Despite, a simplified look, Wiegle creates a different a
distinct look to disguish textures and scenery.
Matt Wiegle, a member of New York art comics collective, Partyka, has taken up the interesting task of adapting several Native American (particularly Inuit Eskimo) stories into comics. In The Four Husbands, he adapts the story "The Whale, the Sea Scorpion, the Stone, and the Eagle." I'm not familiar with the original tale (although Wiegle provides reference for his sourcing), so it's difficult for me to judge his adaptation skills or discern the liberties taken with the story. The reader will simply have to excuse my ignorance and accept this review as one of the comic alone.
The game is simple, the stakes a very high.
The story begins with a simple premise; four girls, bored one particular day, decide to play a game. Each girl waits to see something, and then pretends to marry it. What they pretend to marry are the four figures from the title of the tale. The twist in the story is that, eventually, the girls do marry the things they played at marrying. So, one goes off to marry a whale, the second, a sea scorpion, the third marries a stone and the fourth marries an eagle. What follows are a series of somewhat harrowing misadventures, as each girl quickly discovers that their husbands are less than ideal.
One wonders if the overly libidinal whale might be a metaphor
for certain types of men.
Presented in a landscape format, with two panels per page, and sporting a silk-screened cover, Wiegle infuses this story with plenty of humor, much like the strip and gag collections the book is somewhat reminiscent of. His drawing is more stylized here than in other works, his storytelling clear and concise. It's a tribute to him that this not only compliments the humor that runs through The Four Husbands, but also lends an air of pathos to the more depressing and distressing elements.
"Behold my killing!" Aren't you impressed? Will
the men in kayaks come before the girl has turned to stone?
The story itself is a fable of sorts. Its moral one of being more selective when choosing a husband, of not treating such a serious subject as a game. The girl who makes the most arbitrary choice is also the girl who suffers the most. The husbands themselves might be metaphors for certain types of men. All of them are overly protective of their wives, secreting them away from their families and placing certain demands upon them. The whale is incredibly horny, his sexing of his his wife leaves her scarred and battered. He insists that everything they need is there with him. His jealousy blinds him to simplistic scheming and flares into a tremendous rage. The eagle is a proud hunter, ignoring his wife for extended periods of time, assuming that his killings are more than enough to satisfy her. He, too, flies into a jealous rage when he discovers that his offerings aren't enough to please a woman. The fate of one woman is a bit of a mystery, much like the life of the sea scorpion. The personality of the rock seems to be one that smothers others, trying to make them more like itself. The stone doesn't move on its own and has no needs but to be more of a stone.
This is a fun book. A great little read with a lot to reveal, both about Inuit culture and male-female relationships. It's funny and scary, and the perfect introduction to a fairly new voice on the comics scene.
—Justin J. Fox