By Bill Liston

Memoir- Memoir is a comic written by Ben McCool and drawn by Nikki Cox. It follows the story of cocky reporter Trent MacGowen who is covering the story of Lowesville – a town where its’ residents have lost their memory and don’t remember the very bad things that have happened there.
There is no doubt this town is creepy as we are introduced to an innkeeper, librarian & butcher who are clearly a little out there. The weirdest resident is a man who is digging all over the town on a mission to “find them all”. In the cliffhanger of issue one he finds what he is digging for, some of the towns former residents and no one remembers how they got there. However in a “double cliffhanger” one person emails MacGowen claiming to remember everything.

This is a six part series and issue five has just come out. The artwork is all black and white which helps add to the depiction of Lowesville being a scary and weird place. While it takes a little while to get used too, it was probably the right choice for this book. The story crafted by McCool is definitely an interesting concept and has multiple levels and characters which tend to grow on you. Probably the best thing about the writing is that while we follow the dialogue of Trent we also get an insight into what is going through his head which is usually a sarcastic and dismissive view of the town. As I mentioned, the story has more characters that are introduced throughout the series including the FBI, Shadow People (the souls of the former residents), the Witch & the Daughter of God. The story gives you a lot to like and includes some twists as well as some background into Trent’s back story, Overall, it is more than a decent story and I will be reading the finale when that gets released.

My only major complaint is that the series has been published sporadically over the last year, so I had to re -read the whole series again when issue five came out. (I originally heard about it at New York Comic Con 2010) That said, re-reading it again from start to finish was more fulfilling than reading it when it  was initially published. I think this book will work well if they publish it as a trade paperback to give the reader the complete story. Reading on an issue- by- issue basis was a little frustrating and many times I gave up on it and almost moved on to another series. That said, I am glad I still had it on my pull list and look forward to re-reading it again whenever it wraps up.
Memoir is brought to you by Image Comics. If you like McCool’s work and can’t wait to the next Memoir Issue I recommend reading PIGS, (an Image Monthy) for Ben McCool & Nate Crosby.

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Tags: Ben McCool, Image comics, Memoir - Thanks For the Memories, Nate Crosby, Nikki Cox