Strangehaven Volume One: Arcadia
Strangehaven Volume Two: Brotherhood
By Gary Spencer Millidge
Published by Abiogenesis Press
Available in the U.S. from Top
Shelf Productions
I never really left Twin Peaks.
Not the show, Twin Peaks, which was cancelled a decade ago, but the town, Twin Peaks, Washington, that the series was set in. A bizarre place encircled by ominous woods and populated by freaks, creeps, and some decent people, the town of Twin Peaks was everything and nothing at all like the America I grew up in.
Like a real place that stays with you forever, I've been haunted by the majestic waterfall, the beautiful homecoming queen who died too early, and the trees at twilight, swaying in a breeze that hinted of darkness deeper than the night.
So, haunted, I've been, in some way, looking for a place I could call home. A place that recalled all the mystery and heartache Twin Peaks could generate. I've found it in Strangehaven.
Writer/artist Gary Spencer Millidge may (or may not -- favour the latter) be tired of hearing comparisons to Twin Peaks and The Prisoner when his comic book is discussed, but when you populate a village whose residents are trapped there with scheming mistresses and innocent people accidentally drawn into the town's mysteries, well, you better be prepared to suffer the comparisons. Luckily for readers, Strangehaven also stands on its own as a confident, mature work of mystery and delight, equal to the antecedants that obviously inspired it. Freaky and creepy, you'll be unable to put it down once you begin reading.
I bought the two graphic novels as part of Top Shelf's recent fund-raising event, having read #13 months ago and enjoying it, but having little clue what the book was about. Strangehaven is a book that really rewards following the story from the beginning, an easy task if you pick up these two collections, which comprise the first 12 issues of the series. #13 is out now, and #14 is due in July.
In Strangehaven, you'll meet Alex Hunter, a man whose life has recently been changed for the worse, and who needs a change of perspective more than ever before. It's probably not coincidental, then, that he finds himself in a place where changing perspectives are the coin of the realm, and soon he finds himself unable to leave.
Unlike The Prisoner's #6, though, Alex doesn't find the prospect of staying and building a new life terribly unpleasant. In part, I think that's due to the dreamy, hallucinatory nature of the village, and in part because Strangehaven seems, to an extent, to be built around his needs. There's a job that suits him and a young woman who he is attracted to, but lingering emotions attached to his old life make the transition into Strangehaven perhaps more troublesome than he expects.
Although Alex is the character through whose eyes we view Strangehaven, the book is a true ensemble piece, with a dozen or more intriguing characters. They range from the innocent Janey to her bizarre employer the village doctor, from a half-indian shaman to the administrator of the local school, Janey's father, who spends his nights as part of a Masonic-like lodge that seems to have its hands in every aspect of life in Strangehaven (or would like to think it does).
One of my favourite characters to emerge over the course of these two collections is Peter Webb, a cheating husband whose mistress is driven to drastic action by his refusal to leave his wife. The three-way relationship between Peter, his wife and his girlfriend is one of the most interesting, and human, of the series. Peter comes under scrutiny by the lodge, but careful reading shows the reason for the group's actions involving Peter may not be quite what they seem, and may instead by prompted by a member of the lodge whose motives are quite something else, much more petty than those on the surface.
This is an involved, complex work, but the lush, nearly photo-realistic artwork keeps the characters quite clear and distinct (except when they're not supposed to be -- Strangehaven has a lot of twins in it, y'see...), and the joy of the story is in immersing yourself into its complexities and letting them infiltrate your consciousness. While the book is infused with mystery and strangeness, it differs from Twin Peaks in that there is no central mystery, the solving of which will cause the center of the work to collapse in on itself. The world of Strangehaven is most certainly a closed universe for its inhabitants, and yet the canvas Millidge has painted his story upon is expansive enough that there are years and years of stories yet to be told here.
Millidge's artwork grows by leaps and bounds over the course of the two volumes, his line becoming more sure and comfortable depicting the characters and places of Strangehaven, and masterfully integrating the occasional computer image in a way that enhances the story rather than removing the reader from it. One of the key strengths of his artistic approach is that the detail with which he renders people, places and things makes the strange goings-on all the more realistic; suspension of disbelief is not a problem.
Just as I never really left Twin Peaks, I can see myself comfortably looking back at my time in Strangehaven with affection and wonder, and I plan to revisit the village as often as Millidge allows. If you allow yourself to be exposed to what the little village has to offer, you'll find yourself pondering the mysteries of Strangehaven long after you're done with these books. Grade: 5/5