Take Out #2 - 5

Posted: Tuesday, August 19, 2003
By: Darren Schroeder

Cover of Take Out #2 - 5 Creator(s): Raina Telgemeier
Publishers: Self Published
From: USA
Price: 50 cents (US)

>Four issues of Raina's mostly autobiographical anthology. They contain a variety of material. Some issues follow the same story, such as #3's With Friends Like These. which is a story of a high school girl who follows here friends advice about how to attract the attention of a boy she likes. Other issues collect short strips and stories.

The plots are all very reality based, the humdrum bits of everyday life with family, housemates and the contents of the fridge. Some of the stories are quite funny, must most just have a low-key whimsical tone. The issue that follows Raina on a Christmas trip home to stay with her family (#5) captures the light hearted observational nature of Raina's work the best, with it's moments of introspection as she takes the opportunity to muse on where she is at in life. We never get the whole story explicitly presented to us so readers have to piece things together, making it a title that rewards regular readers of the series.

Raina presents her tales with an assured art style. Her characters are full of life on the page, and her eye for interesting panel composition gives thing a dynamic energy. The environments the characters are in have a fresh look to them, so that even a simple wait in a subway station comes to life with the creative perspective views of the corridors.

In a Word: Quirky.



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