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True Story, Swear to God #12
Clib’s Boy Comics
By Tom Beland

Review by Fletcher Adams

The Least You Need to Know – After months of traveling back and forth between Napa Valley and San Juan, Tom moves to Puerto Rico with Lily.

One general rule of writing is “write what you know.” That immediately leads many writers to the common pitfall of only writing about themselves. While there are exceptions, generally I’m not interested in autobiographical comics. Unless there’s something truly unique to your life, or you have an exceptional way of making the mundane exciting, quite honestly, I’m probably not that interested in you. To his credit, Tom Beland’s True Story Swear to God happens to have both of these things.

The first major arc of TSSTG dealt with Tom and Lily meeting, their falling in love and his maturation into a larger world. In this arc, Tom deals with an entire new set of circumstances. Having found his soul mate and true love, Tom must adapt to a new country, new culture and must deal with being so far removed from his close-knit family. Much of the comic reads almost like a journal entry, but what elevates it to an enjoyable comic reading experience is Tom’s honesty. Tom the author’s willingness to put himself on display, flaws and all, is what makes Tom the character such a likeable protagonist. Additionally, the fact that Tom is a legitimately funny guy makes this book a treat to read every time it ships.

Artistically, Beland’s style has a very simple, “cartoonish” appeal to it. His panels are simple and uncluttered, while the characters have a universal appeal to them. Tom, Lily and the others have distinctive enough looks to distinguish them, but have a simplicity that makes it easy for the reader to adopt them as universal figures.

The Bottom Line – True Story, Swear to God is probably one of the best independent titles on the market today. Besides being an enjoyable tale, it has a fresh, simple appeal to it that is less imposing then many more “artistic” or “cutting edge” indie titles. This book is a real treat and is well deserving of a larger audience.