The Waiting Place
Publication information
PublisherSlave Labor Graphics
Publication date1997 – 2002
No. of issues18
Creative team
Created bySean Kelley McKeever
Written bySean Kelley McKeever
Artist(s)Brendon & Brian Fraim (vol. 1)
Mike Norton (vol. 2)
Collected editions
Book OneISBN 0-943151-36-8

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.

Northern Plains, where The Waiting Place is set, is based on Eagle River, Wisconsin, where Sean attended High School.

Publication history

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

  • 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

The series has been collected into a number of trade paperbacks:

TitleMaterial collectedISBN
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

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