If you’ve ever returned back to the place you grew up after a long time away, you’ll probably find Minor Arcana very familiar. It’s a story about Theresa, the daughter of a small-town “psychic” tarot reading fraud, who returns home to care for her ailing mother after leaving home for good. It’s a story of the rediscovery of old things and maybe even who you are, even when every bone in your body wants nothing to do with “home.”
Minor Arcana #1 opens in Theresa’s dream. Writer and artist Jeff Lemire shows us a sea, a sign, and a strange shadowy figure in a window. It’s an ominous scene rendered in blue and black tones. Is her return home going to spell doom or death? Considering she’s coming home to take care of her dying mother, probably.
From there, the issue opens up with full color, though the scene on the bus Theresa is in is monotone in the color palette. Once off the bus, Theresa avoids her mother’s home and heads to a coffee shop instead. She’s pissed and reacting in a way to others that’s quite rude. Lemire captures her unease quite well here, as we see her repel others as much as her whole body wants to repel the town itself.
Theresa is having a bad day.
Credit: BOOM! Studios
That push and pull of Theresa wanting to leave but not being able to is an intriguing element further explored later in the issue. It may be related to her family or the magic they peddle. Either way, by the end of the issue, it’s clear magic is real on some scale, and Theresa has more to do in this town than she even knows.
Lemire’s art is gorgeous here, with the watercolors creating a wistful nature to the scenes. The entire book almost feels like a flashback, creating a sense of loss and otherness that suits the themes. In a key scene, we see Theresa do her mother’s job using tarot cards, and the captions juxtapose well with helping a woman while delivering key info about herself. She may not love her mother’s work, but she knows how to do it.
Speaking of the mother, Theresa is very real, with an edge to her words, which she knows will cut Theresa and the truth. They go hand in hand, after all. For a woman who has cancer, she sure does drink and smoke a lot, which in itself tells us something about her. All the characters feel realistic at a level where you might have met them before. They are lived in and true.
Subtle complexity washes over you with genuine characters and strong visual storytelling. It’s a compelling look at going home with characters fully realized and a sense of magic that’s forbidden but right.
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