Friday, Book One: The First Day of Christmas

I am very familiar with the name Ed Brubaker when it comes to comic books.  He is known for his crime story comics (such as Criminal, Fatale, etc.), but quite honestly, I've never read any of his work. I just recognize the name.  But when I saw this graphic novel solicited in Previews some months back, I didn't even pay attention to who was writing or drawing it.  I simply saw the description about a teenage girl who goes back to her hometown where she used to solve mysteries with her best friend, and I was hooked.  A sort-of "Nancy Drew grows up and goes back home" type of tale is something that's just too good for me to pass up.  So, I ordered it.

Friday, Book One: The First Day of Christmas collects the first three chapters of this story.  Friday Fitzhugh is an eighteen-year old college student with red hair (sound familiar?) and glasses who has returned to Kings Hill after completing her first semester of college.  Friday spent her teen years in Kings Hill, where she met her best friend, Lancelot Jones (a combination of "Lancelot" Link and Jupiter "Jones" perhaps?), and together the two of them solved a lot of mysteries, such as "The Case of the Magic Gauntlet," "The Legend of the Lime Cave," "The Secret Beneath Arcadian Hall," "The Revenge of the Sea Maiden," "Night of the Teenage Crime Wave," and "The Curse of the Viking Helm," to name a few.  And the manner in which Marcos Martin, the artist for this book, displays these past mysteries over two two-page spreads is magnificent!  Between the title themselves and the faux book covers, Brubaker and Martin pay beautiful homage to the children's mystery series of the '60s and '70s, and I would love more than anything to read these stories - and in case anyone was wondering, this takes place in the mid-'70s (as one of the panels from her senior prom shows a banner in the background that says "Class of '73").

But this story is not your standard teenage mystery.  Brubaker brings in not only some supernatural elements, but also some very human elements to give the story a very Gothic feel.  There are constant hints of supernatural, without being overtly so, and the emotional drama is sometimes more powerful than the creeps in the night.  For it seems that Friday left Kings Hill to go to college on a sour note.  Something happened between her and Lancelot, and try as she might upon her return, she can't seem to find a moment to talk to him about it.  As soon as she arrives in her old hometown, Lancelot and Sheriff Bixby (is his first name Bill?) pull her into the latest mystery.  The younger son of the town's richest family has stolen an ancient knife, and it has somehow affected his mind.  He has run off into the woods, muttering something about "the White Lady" and trying to carve symbols into a tree deep in the woods.  Lancelot and the Sheriff leave Friday at the hospital while they go to take care of something ... but Friday is left with the feeling that she should know what this "White Lady is" - but why can't she remember?

Shadowy figures in the woods.  Strange visions and haunting dreams.  Possessed men speaking in riddles.  Secrets kept from loved ones.  A town full of dark legends. And mysteries of the past coming back to create havoc in the present. Brubaker succeeds in creating a story that is "Gothic but grounded" as he says in the afterward at the end of the graphic novel.  And the ending of Chapter Three (which is where this novel leaves off) - wow!  A heart-wrenching cliffhanger that definitely leaves the reader wanting for more!  (I supposed I could go online and read Chapter Four, since this is a digital comic that is later collected, but why spoil the fun?  After all, anticipation of what is to come is half the fun!) 

A superbly written and drawn story that I would highly recommend!  I'm just left wondering how long it's going to be before Book Two of Friday comes out!

RATING:  10 classic ice-balls out of 10 for a surprising mix of mystery, supernatural, suspense, and emotion all rolled into one for a wonderful tale of a teen detective growing up!