Subway Series - Softcover

Leela Corman studied painting, printmaking and illustration at Massachusetts College of Art. Her book Queen s Day earned her a Xeric Award in 1999 and was called music to my eyes by Scott McCloud. She has created two more graphic novels including her latest, Unterzakhn, published by Schocken/Pantheon. She has illustrated books for major publishers on crafts, fashion, gardening, dating and other topics, and for clients such as The New York Times, New York Press, BUST Magazine, Thirteen/WNET, and many more. She is also an accomplished bellydancer and bellydance instructor. Corman and her husband, Tom Hart, are the founders of The Sequential Artists Workshop, a non-profit organization dedicated to the prosperity and promotion of comic art and artists, offering instruction in comic art, graphic novels and visual storytelling in vibrant Gainesville, Florida, where she is also an adjunct instructor at University of Florida.

Corman's (Queens Day) new work follows a group of Manhattan teenagers in the process of growing up, pretending all the while that they already have. Tina is looking for love but has no idea where to find it. Technically a virgin, she supposedly dates James, who's off studying in Florida. Meanwhile, she takes guitar lessons from Evan, a cute alt. music boy whose girlfriend is in Germany. Tina and Evan's growing attraction is buried behind the cynical fronts that all these teen characters maintain to seem cool. Tina and her girlfriends, brutally catty behind each others' backs, sit in diners drinking coffee and trying to impress each other with sexual braggadocio that actually betrays their inexperience. As Tina gets closer to Evan, James returns on a school holiday and things begin to heat up, but James is ultimately revealed as a rather nasty sexual predator. Corman's drawings are very cartoony and lack detail, but skillfully convey the confused emotions her characters seek to hide. Although sloppy in places, her strong graphic sense and knack for storytelling carry the book. Corman's reliance on showing rather than telling sometimes leaves the narrative sketchy and in need of explanation. But older teens and those who were once older teens should have no trouble relating to this tale.
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