Obscure
Comic of the Month is a column where I take a look at a comic or
series that hasn't really been talked about. This covers independent
comics, zines, weird spin-offs, webcomics and more.
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Coal Face -
The Devil in the Smoke by Jay Gunn - MoonAlp Books 2023
Contains
'Miner' Spoilers
There's
always been a somewhat oversimplified framing of the 1980s miners
strikes as a simplified David vs Goliath story in popular culture,
but it's easy to forget that things were much more complicated. Even
more so when it comes to the legacy of those strikes and the industry
they were connected to.
The book
I'm looking at today isn't a comic pre-se, though it did start life
as one, and ultimately it's final form as an illustrated prose story
is close enough as far as I'm concerned. It's my column and I can do
what I like. Written and illustrated video game developer and
National Coal Board work-experiencer Jay Gunn, who uses his own past
and family history as a jumping off point into this period fable of
teenager Tony Gray's maybe real, maybe imagined, adventure into the
ancient cursed history of his town's local and currently be-striked
coal mine.
Gunn weaves
a great deal of tendrils throughout the tale, having Tony not just
have to deal with the local strife and uncertainty around the strike,
but also, and not limited to, his parent's broken marrage, health
problems caused by local pollution, class divides, family
expectations and his desire for a future in programming video games.
From these
themes weave out the fantastical. From the vampire-esque Fancy Man
representing corporate (and personal) greed, to Maybell The Wooden
Girl speaking for the blighted rural areas, to the dragon Coal Face
itself becoming the nexus of pain from which radiates from the coal
industry, long term respiratory problems and premature death.
Gunn plays
with a lot of threads and does so pretty effectively for a story that
isn't all that long. It's works for the most part given the ambiguity
of the fantastical elements, which may be no more real than dreams or
part of Tony's imagination, especially given that he is seen working
on a video game with a story that exactly mirrors the adventures he
is supposedly experiencing for real. This allows Gunn to frame these
fantastical elements as a child's rationalisation of the difficult
reality surrounding the pit closures.
Whereby the
striking workers through noble cause can give in to their worst
impulses, it is easier for someone like Tony, who lost his
grandfather to the pit and saw his parents ripped apart by
idealogical divide, to rationalise the whole thing as the schemes of
a legendary beast that can poison the mind as easily as it can poison
the body.
In that
respect, you might expect that Gunn is going for easy answers here,
but in fact he is doing quite the opposite. All through the story
Tony shows little desire to follow his father and grandfather into
the mining industry, clearly not having the temperament or the
physical health to do so, yet he is treated with suspicion and
destain for wanting to seek a future in video games. Likewise, Tony's
lower class upbringing is mocked by those more well off who never
have to worry about work like coal mining, and Tony is tempted away
from class solidarity with the promise of luxuries and frivolity.
I love the
intricacies and difficulties that Gunn explores here. I'm no stranger
to striking myself, and have little sympathy for scabbery, but even
I'm not so foolish as to think people slot into easy roles. My town
is a former mining town. I have family member who have died due to
the health problems their work down the pit left them with. There are
constant promises of re-opening the coal mines, and despite the fact
that we are in desperate need of more jobs, I absolutely do not want
to see that industry return to blight this town.
If I have
one criticism of the story, it's that this attempt at showing the
shades of gray comes with the risk of walking away from this story
with anti-union sentiment. Of course, Gunn makes it pretty explicitly
clear that the true villain of the story is the pursuit of capital,
but we do unfortunately live in a world where folks will ignore the
moral of a story if it doesn't suit them.
However,
I've only talked about the text of the story so far, when there is so
much more to it with the art. Gunn's illustrations bring to life an
already enthralling story, with a vibrancy and texture. The
characters are animated and believable, the blighted landscapes
drawing you in and cementing you into a specific place and time. The
fantastical elements have an otherworldly, uncanny feel to them that
emphasises the ambiguity of how much of what Tony is experiencing is
entirely from his imagination.
The story's
other big subplot, that of Tony wanting to get into programming, is
emphasised and reinforced through the illustrations also. The stark,
primitive visuals of the Atari days glow in neon green, feeling
almost pre-historic by today's standards. This adds to the feeling
that Tony's character is no weak and frightened fool, as even just
through the visuals we can understand the skill it would have taken
to programme a video game in those days. Tony might not want to go
down the pit, but that doesn't mean he lacks willpower.
The visuals
and the text work in tandem to create a tale that feels very simple
and easy to digest in it's delivery but that contains a history with
great depth beneath. The story closes with a bittersweet ending. The
monster defeated, but Tony's personal strife continues, as he is left
still finding his way in the world where he has to try and show
solidarity for a line of work he knows is doomed to closure. The
story does not let you off with any easy answers, and doesn't sugar
coat that the world is not so easily fixed.
Coal Face
is a finely executed all-ages tale that creates a perfect snapshot in
time to emphasize that while heroes and monsters exist in both
fiction and reality, it's only in fiction that these distinctions are
so easily spotted. Right now, as it was in the 80s, being a hero is
not as easy as simply picking up a controller, and defeating monsters
can't be done with simple button presses.
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Jack
Harvey 2024. Coal Face (c) 2023 Jason Wilson. Images used under Fair
Use.