It’s Grace Kwon’s 18th birthday and life couldn’t be better. She was just accepted to Stanford and she landed the lead in the Spring play. Grace is on top of the world until she encounters herself at age six, 29 and 70. There’s no technical or logical explanation on how it happened nor does it matter because the sudden news of the Spring play’s cancellation becomes the larger problem and these older versions amplify her doubts, anxieties and fears. Having to explain her other selves to friends, hiding them from her parents and resisting the urge to ask them questions about the future doesn’t help. Are they an omen of what will be or what may be? Are they around to assist her in overcoming personal demons or will they create the messes she will encounter eventually?
Good as Lily is in the same vein as one of my personal favorites, David Chelsea in Love, because it’s another demonstration of how comic books can take a similar premise such as the one in 13 Going on 30 and do it a thousand times better than Hollywood. Especially when it comes to creating a character’s depth, motivation and general credibility in the story. On the downside, there are times when the illustrator uses the overused manga technique of exaggerating facial features or physical gestures which I’m sick of. To me, skilled illustrators can show emotions more effectively with very few lines with the same core “shape.” This is done all the time in animation. But back to its strengths. Lily doesn’t dwell on the majority of the characters being Korean as a story element or crutch. Grace and her friends behave like all American teenagers do, their ethnicity is an extraneous detail and probably due to the author being Korean. The story stays focused on the protagonist juggling school, friends, saving the play, a mean-spirited rival who has tormented her since kindergarten, interacting with her parents and a supressing a crush on the drama teacher all while trying to figure out why are her other selves here. Lesser teenagers would be devastated by this workload. I know I would’ve been in a straitjacket by the first weekend. This may not be a really heavy comic from DC’s Vertigo line but this is a nice, quick and pleasant story to read which I plan to loan out t0 friends. If you don’t live near me, I recommend you borrow it from someone or buy your own copy. I think it could come in handy and will interest the same younger kids addicted to DeGrassi or will raise the High School Musical fans’ IQ by 10 points.