A prize turkey gets surgery. A choir needs a pianist. Small stuff makes headlines at the “Wheatstone Mercury,” a provincial English newspaper and the locus of Andi Watson’s “Slow News Day” (Slave Labor Graphics; 24pp.; $3.50each) whose sixth and final issue appeared last week. Watson has simultaneously released a single-issue novella, “Dumped” (Oni Press; 56pp.; $5.95), which along with SND and last year’s “Breakfast After Noon,” (see TIME.comix review) make a loose trilogy about the lives of England’s urban, middle-class singles. Just as the Mercury turns small events into front-page news, Watson makes smart, compelling comix out of nothing more than relationships endangered by complicated personalities. The headline would be: “Couples Have Problems.”
“Slow News Day,” stars Katharine Washington, a young, self-confident, smartly dressed San Francisco native whose English mother has arranged an internship at the Mercury. Katharine mostly takes the job to gather color for the screenplay she hopes to sell. Assigned to assist Owen Holmes, the paper’s lone, grumpy reporter, the two of them spark like wet leaves. “How do you spell ‘centre,’” he demands by way of greeting. Meanwhile his girlfriend, the head of ad sales at the paper, impatiently waits for him to move out of his dad’s house and into hers. Against a fascinating glimpse of how a small town paper runs — like choosing between a lost hamster story or a merchant’s ad for the cover — we see Owen become more and more conflicted about the direction of his life. Meanwhile Katharine struggles with her long-distance boyfriend. With his subtle approach and care for character, Watson smartly avoids the pitfalls of turning SND into a broad “Ugly American” or “Kooky English” clich. Instead it settles into a study of people’s changing priorities.
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