We are all aware that there’s a certain aspect of fandom who can get… let’s say… overly invested in their favourite comics characters. In Moe’s in Love with a Manga Character creator Olly Telling gives us a different slant on this phenomenon with a protagonist who, as the title spells out, develops intense romantic feelings for his favourite protagonist, Yume. I must admit to not having heard of the term “waifu” before reading the print edition of Telling’s webcomic but in manga and anime communities it appears to have some significant currency, and in the specific case of Moe’s in Love with a Manga Character it provides a premise that is both intriguingly meta and darkly idiosyncratic.
If you’re looking for a disturbingly twisted love story then Telling provides something here that, in terms of structure at least, has the rhythm of a Warren Comics short, or a tale from the best era of the ‘70s DC Mystery line. Moe lives alone in his apartment which he never leaves. He needs no other company than the fictional Yume whose presence is everywhere, from his extensive manga collection to her image on posters adorning his walls. But when Moe makes personal contact with the young woman who delivers his pizzas it leads to a relationship with an actual human being. How will this newfound connection affect his love for Yume? And, even if Moe can put aside his crush on a fictional character, will the character be able to do the same for him?
Telling’s debut comic has a stripped back artistic style but it’s full of wonderful moments of pure language of comics storytelling. Moe and his new girlfriend existing in parallel panels to show the divide between the isolated world of his flat and the outside realm she inhabits, for example, or this beautifully designed page below where the initial awkwardness of their conversation slowly develops into friendship and intimacy through the use of changing panel gutters, limited colur palette, and speech balloons. It’s the mark of a cartoonist carefully considering just how they can use the form to do things that only comics can to advance the themes and atmosphere of the story. Always a thing of note in these parts.
Moe’s in Love with a Manga Character could perhaps have benefitted from a slightly longer page count to build up to the horror twists and to make us feel more invested in one key character. That would have heightened the emotional impact of the story’s final scenes. But there’s much promise here and one especially creepy sequence that will ensure readers never look at their comics collection in quite the same way again. Telling has self-published print editions of Moe’s in Love with a Manga Character which you buy online from the link below but you can also read the whole thing online for free here on Tapas.
Olly Telling (W/A) • Post-Manga Publishing, £3.99
Review by Andy Oliver
