Doll Parts: A Lovesick Tale #1 // Review
Madeleine doesn’t ever want to grow-up. She’s a ballerina. It’s always so difficult to live into a new body as any kind of a dancer, but Madeleine has other issues that go way beyond that in Doll Parts: A Lovesick Tale #1. Writer/artist Luana Vecchio opens a new coming-of-age story about a girl who has been suppressing her adulthood at every turn. Events force her to become an adult very, very quickly and she must adapt to a completely different self image in order to survive in a deeply emotional opening issue for a promising new story.
Madeleine thinks that if she doesn’t eat too much, she won’t ever grow-up. And in a way...she’s right. But it isn’t exactly healthy to eat very, very little in the interest of avoiding puberty. The unhealthiness of that is only the beginning for Madeleine as sudden events force her out of the immediate control of her parents. Her whole world is going to change and she’s going to have to find a whole new way of defining herself beyond the forced innocence of extended youth. Madeleine is entering a very, very dangerous world with a great many dangers lurking around every corner.
Vecchio’s story is constantly running the risk of moving into territory that's way too complicated for a single narrative. However, Vecchio manages to keep everything remarkably complex without overburdening the page with too many details. The first person narrative of the protagonist rides a very comfortable line between extreme cleverness and something that would feel much more natural for a schoolgirl. It's sharp and nuanced writing that is absolutely essential for a story like this to come across with any level of depth at all. Vecchio’s script balances itself with great grace.
Madeleine is not allowed to be too terribly emotional. She's always been very conservative with the way she carries herself. And this can be very difficult to bring to the page in a way that feels compelling. However, Vecchio manages to find a way to make it work with cleverly, framed shots and considerable amount of depth written into the largely expressionless face of the main character. When emotion does break out, it becomes totally overwhelming and heartbreaking in places. The visual reality of Madeleine’s world is remarkably well-defined on a whole whole bunch of different levels.
Vecchio’s energy on the series has made a very firm and powerful start. However, there are as many land mind for the writer artist as they are for the main character. And things could get really silly really quickly depending on how well Vecchio is able to maintain the right level of complexity. it's not going to be easy. But it certainly is going to be worth it if Vecchio can make it work without faltering too much. There’s real potential for something truly shocking AND emotionally deep at the same time, which isn’t an easy thing to manage for standard psychological horror.
