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, but empathetic enough to care about it. 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. 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.
At the same time, seeing JoJo falling head over heels for Gilda has a lively presentation. Everything from how their conversation feels balanced to the background shifting to a red color to evoke heartbeats. For a robot who can’t physically emote, this gives readers the most intimate connection to JoJo.
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 starts to sour. Seeing this all from the perspective of a cat also remove 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. So with that this first issue gets 7.8/10.
But the ink’s not dry yet! Thanks for coming and as always, remember to look between the panels.