Jeff Lemire’s ability to tell simple, real stories using unique, magical, fantastical ingredients is once again on full display in Minor Arcana’s 5th issue from BOOM! Studios.
Spoilers Below
Theresa takes a backseat in this issue so Lemire can bring us the frustratingly workaday, but beautifully quaint, life of Budd – Theresa’s grandfather and the previous owner of the jacket she has been sporting throughout the series. There have been hints of the influence Budd has had on Theresa’s life these past four issues, but now we’re shown that Budd had also been hounded by similar magical phenomena.
Budd’s missing something. He can’t put his finger on what. He’s got a lovely family, a job that pays the bills despite its many annoyances, but in the periphery, he knows he’s meant for more. Unfortunately, what sort of more he’s meant for manifests itself in booze, smokes, and a fling with a very pretty patron across the bar. That illicit rendezvous, however, is what leads him to his apparent destiny: causing a major car wreck as a result of a violent bout of hallucinatory magical timeloopiness that kills the woman driving the other car.
Minor Arcana has consistently offered a juxtaposition between ordinary small-town, down-and-out family dynamics, and the cast’s magically intertwined pasts as an often-bitter reflection of squandered opportunities, mistakes made, and an unidentified underlying darkness. This issue is no different. By expanding the interior lives of the cast, however, Lemire builds on the occult intrigue by adding new wrinkles with arcane symbology and fated tragedy. That classic Lemire dialogue borne by his deft eye for drama that skirts the line but never sinks to soap opera theatrics makes the proceedings all the more realistic despite those occult roots.
Lemire also makes terrific use of the full potential of the medium’s comic bookiness. Fading dialogue ink to match a lapse in a character’s attention. A breakdown of panel structure to indicate hyper-realistic hallucinatory visions. Not to mention Lemire’s pencil-and-ink artistic stylings paired with Patricio Delpeche’s watercolors adding to this bizarre, but familiar, world with subtle touches of grime and wear alongside dreamy, vivid color.
Minor Arcana is another terrific addition to Lemire’s veritable library of creator-owned work, and the 5th issue continues this slow-burn tale with expertly crafted characters, pacing, and intrigue. This may be the end of the first arc, but the wait for the next issue will certainly be well worth the anticipatory tension that will inevitably build because of the revelations herein.
Creative Team: Jeff Lemire (writer/artist), Patricio Delpeche (colorist)
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
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