A Comic A Day in May – Day 16: Delia Awesome #3

Michael Schneider’s Delia Awesome came to my attention a few years ago and while it feels like a while since I’ve read issues #1 & #2 I was glad to get my hands on the latest issue.

We pick things up on the Monday after a tumultuous weekend of events that saw the titular Delia lose her boyfriend and get abducted by aliens over the course of one weekend…….so safe to say her heart isn’t in a new week starting.  Nevertheless, she endures her trip to work and does her best to get through day avoiding as much conversation or actually work as she can.

Her day drags by but she eventually escapes and gets herself home to try and figure out where the hell her life is going.  Her parents calls go unanswered at first before she is worn down and this helps her day go from bad to worse but the events of the weekend are still the focus of all her thoughts.  The two massive events become linked in her coping mechanism and with few friends in her life it’s her ex Rick that becomes the person she feels the need to confide in.

Cue the testing of new powers she is developing and the fear & excitement that builds within her spills over to inviting Rick around to experience the things she is going through.  That’s inevitably a bad idea and the fall out leaves her just as alone & confused as she ever was and there is a heartbreaking edge to both the highs & lows she is going through because of that.

This feels like it has a rich vein of honesty within the experiences she is going through and while there’s an air of self-destruct within her, there’s still a yearning from me the reader to see her bounce back and begin a new life where she is truly empowered.  Michael does a stellar job at keeping Delia grounded while her life seems to crumble & explode around her but manages to keep it away from a car crash event where you can’t look away and rather maintains the notion that you’re firmly on her side through every one of her troubles….be they mundane or fantastic.

The art is suitably muted given Delia’s outlook and while that may not suit every reader, I can’t help but feel that it suits a book that injects a great mix of ideas into her disjointed life.  A beer-swigging, misfit may well be an unlikely hero but it’s funny how that character resonates with me so much and I’m sure it’ll be the same for other readers too.

Head over to the Delia Awesome website to catch-up with more on Michael’s unexpected hero and keep an eye on the titles Facebook for more updates.  You can also get hold of the first three issues over on Comixology or on IndyPlanet.

8/10

G-Man