My Faith In Frankie

Genre fantasy Author Mike Carey Publisher Vertigo External Links Vertigo

You would think that a story about gods and religion would get more than four issues, but that's exactly what My Faith in Frankie is about. It's about gods, and it's about four issues. (Actually, it's exactly four issues, but I hope you'll allow me this one bit of cleverness.) ("Cleverness.") Frankie doesn't necessarily grapple with metaphysics, though; instead, perhaps surprisingly, this miniseries takes on relationships between a young woman, her best-friend and, well, her personal god. And when I say personal god, I mean that quite literally. Jeriven, the God of the Heart's Fire, is a runaway from Godtown who finds comfort and worship from the precocious Frankie Moxon. Frankie has had Jeriven's protection all through her childhood, but now that she's 17 and in the mood for boys, Jeriven has assumed the role of the well-meaning but now painfully-uncool parent who basically tries to prevent the child from growing up. All the while, best-friend Kay feels like a third wheel to this relationship between deity and worshipper.

The premise has legs, that's for sure – but that's also the problem. The subject matter in Frankie demands lengthier examination, but instead, the miniseries clocks in at a whopping 98 pages, and to compound the relative brevity of Frankie, much of the narrative is divided into subchapters that seem to interrupt the flow of the main story; the opening scene is interrupted by an expository "Tortuous Explanation, Part One," which lasts only two pages. But then, another two pages after that, we get "Tortuous Explanation, Part Two." Consequently, the pace is frenetic, constructed for readers with short attention spans.

But while Mike Carey's writing generally manages to keep the pace lively for almost all of Frankie, the ending feels rushed and, as a result, is sufficiently underwhelming that it trivializes an otherwise delightful comic. The first three issues are filled with imaginative flights of fancy and sharp humor. Frankie, in the aftermath of another failed rendezvous, demands that Jeriven show up to account for his likely role in deep-sixing her date: "I'm going to count to three. Then I'm going to scream really, really loudly. Oh, and Jeriven? I'm starting at three." Unfortunately, the concluding fourth issue seems to be compelled to tie up all of its loose ends, but in the process it forgets to be funny and only offers an arbitrary and capricious ending that largely fails to maintain the tone and atmosphere of the preceding issues. Not only is the pace too hectic, but, without getting into the unsavory details, the denouement itself borders on the creepy and exploitative.

On the other hand, the art throughout the miniseries remains consistently beautiful. Sonny Liew's pencils are simply gorgeous. Betraying a slight manga influence, his character designs feature subtly expressive eyes and long, lanky limbs, while Marc Hempel's clean and unobtrusive inks accentuate (and there's no other way to say it) the cuteness of Liew's art.

More likely than not, if you can abide by a non-standard ménage, then you have less of a stick up your butt than I do and probably won't find the ending quite so distracting. As it stands, however, the art throughout Frankie and the humor in the first three issues is at the least enough to sustain any interest one way or the other.