Comics are full of unlikely and fanciful scenarios, generally earth shattering in nature and universal in scope. But it’s the most unlikely of scenarios – two strangers sharing a conversation while waiting for a train! – that’s explored in Tom Taylor and Colin Wilson’s The Example.

But of course, there’s more to it than that. The catalyst for the conversation is due to the presence of an abandoned briefcase at the “non-crowded” end of a platform at Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station. As the strangers, Sam and Chris, ponder the various possibilities offered by the briefcase (is it a bomb? Does the owner miss his case?) they spiral into a state of quietly mounting panic.

This Schrödinger’s Cat scenario is explored comprehensively via Taylor’s rhythmic dialogue. Sam and Chris riposte to and fro with the sort of casual offhandedness afforded to transient relationships. It’s almost flirtatious, but never dull, and the naturalness of their humour contrasts beautifully with the silent menace of the briefcase.

Speaking of contrast, Wilson’s art is appropriately rendered in stark black and white, illustrating Chris and Sam’s dance of absolutist thinking. The panel structure is similarly rigid, consisting of a nine-panel grid. The central panel depicts the briefcase in a slow zoom, keeping its threat central to the piece. The first and last pages are broken into horizontals, emphasising the length of the station, taking us both into and out of the story, quite literally.

Some of the stunning Colin Wilson art.

Sam and Chris descend through shades of grey in their discourse to arrive at the inevitable: the briefcase is either a bomb or it is not. Whether it is or not is less important to the story than the effect the briefcase has on the commuters, serving as a catalyst for meditation of the burden of responsibility on the civilian in the “war on terror.”

The final page provides a strangely explosive release of tension in a twist that is neither forced nor arbitrary, but entirely organic. However, by this point, we’re no more familiar with Sam or Chris than we were at the start of the story. This is both the book’s greatest strength and greatest weakness, in that it’s thematically sound, but slightly dramatically hollow. Though, to be fair, this is not so much a character piece as it is a modern day parable. The ending is cheeky, and left me stranded, as if waiting for a train with a few scattered lost souls and a newspaper for company.

The Example is a brief case study in paranoia, which packs a lot more punch in its eleven pages than most regular-sized comics, and is all the more earth shattering in the issues it raises and universal (in theme) for the brevity. It even includes a few pages of support material at the end; a bonus for budding comics creators as much as DVD supplemental materials have been to emerging filmmakers. So, a burst of applause to all concerned, and a note to other creators and publishers out there – this is an example worth following.

Follow the collaborative team of Tom Taylor and Colin Wilson in Star Wars: Invasion from Dark Horse Comics, available from all good comic book stores.

Trailer

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