Graphic Novel Review: Keeping Two by Jordan Crane

I haven’t read any other reviews of this book — I usually don’t, because I wanted to form my own opinion. I’m a huge fan of Fantagraphics and I wouldn’t dare troll a competitor, even if they’re way bigger and they probably wouldn’t notice me anyway, but I just didn’t love this one.

It’s very likely I’m missing something, and they probably know better, but what the hell — I’ll tell you what I think about it.

First of all, the print job is gorgeous. The cover has a bit of a rough texture which feels great. The colours are also great on the cover — it looks really smart. The rounded corners are a nice touch, and the cover is thick. So this will look great on your shelf.

The art style is fun, there’s a good amount of detail in the mundane household objects and then the characters are drawn with just dots for the eyes and nose, with a hole for the mouth. I quite like the art style. As for colour, it’s all monochromatic in green. I do tend to like monochromatic comic coloring but I don’t love the green, and there’s not a ton of contrast so everything kind of blends together color-wise. Contrast that with something like The Arab of the Future which also goes for monochromatic colour but has better contrast with a few splashes of contrasting colours — that’s much more pleasing to the eye at least for me.

The story alternates between two suburban couples, one who’s just lost their baby and another who just seems consumed by little worries of daily life. It’s not clear whether they’re linked and it doesn’t become clear for a long time. It feels like it’s about how we spend so much time worrying about little insignificant things and not enough appreciating what and who we have around us. That I could relate to.

But the book takes way too long to explain any potential link between the characters, and drags out suspenseful situations much too long. I found myself flipping frantically through the pages to get to the ending, which was unsatisfying for me.

To some extent, I think I tend to avoid experimental films and comics, so that probably has a lot to do with it. I like traditional narrative structures with clear beginnings, middles, and ends. This book got a little trippy in some parts and I found myself just thinking — “what?” That said, I’ll probably check out his other books “Goes Like This” and “Uptight” because those are some nice-looking covers.

I’d love to hear what you thought about the book if you read it so feel free to leave a comment below if you agree or if you think I’m crazy. And if you want to pick it up anyway you can find the link below. It’ll be an affiliate link, so we’ll make a small commission to help support us.

Click here to buy Keeping Two by Jordan Crane.

If you like the theme of this book– namely the circle of life and the human condition, you might like our title, No One Knows. It’s a story about a woman who loses her life and how that impacts everyone around her– her doctor, her spouse, and the rest of her family.

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