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The first issue of “Phonogram: The Singles Club” has a bit of a hit among the staff here at the Clipper. Well, Jon and I found it pretty enjoyable. I have to say that it was one of the more enjoyable single issues I’ve read in a while. The combination of Jamie McKelvie’s clean color art with a fun, self-contained story is enough to make a book stand out on the shelf. The issue’s great design, annotations, and b-side stories make it a single issue built to kill the competition. Apparently, that isn’t the case. Phonogram’s problems as a floppy in the direct market have left me overdue for my “Singles Club” fix. To feed my habit, I picked up a copy of Phonogram’s first trade “Rue Britannia.”

“”Pull Shapes,” “The Singles Club” first installment, is not my first encounter with “Phonogram.” It was just the issue that won me over. I read the first issue of “Rue Britannia” back when it first hit the comic racks back in 2006. While the miniseries had been receiving a ton of positive press, I didn’t get it. I had found almost everything about the first issue underwhelming from the story to the art and I hated the main character. Flash forward two and a half years, and my reception of the series is a lot better.

I found “Rue Britannia” to be a pleasurable read. While the trade didn’t blow my mind and I wasn’t driven to read through it at feverish pace, I really did like visiting the world of phonomancer (someone who uses music as magic) David Kohl. The story focuses on the mission Kohl is given by the Goddess to save Britannia, the goddess of Britpop. Even with this fantastic premise, the story stays unexpectedly grounded. It is as much of a tale about a person’s relationship to a memory of a certain time and place than it is about a magician’s quest to save a dying goddess. In general, the magic in Phonogram is subtle and seems to be just an extragerration of a person’s ability to get lost in a memory or ability to use an extensive music knowledge.

It is this lack of the grandiose that I found charming about the “Rue Britannia,” even when the characters aren’t being likable or the art isn’t as accomplished “The Singles Club.” In “Phonogram,” the characters get lost in the wonders of music and take it a little too seriously but they are never that far from the hipsters and music aficionados that inhabit the real world. It is through its connection to the world of music that “Phonogram” not only finds revelence to our world and an ability to provide insight as well.

-Nick

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