The Waiting Place is a comic book series created by Sean Kelley McKeever in 1997. Recommended by the author for young adults aged 14+,[1] the series is a teen drama which centres on the lives of a group of teenagers (and one twenty-something) living in the remote American town of Northern Plains. The theme of the series is that characters who live in such towns exist in a 'holding pattern', spending their time waiting for something to happen. McKeever has described the themes of some of his comics, including The Waiting Place, as being "Alienation; coming of age; a burning desire to get on with life."[2] The Waiting Place established McKeever as a writer of high-school stories, and paved the way for his later work for Marvel Comics on titles like Sentinel and Mary Jane.
| The Waiting Place | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Slave Labor Graphics |
| Publication date | 1997 – 2002 |
| No. of issues | 18 |
| Creative team | |
| Created by | Sean Kelley McKeever |
| Written by | Sean Kelley McKeever |
| Artist(s) | Brendon & Brian Fraim (vol. 1) Mike Norton (vol. 2) |
| Collected editions | |
| Book One | ISBN 0-943151-36-8 |
Northern Plains, where The Waiting Place is set, is based on Eagle River, Wisconsin, where Sean attended High School.
Publication history edit
The Waiting Place started life as a self-published comic. McKeever realised that his best chance of breaking into the comics industry was to have a complete comic to show publishers, rather than his writing on its own. He found Brendon and Brian Fraim, and together they produced three issues of The Waiting Place. At a convention they submitted a copy of the self-published comic to Slave Labor Graphics, who liked it and took it on, republishing those early issues themselves too.
Marvel editor, Tom Brevoort, was a fan of The Waiting Place and gave McKeever his first Marvel assignments on the strength of it.[3]
In 2005, Venture Management optioned The Waiting Place, believing it to have the potential to become a TV series.[4]
Characters edit
- Jeffry Dietz - the main character, who moves with his parents from the suburbs, leaving behind his girlfriend Michelle.
- Lora Halstead - a brunette senior, she believes in free love and heavy drinking.
- Jill Patterson - a blonde, beautiful freshman, who feels the need to dress in a sexy, feminine style in order to belong.
- Kyle Donovan - a long-haired juvenile delinquent who uses drugs.
- Scott Forbes - a 24-year-old who works in his father's video store and still carries a torch for his high school girlfriend, Ami.
- Ami Briggs - Scott's ex-girlfriend, who has since married a policeman and had a child.
- Cullen Cole - the son of the town's only black family, he faces a lot of hostility.
- Matt "the Anarchist" - an orphan, he is physically imposing, but uses the Internet and other surveillance methods to control others and make money.
- Steven Randall - class president, very popular; secretly gay.
Collected editions edit
The series has been collected into a number of trade paperbacks:
| Title | Material collected | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| The Waiting Place Book One | The Waiting Place vol. 1 #1–6 | ISBN 0-943151-36-8 |
| The Waiting Place Book Two | The Waiting Place vol. 2 #1-6 | ISBN 0-943151-53-8 |
| The Waiting Place Book Three | The Waiting Place vol. 2 #7-12 | ISBN 0-943151-76-7 |
| The Waiting Place: The Definitive Edition | The Waiting Place Vol. 1 #1-6 The Waiting Place Vol. 2 #1-12 |
ISBN 978-1-60010-526-5 |
References edit
External links edit
- The official website for The Waiting Place
- The Waiting Place Vol. 1 at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
- The Waiting Place Vol. 2 at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)