Ryan Kelly deserves any gig in comics he wants--The Local #9 Discussion

"Ryan Kelly deserves any gig in comics he wants, and his emotional range is stunning. I don’t even want to talk about the story, because it is such an easy journey to identify with."
Brendan, Pop Culture Shock

"B-Wood’s writing is superb, as usual, and Ryan Kelly is the guy you want drawing every soul-searching bio comic in the world, but yeah, he should be given any book he wants."
Adan, Pop Culture Shock


"Local has been something of a rarity in comics these days: A book deliberately written for the single-issue format. Wood and Kelly have so far created eight stories that stood almost perfectly on their own, though each issue built on the last. In this respect, too, the book reminds me of Six Feet Under: Even when the series hit a lull, even when the characters got annoying and the stories began to drag, it was always going somewhere, always building, always heading to some unspecified release point. For Local, the ninth issue is that release point: This is what it's all been about so far.

In that way, actually, this ninth issue is something of a failure as far as self-contained stories go. I suppose it's a perfectly good story if you haven't been following Local, but if you know Megan's story so far, this is a great comic.

The best issue of the series to date, and quite likely the best single issue of a comic I've read this year."
Ryan, Metamorphostuff

"Once again, as he has with each and every issue, artist Ryan Kelly takes Brian’s words and shapes them into page after page of visuals that breathe with raw Americana, like a series of black and white photographs lovingly stored in a shoebox under your bed. His work evokes nostalgia as well as your favorite sad song ever could, and he never shies away from taking his art in new directions, like with the flashbacks in this issue. They have a grainy shading to them, like old memories frayed around the edges, the details slowly slipping away. He just might be Brian Wood’s best collaborator to date, and he’s certainly a talent to watch in the future."
Jared,PopSyndicate

"PICK OF THE WEEK -
It's a skillful issue, the best of a series that has consistently been worthwhile. It works in two separate ways, the way that one-off issues always should but rarely do, both as a short story complete in and of itself, but also illuminating the series and the character as a whole."
Graeme Mcmillan,The Savage Critic