No time for my usual drawn out, extra flowery intros: Is Ted OK? #4 is a bonkers-ass issue, kiddies.
We left Ted and Sarah in issue #3 after our awkward lead got shot in the face and then suddenly flew away like a bolt of lightning. As far as big-time reveals go, it was a genuine blast — creator Dave Chisholm knows how to give us big, stylized action with a grace and power that few other artists can muster. But what I loved about that moment wasn’t the thrill but rather that, after some more “alien-adjacent” tidbits, this sharp turn closer to the realm of superheroes felt really important.
In a book called Is Ted OK?, it makes sense to keep us guessing — about the nature of Ted and the story’s ultimate direction, sure, but also the framework we use to connect with this story. In that way, Chisholm is keeping us on our toes while still giving us so much to work with. The book’s gravity is untraceable, but it always keeps you right where your head oughta hover.
Courtesy of Mad Cave Studios.
In Ted #4, after our leads land, they meet up with a new character, Dr. Christina Paganni, who has her own score to settle with their collective former employer, Ayn-Styne. There’s something a wee bit deus ex machina to the good doctor, and in this chapter she represents a bit of knowledge and understanding for Ted and Sarah. Admittedly, it’s only the briefest of flashes so far, but those bits manage to 1) further “confuse” readers in a way that keeps the true nature of Ted a mystery (while honing down the options) and 2) let Chisholm bring in more great action (and sci-fi zaniness, like something out of an arthouse East of West) without minimizing the increasingly personal story. And speaking of that, the doctor’s presence also inevitably means a renewed focus on Ted and Sarah.
While those two have a lot to work out, they’re clearly developing toward the next stage of their relationship. A moment comes that really tests their bond, and while you’d be rightfully distracted by the dopest mech ever (Chisholm is a tradesman in the way he spins in various influences and crafts his own world), don’t forget what this moment of bravery really means. Mostly that, while the pair didn’t start out on the best of feet (Sarah was spying on Ted, after all), we leave issue #4 with the security that they’re in it for the long haul. And that creates this massively relatable core that not only lends much-needed gravity in a massive, ever-shifting book, but reminds us that Ted is about connection and community perhaps above so much else.
Courtesy of Mad Cave Studios.
Ted is only able to take this bizarre trip because of Sarah (and Jonny the cat, too), and that informs so much of this story’s interest in our own agency for the future and what it means to be alive right now. Similarly, we get some of my favorite voicemail messages from Sarah to her unknown friend/loved one. It may just be a drawn-out story about bathrooms, but it’s also the ways in which we relate to others in a world that we don’t truly control. And that is a central part of the territory that Ted explores with so much gusto. Also, super serious you guys, robots.
Yet mechs and burgeoning partnerships aside, the focus of this issue is very much Noah (TM) and our journalist friend, Kyle. In fact, we get the sense that, after Chisholm teased it in our chat and then the way issue #3 played out — Noah announced his presidential campaign — the A and B stories have finally swapped. Despite my own initial fears about said move, it should already be clear that Chisholm handled it like a pro. The Ted-Sarah stuff never feels any less vital, but it wasn’t necessarily the driving force of the issue. It felt more like the reason we should care for where Chisholm is taking us, this rich emotional circulatory system that keeps this story humming. Noah (TM) really acts as the brain, and boy howdy is this grey matter up to something insane.
Courtesy of Mad Cave Studios.
What that is exactly I can’t say — Ted #4 really pushes the envelope and positions Noah (TM)’s plan as this massive, slightly metaphysical conspiracy about violence and social systems and so much more still. But from that “reveal,” there’s a few important takeaways. One is that Noah (TM)’s continued evolution is really interesting: He’s really gone from an Elon Musk clone to an approximation of Lex Luthor, and yet despite the incredible turn, Chisholm rides the line between reality and fantasy to give us a bad guy with actual galore. (Just another way this book continues to play with our sensibilities.)
Secondly, Noah (TM)’s whole plan/reveal gives Ted some greater teeth. While the book has always been relevant, some of the Noah (TM) developments hint at the increasingly divisive nature of technology, the messianic tendencies of these billionaires (and how we just need them to be functional people), and even just how much we’re willing to acquiesce to the elite. There’s a bit of comics supervillain fun to it, but Noah (TM) is our portal into these big ideas that we’re living through right now. He’s an antagonist who makes very real all the conversations about power and technology at the heart of this book, and he revs the intellectual possibilities up in a way that the book’s now fully grabbing our brains and not just tickling the lobes.
Courtesy of Mad Cave Studios.
As an extension of that last bit, I also quite love the look and feel of Noah (TM)’s scheme. It does involve The Dome, which continues to be this strange thing dancing at the edge of it all (which, again, is sort of a core strength of Ted — messing with us and also being expertly layered/constructed). It’s mostly a counter to the “cooler” tech Ted and Sarah encounter — a realization of what we’re actually fighting these days and the promise of our self-inflicted downfall made manifest.
It’s stylized as heck but also sort of dark and foreboding, proper technology that we don’t fully understand but that we know to fear. (That notions seems relevant enough, yeah?) It doesn’t just generate fear, but shows us that the stakes within Ted are more dire than ever, and that this issue is both sensational but also a warning. And that warning is, “The future is coming, and your friendship may not be enough to save the day.” But then what if it is enough?
Of course, after three issues that read like being taken down by a genuine judo master, I’ll likely never know where Ted is headed. I assume there will be more poignant moments of discovery and interpersonal tension; more superpowers and giant robots; a few more twists and turns; and perhaps even more narrative inversion and general kinetic heft from this deeply inventive story. But whatever is to come for our heroes (and our villain), I know that Ted will continue to be this massively relevant, endlessly fantastical tale that reminds us of what matters most, prepares us for the future, and keeps the world spinning in ways both wonderful and disarming.
No time for some of that closing fluff — go read this damn book now.
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