Skim (comics)

Skim
Cover of the first edition of Skim.
Date	2008
Publisher	Groundwood Books
Creative team
Writers	Mariko Tamaki
Artists	Jillian Tamaki
Original publication
Language	English
ISBN	978-0-88899-753-1

Skim is a Canadian graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki and drawn by Jillian Tamaki. Set in 1993, in a Toronto Catholic girls high school, it is about an outsider girl called Skim.

Plot

Skim is a "not slim" sixteen year old Japanese-Canadian who is a student at an all-girls catholic school. She is known as a goth, and practices Wicca. When popular girl Katie Matthews gets dumped by her athlete boyfriend, who days later kills himself, the entire school goes into mourning overdrive. With the school counselors breathing down her neck and the popular clique (including Katie's best friend Julie Peters) forming a new club in its wake, Skim finds herself in the crosshairs, deepening her "depression". And if things cannot get more complicated, Skim starts to fall for an equally quirky teacher.

Characters

• Kimberly Keiko Cameron, aka "Skim": a Wiccan, Gothic, Japanese-Canadian schoolgirl.
• Lisa Soor: Skim's best friend (and fellow Wiccan), although they are beginning to drift apart.
• Ms. Archer: The school's English and drama teacher, also the only teacher at the school that Skim respects, although she is flaky.
• Katie Matthews: a popular girl at the school, the former girlfriend of John and former best friend of Julie. She later befriends Skim, becoming closer after she defends Katie during the dance.
• John Reddear: Katie's former boyfriend. A star volleyball player at a neighboring boy's school. After dumping Katie, he kills himself by overdosing on his mother's heart medication. He is rumored to be gay.
• Julie Peters: Another popular girl, Katie's best friend (at first) and founder/president of the GCL Club. Skim later confronts her for what she really is: "a know-it-all pain in the butt".
• Anna Canard: Another GCL Club member, whom Lisa associates with more as the story progresses. She's a big-mouthed, boy-crazy gossip, although Katie thinks (as to Skim) that she's a big slut and has the cold sores to prove it.

Development

Skim was originally thought of as a "gothic Lolita story", and what eventually became part I of the story was run as a 30 page preview in an indie magazine.^[1] Mariko Tamaki wrote the story much like a play's script, and Jillian Tamaki illustrated the novel as she saw fit.^[2]

Reception

Reception was positive. In their review, Publisher's Weekly called Skim an "auspicious graphic novel debut" with a "fine ear for dialogue" that is "rich in visuals and observations".^[3] Paul Gravett called it "the most sophisticated and sensitive North American graphic novel debut of the year."^[4] Killett says that it manages to avoid the usual cliches of a coming of age story.^[5] The Toronto Star compared the story to Dead Poets Society and Heathers.^[6]

The CCBC recommended Skim for ages 14 and up,^[7] saying that Skim's struggles have universal qualities.^[8] The Metro News praised that the narrative voice sounds authentic.^[9]

Skim was list as one of the Young Adult Library Services Association's 2009 Great Graphic Novels for Teens award.^[10] Skim also won the 2008 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Graphic Novel.^[11]

Skim was nominated in four categories in the 2009 Eisner Awards^[12] and won Best Book at the 2009 Doug Wright Awards.^[13]

Skim was a finalist for the 2008 Governor General's Awards in the children's literature category. The Canada Council for the Arts, the award program's administrator, faced some criticism around the fact that the nomination was credited to Mariko Tamaki, who wrote the graphic novel's text, but not to her cousin and co-creator Jillian Tamaki, who drew the illustrations. Jillian later said she was "extremely disappointed" that she had not been included in the nomination.^[14] Two prominent Canadian graphic novelists, Seth and Chester Brown, circulated an open letter to the Canada Council asking them to revise the nomination,^[15] arguing that unlike a more traditional illustrated book, a graphic novel's text and illustration are inseparable parts of the work's narrative, and that both women should accordingly be credited as equal co-authors. Their letter was also endorsed by other prominent Canadian and American graphic novelists, including Lynda Barry, Dan Clowes, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware and Julie Doucet, as well as by Chris Oliveros of Canadian comic and graphic novel publisher Drawn & Quarterly, and Peter Birkemore of Toronto comic store The Beguiling.^[16] Melanie Rutledge, a spokesperson for the Canada Council, responded that it was too late to revise the nominations for the 2008 awards, but that the council would take the feedback into account in the future.^[17]

Later, both Jillian and Mariko Tamaki applied for and received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts to launch Skim in Spain.^[18]

References

External links

• Skim at Groundwood Books' website
• Mariko Tamaki's official website
• Jillian Tamaki Illustration
• "Thinking in Comics: A Roundtable on the Present and Future of the Graphic Novel featuring Matt Kindt, Hope Larson, Nate Powell, Dash Shaw, James Sturm, Jillian Tamaki, and Will Wilkinson" in Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts (26.1)

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