The Gathering 2011 – Review

By: Too many to list.

The Story: Come along this comic journey through the other side of despair—ghost children, shark men, and cookie-eating villains included.

The Review: GrayHaven’s anthology venture is an interesting addition to the world of comics.  By appearances, its format comes closest to DC’s annuals: a multitude of brief pieces by a whole posse of writers and artists.  But being an indie product, The Gathering looks and feels less polished, and its stylistic aims clearly have no intention of imitating the mainstream appeal of the Big Two publishers.

Whereas annuals have the feel of a short story collection, Gathering’s series of two-page pieces come across more like poetry.  Nearly all the contributions have some kind of narrative driving their intensity, but you’re not really meant to get conventional storytelling.  It’s best to read these works as you would poems: don’t look for character or plot development—it’s impossible to get much of either in two pages—and really embrace the emotional impressions they give you.

In similar fashion to annuals, a running theme loosely ties the anthology together.  In this case, Gathering seeks to discover, as the issue’s title indicates, “the other side of despair.”  Most of the contributors respond with stories of hope, though a few make efforts to play with that concept, so the whole package isn’t totally uplifting or inspiring.  The nice thing about the collection is with so many different flavors, you’re bound to enjoy something in there.

Content-wise, there’s little separating the best pieces with the less successful ones.  Considering the theme, all the stories lean on the sentimental and, dare I say, cheesy.  What makes some of the offerings stronger than others is their grasp on the limitations of the format.  They don’t try to compensate for their restricted space by stuffing it with material, but refine their ideas to their purest essence, leaving you a strong sense of feeling even if you didn’t actually read much.

In Gail Simone’s “Brief Encounter,” there’s an almost Japanese minimalism to her word choice, so even in two pages, you get a clear sense of conflict and resolution.  It helps that artist Cassandra James blocks her panels to get the most emotional impact out of them, and her spare, clean lines boldly free up space even though there’s hardly any to spare.  Also impressive is Kevin LaPorte’s “Great White Hope,” which depicts a submerged, New Orleans-style city and its sea-diving, vigilante protector.  It artfully blends Southern Gothic, super-heroics, and disaster plotting in just about 100 words.  Amanda Rachels’ cartoonish figures are enhanced by expert paneling and moody shading.  These two stories are great samples of what this format can offer, once contributors get the hang of what they can do with it.