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Sina Grace, Omar Spahi, and Jenny D. Fine bring a new romantic slice of life title to Image Comics - a modern-day Friends for the comic book medium. Getting It Together #1 deals with breakups, new flings, and the messy friendships that come along when these things all co-exist. But, sadly, the issue doesn’t give enough individual characterization outside of their romances for these dramatic events to have the utmost weight.
Written by Sina Grace, Omar Spahi
Art by Jenny D. Fine, Mx. Struble
Published by Image Comics
'Rama Rating: 6 out of 10
The book opens up with Sam dealing with his break up with Lauren – the one that ties them together is Lauren’s brother and Sam’s best friend, Jack, who has his own set of problems when he finds out his fling isn’t as trustworthy as he once thought. The issue is filled to the brim with romance drama. The problem is Grace and Spahi gives us a lot of information about the main characters’ emotional baggage without any knowledge about their other personality traits. It makes it hard to connect to the characters with their otherwise fascinating and relatable issues.
Even with these narrative problems, there is still a lot to like about this series as it stands apart from other rom-coms – a genre that’s predominantly filled with white, straight couples. It was a welcomed change of pace to see both queer and POC characters as the leads of this modern romance.
Getting it Together fills up a gap in the comic book medium that we don’t see nearly enough of in the mainstream – romance and a slice of life. Sure, we have Archie Comics, Webtoons, and Kickstarter - but there aren’t a lot of these types of stories coming from the big independent publishing companies. This is a good start for Image Comics and others to begin exploring another side of comic book storytelling that webcomics have found plenty of success in.
On the artwork, Jenny D. Fine’s pencils fit the slice of life genre rather well, giving the book a distinct look with the characters’ lankier stature and Mx. Struble’s chalky coloring. Although there is one major flaw to point out, the characters’ facial expressions aren’t very detailed. An important element that’s needed for this type of book, especially with its emotional nature.
This number one had a few missing elements for a well-rounded debut but carves a unique space in mainstream comics for a potentially promising overall series. Getting it Together #1 displays a variety of unique voices into the slice of life and romance genre, but doesn’t give enough characterization outside of the main characters’ romances to get the reader fully hooked.
Getting It Together #1 (of 4) goes on sale October 7. A collection of all four issues is scheduled for March 30, 2021.
