When McKelvie’s not getting namechecked by the Duloks and racking up endorsements from Warren Ellis, he’s still plugging away at the thing everyone’s raving about in the first place: his comics. Suburban Glamour #2 hit shelves this week, marking the half-way point of his first writer/artist turn. If you’re not up to date on the (sold out!) Issue #1, then at least read the NTS review of it here and see what you’re missing, before continuing with the following entry.

This issue resolves the previous cliffhanger with a “mystery” rescuer, though luckily it’s not strung out because there’s nothing worse than a mystery being laboured when the audience knows the answer and the characters don’t. It then follows up with the most Buffy-esque sequence to date, featuring a pre-beard Kieron Gillen guesting as a school guidance counsellor, and christ knows there are forces in the world that would want to prevent THAT from happening. The school-based material, in fact, brings to the front the kind of themes McKelvie has suggested would be present in Suburban Glamour, but were largely under the surface in the first issue – the idea of being lost for direction when you’re only getting the kind of options you’d rather turn down. All it needed was for someone to suggest Astrid considered an HND or Modern Apprenticeship.

From there’s it becomes time for a trip into Sandman territory for the remainder of the issue. Only recently I was ragging on Vertigo’s tendency to put out Sandman-lite nonsense, so I should definitely qualify this by saying that the comparisons here are fairly superficial. McKelvie has put enough of his own spin on it that it’s not just a retread. There’s always a danger in using this kind of concept that people are going to look at it and go “Gaiman did it better” and, well, of course he did, he’s Neil Gaiman. On the other hand – Gaiman never wrote anything this hip.

Anyone complaining that the first issue was too slow should be satisfied by this one, which throws some serious twists at the reader. If the first issue was all about establishing the characters, this issue is all about setting up the plot. Just when I thought I had Suburban Glamour figured out (and I consider myself a fairly jaded and sceptical audience) it turns out I didn’t guess the half of it. McKelvie has proven himself as an artist over and over, and now he’s proving he can spin a decent yarn as well. Like a proverbial Icarus, he’s flying daringly close to greats like Whedon and Gaiman, but so far the wings haven’t come off yet. Roll on Issue #3.