Healed #3

Here's a locally-published comic that my wife picked up at the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo.

Title: Healed
Issue: #3
Date: 2011
Publisher: Homeless Comics
Writer: George O'Connor
Artist: Griffin, S.
Editor: Tracy O'Connor

Humanity has been suddenly cured of all disease. Suddenly, no one can die of "natural causes". The result isn't as joyful or blissful as one might first imagine.

I'm probably going to seek out the first two issues (they're standard format comics, b/w interior with color covers), but I had no problem following the story from here.

The main focus of this issue is on two residents of a nursing home. They're being evicted along with all other "healed" residents and they are returning to families who had essentially given them up as dead. The first segment was the most powerful, as a teenager was forced to face the consequences of actions and words that he thought his grandfather would take to the grave.

Also in this issue is a scene involving a drug company executive who's trying to investigate the cause of the healing. She understands the negative consequences of overpopulation and starvation that could await the world, but she may also have a bit of a personal stake. After all, who needs medicine in a world where nobody ever gets sick?

The dialogue was good throughout this issue, and writer George O'Connor has clearly put a lot of thought into what the fallout from the mass healing might be like. Against that global perspective, this book gives us character we can care about and some intriguing subplots.

Rating: 8.5/10