In college three of my friends were stuck in a love triangle. Patrick had been dating Sara, Sara went abroad for a month and while she was gone Patrick and Sara’s roomate, Laura, slept together. All of them were good friends so somehow they decided to not let this get between them. And Patrick sort of stayed involved with both of them which amazed the rest of us. This was a pretty awkward and hard experience as you can imagine- for all of them. Why am I telling you all this??? Well, being the creative people they are, they decided to collaborate on a project about the mess they were in. They each made a booklet describing the situation and their feelings toward the experience. I was really surprised when they decided to take such a personal happening and share it with everyone (they sold these at various comic book stores). But in some ways I think it was sort of a way of communicating feelings with each other and expressing themselves without making it a dramatic disaster. And it turned out really interesting. Patrick’s version of the story is drawn like a comic book, with caricatures of each of his “girlfriends”. He tells the story with himself represented by a wooden duck which Sara finds in a pond and who later asks Laura to watch for her. Laura’s version is more abstract with quotes and small sayings in handdrawn scripty type snaking around line drawings. Sara’s book is the most direct version of the story told through collaged type and pictures. Her version is the most personal with her feelings described in big bold type- bitter, jealous and confused. The booklets are held together with a band of fuzzy paper with a III silkscreened on it. This collaboration was done more than four of five years ago and all of these people have happily moved on as far as I know, but I like the way this sort of documents a weird time in their lives and makes for an interesting find for a stranger. You may be able find a copy of this somewhere out there at your local indie comic shop if your’re lucky.

© Julia Rothman 2007