Miss Endicott, Part One: Mary Poppins With Killer Knitting Needles

I’ll admit this up front: That subject line above is clickbait. Miss Endicott is not a killer. But she can fight her way out of a situation with surprising grace, speed, and skill. And she keeps a pair of knitting needles up her sleeve to help.

That subject is not a lie. It’s just not the point of the book.

As entertaining and readable as the story and this comic is, the art from Xavier Fourquemin is a show-stealer. It is so good and worthy of so much discussion that I’m writing a second article filled with analysis of the artistic techniques he uses to better tell the story. That’s coming soon…

And, hey, look at that cover below. Doesn’t that cover look like something Todd McFarlane might draw? I can see him posing Spawn or Batman like this, with his cape flapping in the breeze the way Miss Endicott’s dress is floating in the air here…

Knitting Needles and Credits

What’s Going On?

Maggie Endicott is dead. Her daughter, Miss Prudence Endicott, arrives in London to take her place. By day, she’s a nanny to a boy, Master Evan, who has scared off every other nanny in record time. At night, she heads to her mother’s old office to perform her job as a “conciliator.” She works for the people in the local neighborhoods to solve problems they have with their neighbors, the gangs, the people who live underground, etc.

She’s very good at what she does. People are utterly charmed by her. She can talk her way through most everything. If that doesn’t work, she can take them down physically, with all the skill and the self-confidence of Wolverine.

A new threat is emerging in the lost city underground where the misfits of society hide. They are angry with how they’ve been ostracized by the “normal” folks above. They’re playing for keeps, and they don’t mind using force to do it.

Is Miss Endicott about to meet her match? Is she truly as unbeatable as she confidently acts, as she walks the dark and dirty city streets overnight without fear?

Jean-Christophe Derrien’s script guides the reader into this world expertly. There’s no massive info dumps. You learn what you need as you go along, with some open loops left sitting around to be closed at a later date. Pay attention.

Derrien’s focus in the story stays on Miss Endicott. There’s very little jumping around to random characters who might be important later, but are just confusing now. Those characters are introduced in clear and meaningful ways. They’re not ciphers meant to tease you. You’re never lost in reading this book. You’re only curious. The quiet moments that would be boring in a lesser book are made interesting by the amazing art of Xavier Fourquemin, who we’ll get to shortly….

Most importantly, Miss Endicott is an endearing character. We’re introduced to her at her mother’s funeral, which is a quick way to make her sympathetic. Then we see the way she wins Evan over by being empathetic and confident. Some of her methods are unusual and, almost laughably so, self-centered. She’s getting him to do her office work under the guise of teaching lessons.

In her job as “conciliator,” she’s successful in bringing disparate people together to solve their problems, mediating with a confidence and a logic that quickly wins over even the shadiest characters. When that doesn’t work, the knitting needles will do…

She has a magnetic personality that not only makes you like her, but makes you want to be her best friend.

The line Derrien has to walk carefully here is that he doesn’t make the story boring. It can’t be too easy. Sure enough, as the book hits the home stretch of its 81 pages, we begin to see Endicott’s world start to shatter a bit. She’s not unbeatable. She doesn’t have all the answers. There’s big trouble coming.

It’ll be interesting to see how she reacts to all of this turmoil in the second, and concluding volume.

The Art of Fourquemin

Xavier Fourquemin’s art is just perfect for this book. It’s not a big nose style. It’s more like a skinny, long nose art style. He has a definite cartoony look that doesn’t skimp on the details of keeping all the period work looking authentic, including the clothes and the buildings.

At the same rate, he’s not so tied up in period detail that he doesn’t add his own sense of whimsy and exaggeration to the page. The buildings, in particular, are peculiar things, not often standing straight up, and with very few straight lines. They have just enough character to be worthy of attention all on their own.

His characters, too, display an energy and a bounce that’s a lot of fun to read. They may have slightly large heads and scrawny necks on which they bob, but it’s a clean and consistent style. Those big heads mean larger faces, which means more expressiveness.

He fills every panel in detail. His backgrounds are a large part of the story. Everything feels real in this book. Fourquemin works hard to show you those little details that subconsciously prove their veracity.

Colorist Scarlett Smulkowski is on the same wavelength as Fourquemin when it comes to telling this story. She makes a lot of smart decisions. I see lots of examples where she’s working with the art to tell the story, and not trying to fix any “mistakes” or force her own opinion on the pages. This is some good-looking stuff.

Having said that, I would be curious to see a black and white edition of this book. I think Fourquemin’s attention to his line weights and ink work is strong enough to make this book work without the color. He’s very careful to include areas of solid black in every panel to help give them weight. He also pays attention to where he adds details and textures to help better describe the scene while at the same time guiding the eye.

Recommended?

Yup. No doubt. Without hesitation.

This is a great book. It’s on the very short list of best comics I’ve read this year (up there with “Venezian“), and is an early shoo-in for the year end Top Ten list. It’s a book that strikes on all cylinders: Likable lead character, interesting story, nice art and coloring with strong composition. And it’s 79 pages, so you get plenty of material to soak in.

Give it a shot. You’ll find something to like in here.

You can also find the book digitally at Comixology.