Review: Loved & Lost
I need love, love to ease my mind/I need to find, find someone to call mine/But mama said/”You can’t hurry love. No, you just have to wait”/She said, “Love don’t come easy
The Supremes – Can’t Hurry Love
It’s a game of give and take”/You can’t hurry love/No, you just have to wait/You got to trust, give it time
No matter how long it takes/But how many heartaches must I stand/Before I find a love to let me live again?/Right now the only thing that keeps me hangin’ on/When I feel my strength, yeah, it’s almost gone/I remember mama said…
I remembered the first time I heard the quoted song above, but it was growing up in my parents’ house. Never did a song sound so sweet, yet it didn’t mean anything to me at the time. It wasn’t until I had my first crush did I actually feel those words. Since then, the song still sounds sweet and mean something now and again but feels that much more when I feel infatuation for that special someone.
Love, on the other hand, is a cruel teacher. As no matter how many times you put yourself out there, and put your heart on the line, sometimes that your heart gets hurt. Nevertheless, most of us persist, because a life without love is no life at all. In an excellent collection of stories from the brilliant creators at A Wave Blue World, we get Loved & Lost, a collection of stories exploring and celebrating the chase and sometimes capture of that elusive feeling.
In the first story, “Status Update”, two people who have been chatting online for months, while on their first in person date suddenly finds themselves at odds when it comes to their dietary habits. In “Freshly Planted Seeds”, a young woman travels to a migrant farm in South America for an Agricultural Outreach Program, where she falls for the Program Director, but whose religious beliefs prevent either of them from going any further than either would like to go. In “Falling In Deep”, while on a deep-water dive, two strangers connect, only to find that a language barrier is their impediment. In “ Team Spirit”, two Knicks attend a game in the Barclays Center to watch their team take on the nets, as two friends commiserate , one friend takes a punch for the other , and though one of the friends is a lesbian , the love for each is truly unconditional. In “Perfectly Distilled”, a man becomes smitten with a barkeep, as he waits for an online date to show up, one which is less interesting than the conversation he had in the first place. In” Cachet 22”, a couple sours when they realize that their understanding of work life balance is completely different. In” On The Stump”, a politician and his wife have side to their marriage that no one know about and whom their daughter finds out in a way that most kids do, by mistake. In “Thaw”, some old war friends stay connected long after they served, as one friend undermines their relationship, even forsaking his current girlfriend, as one of his friends decides enough is enough and decides to take matters into his own hands. In the last story, ”Swan Song”, a man reveals what he really is to his wife, but just as he believes he will be leaving her for good, fate has another path for them.
Overall, an exceptional set of stories that explores love and relationships in all of their facets. The stories by Tyler Chin-Tanner, are funny, relatable, and heartfelt. The art by the different artists is as beautiful as the story it goes with. Altogether, a comic anthology that gives readers another vista of the story of love.
Story: Tyler Chin-Tanner
Art: Ryan Alexander-Tanner, James Boyle, Mac Cooper, Jason Copland, Tadd Galusha, Julia Krase, Jeannette Langmead, Robert Ryan and Aysegul Sinav
Story: 10 Art:10 Overall:10 Recommendation: Buy
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