys at the comic store laugh at me), but I am always moved. I think this is the highest accolade I can give this book.