New Zealand illustrator Ross Murray's stories in the intriguing graphic novel Bedford Street capture glimpses of quotidian life for lonely singles, couples in flux, and struggling families in what could be any slowly downwardly mobile neighborhood.
It's a bird-eat-(dead)-bird world out there in "Road Kill," until a truck rolls by. Estranged parents must cooperate with each other in "Let's Dance," featuring an alcoholic father whose "destructive" teen son unexpectedly gets dropped off for two days, and in "Anything Sinister," about a woman with debilitating back pain who exhausts all childcare options and must call her violent ex. In "Jimmy & Bugs," one brother exhaustively cares for the other, who's disabled. In "Whole Lotta Love," a new salesman loses his family when his lothario exploits are exposed, while in "Love Atoll," a woman attempts to break up a vicious lovers' quarrel. New residents have unneighborly run-ins in "Canis Minor" and "Backfire": in the former, a young woman should be more wary of the entitled racist than the squatter in the abandoned house; in the latter, a disgruntled older man turns his anger on the woman next door.
Murray creates line-drawn, realistic panels enhanced in shades of mostly two, sometimes a few more muted colors. His art cleverly shows plenty of what he doesn't need to tell: the phone flashing "TRY 2 B NICE" with an incoming call, an unlikely artist's intricate carvings, a multiracial family history in photos. Small reveals intertwine the eight stories--the orange avian-disregarding pick-up truck, an unwanted sales call, the local black cat. Welcome indeed to Bedford Street. --Terry Hong