Motor Girl, by Terry Moore (contemporary comic, 2017)

[lb_lee]

"Mike? Did that really just happen?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not stupid. I know I have problems with... reality."

Blurb: After three tours in Iraq and too much time as a tortured prisoner of war, Samantha works in a junkyard with her imaginary friend, a massive gorilla named Mike. It's a comfortable existence, but then a UFO crashes into the junkyard...

Why is it worth your time?: Terry Moore is a cartoonist with glaring strengths and weaknesses. His plots are ramshackle, but his character relationships are some of the best in the biz, and Sam and Mike's relationship carries this comic on its back. Read it for their friendly bickering and staunch mutual love and support, but if that alone can't sustain you, look elsewhere.

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse:intermediate-focus (POW type, not family or childhood type), imaginary friends, nonhumans (gorilla), realitymashing, friendship, medical, visions, voices, nonswitching

Content Warnings: Contain spoilers; see comments.

Accessibility Notes: Available in paperback, hardback, and ebook. Not screenreadable

Misc. Notes (if any): Originally printed as ten floppy issues, which were then consolidated into two paperbacks, which were consolidated in turn into one big omnibus. The characters also appear in Moore's later crossover series, Five Years, but I haven't read it and can say nothing about it.

Comments

Content Warnings

[lb_lee]

The entire plot of the comic from the middle of the first issue until midway through the final one is a half-baked hallucination caused by the shrapnel in Sam's head dragging her closer and closer to death; she is avoiding surgery out of fear that it will cause Mike to disappear, and the implication at the end of Motor Girl (after she collapses and ends up in surgery) is that he is gone. However, Mike appears again in the later crossover series, Five Years, so who knows! The plot is the weakest part of this book.

The torture and imprisonment of Sam is kept mostly off-screen, though the obvious effects on Sam afterward still make it chilling. PTSD. Child death via bombing. Surgery. The Iraq War (the politics of which are completely undiscussed). Also, a couple gross sexualization moments of Sam, though NOT by Mike. (Indeed, Mike and Sam's relationship is the kind of platonic where they walk in on each other in the bathroom and just respond with, "Gross." "You should've knocked.")