Review: Tricked

Title: Tricked
Author: Alex Robinson
Year of Publication: 2005
Genre: Drama (graphic novel)
Length: 349 pages, large book. It’s a fairly text-heavy graphic novel.
Rating: 3/5 buy second-hand

It sounds like a commercial for the latest Thursday night drama on Global; six adults, three men and three women, pushed together into an absurd and dangerous situation as a result of seemingly harmless decisions made by each of them. Love, sex, counterfeit baseball cards and diner food fill the pages. Don’t miss the season premiere tonight, at 8/7 central!

Kidding aside, I was drawn to this book mostly from the simple title and artwork. On the cover were all six characters*, and the blurb on the back promised quite a variety, from a rock star who hasn’t had a hit in years, to a waitress who can’t find a decent guy, to a young woman who is traveling to meet her father for the first time since early childhood.

The artwork is all in black and white, and refreshingly realistic. Also, disturbingly realistic. If you can’t handle seeing naked men, stay clear. The people actually look like real individuals, and the artist dared to give them freckles, body fat, hairy legs and glasses, among other things.

As mentioned above, there’s a lot of text, more or less depending on which character has the point of view. One of them, Steve, is an obsessive geeky type who has a rich, complicated inner monologue. It’s clear that he does not have many friends, and so all of his debates happen in his head. Later on, as Steve becomes more unstable, the artist draws a white silhouette character that responds to Steve’s thoughts, but it’s really one of his personalities.

Another character, Phoebe, it’s very quiet, shy, and introverted. There is less text for her, and more scenery, more of her listening to others talking to her, such as her father, and Caprice, another character who works for Phoebe’s father.

The story flips through the characters, giving the reader bit by bit the parts from Ray, Steve, Nick, Caprice, Phoebe and Lily, sometimes entering into another character’s world, but showing it from the other point of view. The stories begin to join, Lily’s merging with Ray’s, Phoebe’s with Caprice’s, Nick’s with Caprice’s, Steve’s with Phoebe’s, until they meet for the finale at the diner, which is where the original speaker (Ray) is remembering his life from. All of these characters are on a journey, and each of them has a different story to tell. A tie for the most twisted story is between Nick, a counterfeiter with an incredibly scary boss, and Steve, who is slowly going crazy ever since he stopped taking his medication.

Overall, a decent piece of work. There is room for improvement, but it’s still worth the time to pick it up and read.

*My edition has a different cover than the one shown.