Comics Will Break Your Heart
Comics Will Break Your Heart
“Your mother stayed in Sandford for me. She’s never resented me for it. I don’t think she does.” Henry looked up at Mir, and for the first time she saw how she resembled him, at least a little.
“I shouldn’t ask the same thing of you,” Henry said. “I just got scared when you said you wanted to go out of province for school. It brought up stuff I didn’t know was still there. I felt like you might leave forever.”
“I won’t,” said Mir.
“I know, said Henry. “You’ll always be my kid. Here, in Ontario, or wherever else you choose to go. I want--” Henry paused. “I want you to do what you want to do next year.”
“Thank you,” Mir whispered, grateful. Henry turned away from the doorway and shuffled down the hallway. Mir heard the sound of her parents’ bedroom door closing softly.
Mir made it to the bridge at seven minutes past nine. Weldon was already waiting here, leaning against one of the bridge’s iron supports. He was wearing the same well-cut jacket he’d worn the first time Mir had seen him, and the thing in her chest fluttered excitedly.
“Hi,” Mir said.
Weldon turned and grinned at her.
“Hey!”
He tilted his head as he noticed her dress.
“Oh, you look --”
“Don’t,” said Mir. “This is the best I can do at this point in time. Someday I’ll learn to dress like a proper grown-up lady, but I’ve got better things to do now.”
“You look nice. Like you’re going to hang out with the Addams Family. They had style.”
Mir peered down at her dress.
“My mom bought this for a wedding.”
“Oh,” said Weldon, looking so chagrined Mir couldn't help but laugh. She waved a hand at him.
“Hopefully whoever does the hiring at this golf course will look past my outfit and see the hardworking person who really wants a job.”
They walked beside the road leading away from the bridge. The houses were nicer here than on the other side of the river. They didn’t have chunks of paint missing from their walls, or sagging porches. The lawns were neatly cut and the gardens looked like they'd been meticulously planned.
“How much more school do you have?” said Weldon.
“Next week’s the last week,” Mir said. “Thanks god. I have one paper due and two exams and that’s it.”
“Studying like crazy?”
“Kinda,” Mir said. “One exam is geography, which is all memorization, so I’m studying hard for that. The other is English. Not a lot of studying for that. It’s usually two essay questions, so you’re find as long as you’ve read whatever book you were assigned and are good at explaining, I don’t know, the role of fate in Macbeth or whatever.”
“I haven’t gotten to that play yet,” Weldon said. “I did Romeo and Juliet --”
“The worst play,” sighted Mir. “A couple of thirteen-year-old kids killing themselves over love. So stupid.”
“I thought it was kind of sad,” Weldon said. “I thought it was more about the stupidity of adults, two families clinging to an ancient feud while their kids die around them. The adults started the fight and when Romeo and Juliet die because of it, then they decide that maybe hating each other for something that happened ages ago might be a ridiculous way to live your life.”
“Sometimes when you’re hurt it’s hard to let things go,” Mir said. She looked at a house on the other side of the street, an inky black SUV parked in the driveway. “Sometimes you look at other people and all you can see is what they have and what you don’t have.”
“Are we still talking about Romeo and Juliet?” Weldon said.
Mir laughed, shaking her head.
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“Let it remain a mystery,” said Weldon, smiling.
Miriam Kendricks is not far from graduating, and she doesn’t know what she’s going to do. Her family lives in Sandford, Nova Scotia, and the small town seems to be a little too small for Mir. She thinks it will just be another summer of working at the Emporium of Wonders, a small and aged comic and games shop slowly being shadowed by a new Starbucks and a Yoga shop, but her summer goes from simple to complicated as she’s faced with living through an old family feud, meeting a boy, and parting ways with her best friend. For Mir, being a teenager just got a lot harder.
While working at the Emporium of Wonders, Mir is surprised by a new face in town who just happens to stop into her shop and she thinks he’s pretty cute! Looking around the shop, he’s particularly interested in a painting that Mir’s mom, Stella, painted of the Skylark and Skybound, characters from the TomorrowMen comic series. The two chat some more and exchange names. Mir is impressed that he knows so much about the comic series and this piques her interest even more.
Just as Weldon’s going to his car to leave, Mir is caught off guard as a car with three teenage boys comes skidding to a halt in front of the store. They get out, rush at Weldon and start punching him. The only thing Mir can think of to stop the beating is to spray all of them with a garden hose. With police sirens in the distance, two boys get in the first car and the other drives away in Weldon’s car. Before the police arrive, Weldon tells Mir that the car isn’t actually his - he stole the car. The police question Weldon and Mir but are content with Weldon’s story that he had words with the other boys, got into a fight, and then they left. Giving his statement to the police, Mir hears Weldon’s full name for the first time - Weldon Warwick. His father is the head of Warwick Studios that produces the TomorrowMen comics! Suddenly, Mir is faced with a problem - she is interested in Weldon, but she knows his last name all too well.
Weldon’s grandfather, Micha Kenricks, was one of the co-creators of the original TomorrowMen comic. He sketched all of the characters while his partner, Joseph Warrick, took care of the finances. When they were just starting out, Micha signed over his rights to Joseph because he just wanted to draw and to have people read their comics. Working together, the comic became popular, and Joseph wanted to grow the franchise. He created spin offs and merchandise, but he didn’t include Micha in any of it despite Micha’s protesting. When Joseph wanted to make the first TomorrowMen movie, Micah had had enough and wanted his fair share. They battled in court for years. Even after Micah’s death, his daughter (Mir’s mom), Stella, was tasked with continuing the fight. Finally, she decided to end it and accepted a small sum from Warrick Studios so she could live her own life in peace. The fight between Micah Kendricks and Joseph Warwick created a lasting feud between the families.
Although Mir and Weldon know about the feud, they’re determined not to let the past affect their friendship that is brimming on romance. Weldon starts lying to his aunt about his whereabouts because she doesn’t want him anywhere near the Kendricks’. However, Weldon later admits to his friendship with Mir and puts the onus on his aunt to get over the feud and move on. While Weldon and Mir struggle to keep their friendship/romance going forward despite pressure from the families, Mir is forced to find another job because the Emporium of Wonders is bankrupt and is forced to close. Mir gets a new job at a golf course, but this doesn’t stop Weldon from meeting her every day at the driveway during his daily cross-country run.
The two are spending more time together, and Mir tries to include Weldon with her friends, especially her best friend since childhood, Raleigh. Raleigh is having her own problems, though, as her boyfriend is obviously jealous of Mir and Raleigh’s relationship, and it takes Raleigh several weeks of awkward social get-togethers to finally decide that she values Mir’s friendship over an overbearing boyfriend. However, there’s still some awkwardness between Mir and Raleigh as Mir has to break it to her best friend that she plans to move away from Sandford to go to university. After an emotional conversation, Mir knows that Raleigh supports her decision and the two will be best friends for a very long time. With this relationship on solid footing, Mir now faces dealing with her relationship with Weldon, a relationship which continues to be shadowed by their families’ unresolved anger.
Mir and Weldon are getting closer, but Mir still can’t get past the feud and takes it out on Weldon, pushing him away and refusing to see him. In the weeks that follow, Weldon spends time alone thinking about how he was shipped to Sandford because he had been acting up ever since his parents’ divorce and his father needed to put all his focus on the release of the TomorrowMen movie. As Comic-Con approaches, the time when the movie will be released, Weldon’s father contacts Weldon and invites him home for the event. This is everything Weldon wanted: to be at the release and, more importantly, to be valued by his father. Hopping on a plane, Weldon makes his way back to California, but with the weight of his broken relationship with Mir and the pressure of the family feud, Weldon decides to visit his mom, Emma, first before meeting up with his dad.
Weldon wants to know more about the feud, and his mom is able to fill in the gaps. While Weldon’s there, Emma gives him a box of old original comics that she claims could be worth a lot, especially with the launch of the TomorrowMen movie. However, Weldon wants to give them to Mir because they were drawn by her grandfather and she could use the money to help pay for university. Emma agrees, but she doesn’t want to ship the comics because they’re so valuable, so she offers to fly Mir out to San Diego to get them.
Mir gets time off from work and flies to California for the weekend. Not only does she get the comics, but she also gets to go to Comic-Con, and see Weldon! Through spending time together and meeting Weldon’s parents, Mir and Weldon repair their relationship, and Weldon decides to return to Sandford to go to school and be with Mir. Though it’s taken a lot of work, it is Mir and Weldon’s strong relationship that finally ends the family feud and allows everyone to move on.
Comics Will Break Your Heart is a new take on the classic theme of star-crossed lovers involved in a family feud. Hicks does well balancing the several storylines played out in this novel that all resolve in happy endings. The novel’s also offering several nods to Canadian authors, including Farley Mowat and Lucy Maud Montgomery, could link YA readers to explore other classic texts.
Though there are some aspects of the plot that ask the reader to suspend belief, including Weldon’s rebellious act of stealing a car, the major narrative involving Weldon and Mir’s building relationship entwined with the family feud makes up for it. The rising tension between Mir and Weldon as their relationship builds is particularly well-crafted, and the electricity of brushed fingers and awkward closeness would be understood by any reader.
Hick’s novel would be enjoyed by high school YA readers with an interest in comics and stories with multiple plot lines. There is a lot going on in Comics Will Break Your Heart to keep readers turning pages, and the resolution of the novel is fitting, leaving readers with a sense of completeness.
Penta Ledger is a teacher-librarian at Gravenhurst High School in Gravenhurst, Ontario.