Love Me: A Romance Story features the empathetically haphazard art by a familiar face with a writer’s look at star-crossed love.
Love Me: A Romance Story – On The Tin (Man)
This is one of those stories you see very often. Francesca Perillo retrofits a story about the difficulties of a relationship. So seeing this relationship from the eyes of a cat is a must. We readers would probably be indifferent to seeing a robot falling in love with a human. Having an outsider’s perspective gives us enough distance to look at the absurdity with enough empathy. How would you feel if someone who takes care of you gets sad?
Which brings us to JoJo, a friendly robot in a world that wouldn’t look twice at him. He’s happy to be working his menial taxi job, his cups of coffee, and that cat. Most people would only see him as that one annoying guy who’s blind to the bleakness. But like a lot of people, JoJo’s missing something for that sense of fulfillment. So when he meets Gilda, one of the only humans to not give him a hard time and falls for her, he’s like an infatuated teen. Which makes the first impression hard to look at because JoJo is such a lovable person. Yet only his cat and the reader can tell.
Messy, Yet Loving
Stefano Cardoselli of Don’t Spit In The Wind brings that sense of lively decadence from that comic to this one. Sometimes with a couple of Easter Eggs in Gilda’s origin story. The New York City of the future from the top looks colorful and larger-than-life. But closer to the ground, everything’s covered in junk and litter that the colorist Lorenzo Scaramella emphasizes with brown shades.
This as well as the lettering by Buddy Beaudoin show how JoJo is very much a part of the NYC’s ads. He and his cab are practically buildings with their tall heights, unable to see New York’s crumbling around them. Even the SFX that come from the cab look like another ad that’s ingrained into the city.
As for JoJo, his best scenes have a lively presentation for readers to feel an intimate connection to him. Like when JoJo falls head over heels for Gilda, everything from how their conversation feels balanced to the background shifting to a red color to evoke heartbeats. Or the weight and anticipation in his movements like how JoJo vacuums his apartment after getting stood up. To his cat it looks torturous, especially since JoJo makes messes feeding her. So when JoJo takes the fight to the mobsters who captured Gilda with precision and focus, audiences can’t look away.
Do Want (To) Love Me: A Romance Story
Cardoselli makes a simple story the most eye-catching experience. The way JoJo acts in juxtaposition with the NYC is an entertaining paradox. He’s so pure that it genuinely hurts when his infatuation with Gilda sours him. Seeing this all from the perspectives of a cat and the few people who see JoJo as a person also removes any of the more serious social commentary about automation. Because that’s just a background to a robot feeling more human than the people who walk the streets. The slow pace with evocative visuals makes the experience ideal for the full album.
8.5/10
Thanks for coming and as always, remember to look between the panels.