Wednesday 15 February 2012

Webcomic of note: Jordan Crane's The Doctor Will See You


Disquieting is a pretty apt description of this ongoing webcomic from master of the form Jordan Crane. The plot of this comic is similar to one of those arty multiple narrative films (think Babel) where it all comes crashing to a head with the seemingly disparate lives of its characters becoming violently intertwined with often tragic results. In fact the cinematic comparison here is appropriate too as the whole thing engrosses you and pulls you in like a very powerful film, all the time you are waiting for the powerful moment that you know is going to happen but you aren't quite sure about how it is going to manifest itself. It also dips in and out of fantasy and reality to the point that you feel intoxicated and are never quite sure which is which. Is the protagonist paranoid and imagining all the worst possible case scenarios of what could have happened to his girlfriend, or did it actually happen and his absence from the scene leaves him to fill in the horrific details...I'll leave you to find out. Brilliantly nuanced, overlapping the breaking down of relationships with happier memories, guilt, and an abundance of medical themes (still birth, ectopic pregnancy, death), The Doctor Will See You Now is a webcomic that will literally take your breath away with its inventive brilliance (which Jordan Crane manages to make look so easy, damn gifted bastard).

Read it here.

(On another note Jordan Crane's comic/children's book Keep Our Secrets looks pretty amazing too, as it uses heat sensitive ink to hide details within the picture).