For Your Consideration: The Waiting Place GN
by Robert Greenberger
The Waiting Place cover
Fellow Westfield subscribers may have discovered Sean McKeever when he was writing Gravity at Marvel or later, when he did a nice run on DC’s Teen Titans. I, on the other hand, first discovered him in 2001. When attending a convention, I wander the publisher booths, seeking out interesting looking series, usually not involving spandex and super-powers. That summer, I found The Waiting Place at the Slave Labor Graphics table and bought a few issues. I was hooked by Sean’s work and bought every issue until the series ended just months later.
Fortunately, IDW has signed on to collect the complete run, which stretched from 1997-2002 in a nifty hardcover that will also boast a 20-page new story that McKeever has described as a coda to the original storyline. Illustrating will be Mike Norton who drew much of the original series at the beginning of his career.
What’s The Waiting Place? McKeever told Comic Book Resources that the title is derived from Dr. Seuss book, Oh The Places You’ll Go! “It refers to the rut we all get stuck in at some time in our lives when trying to achieve our goals.” In this series, the waiting place is a small town in Wisconsin (not far from the Westfield offices we suspect) and focuses on nine teenagers struggling to figure themselves out while still in high school.
In many ways, McKeever’s career trajectory is a textbook example for would-be creators. “I grew up in a town very much like TWP‘s town of Northern Plains,” McKeever told CBR in 2002. “After living in the Milwaukee suburbs for nearly eight years, being in the middle of nowhere left me feeling very isolated and limited.” He knew he liked comics and wanted to write them but was unsure of how until he connected to the Internet and a lifeline beyond his town was found. He learned from professionals who shared their wisdom on line and McKeever decided to write what he knew and self-published the book until Slave Labor liked what they saw and agreed to publish it. Even so, despite positive reviews, the book was barely breaking even and McKeever had to take on numerous jobs to cover his expenses.
But Marvel’s Tom Brevoort found the comic, much as I did, and liked how he wrote characters and invited him to pitch to Marvel and he’s been a mainstream professional writer ever since.
What Tom and I both liked was how he wrote the teens Jeffry, Jill, Lora, Scott, Cullen, Kyle, Jeremy, Juston, Chris, Steven and Matt, McKeever suggests the title is appropriate to those 14 years old and up as he delves into issues of sex, drugs, rock and roll but larger themes of identity and friendship. The series, he says, is about “alienation; coming of age; a burning desire to get on with life.”
McKeever told CBR, “It’s not escapist fantasy – and people who like escapist fantasy tend to complain that it’s not, as if all comics should be tailored to their personal preferences – but for those who want to enjoy a solid, realistic drama, I honestly feel that TWP is where it’s at.” One of the book’s strengths was how well-plotted it was, allowing characters room to grow, change and explore new options, bringing the reader along for the ride. “There were bits and pieces of TWP planned out from the beginning,” he explained. “Most of volume 1 was already bouncing around my noggin, but much of volume 2 was built after volume 1 was finished and as I went along with it.”