As soon as I saw George's entry in Rising Stars 5, "Can I Sit Here?" I knew I had to work with him. The story was deceptively simple—a guy waiting for the bus works up the courage to talk to a girl—yet amazingly satisfying. The art was very stylized and unique, but the little background details made you feel like you were there, and the relatable inner dialogue made you feel like you were him. That was the kind of manga I wanted to make: stories that were more than conventions and surface elements, with characters that were more than designs and dialogue. Something simple, yet unique, yet all too real—in other words, a classic.

The concept of Go with Grace is also deceptively simple: a bedridden girl with no reason to live falls in love with a mysterious boy who may or may not be a complete figment of her imagination. Typical shojo, right?

On the other hand, its themes include life, death, suicide, autonomy, inspiration, true love and the immortal soul. And its characters—you know them. Even the figments. No, especially those.

~Carol Fox, Editor

Her name's Grace. She's been sick for as long as she can remember, and lies in bed all day. Her family's wealthy, so she has all the comforts in the world...except for love. Her father's a drunk, and her mother's dead.

But when a mysterious young man appears at Grace's balcony, everything changes. The boy challenges Grace to leave her room, despite her condition. Eventually she does...and, strangely, she doesn't feel sick anymore. Because the world outside is nothing like what she imagined it to be...

George Alexopoulos:
George Alexopoulos won third place in TOKYOPOP's Rising Stars of Manga Vol. 5 with his entry, "Can I Sit Here?" He also drew and co-wrote an online graphic novel entitled Artist's Block. He is twenty years old and lives in New Jersey.

His favorite things include listening to Coldplay, hunting down new volumes of Kare Kano, and watching the French film Amelie.

Grace:
Aspires to become a writer and spends her time reading literature and poetry. Her passion for writing, however, isn't nearly strong enough to reinforce her will to live. Grace, tired of being unheard and unappreciated, has begun to see death as her only escape from the pains of living.

Andy:
Rebellious, wild and daring. Often doesn't know his limits unless he's already pushed them, and can rarely see beyond the moment. To Grace, he appears innocent and curious.

Mr. Miller:
Grace's stepfather. A selfish and bitter man, Mr. Miller sees Grace as an insult, realizing Emily married him only so she could be taken care of. As a result, he barely pays attention to her, while being very strict with Ashley, his real daughter.

Ashley:
Grace's little sister. A hard worker and extremely loving, Ashley always puts others before herself. Although she is extremely mature for her age, every now and again she has to let go and be a kid.

Comics Worth Reading
I haven’t ever seen anyone else talk about Go With Grace, and I’m surprised, since this stand-alone graphic novel by new talent George Alexopoulos is quite impressive in its own quiet way.

It’s about a depressed, invalid girl and the mysterious boy who visits her through her balcony. Grace has an undiagnosed mystery disease that keeps her confined to her bedroom, where she writes poetry and fills journals. Her mother passed away several years back, and her father is contemptuous, caring only about the cost of treatment. Her younger sister Ashley somehow maintains her cheerfulness in the face of these family dynamics, becoming a little mother.

Grace isn’t sure what to make of the boy, thinking him a hallucination, ghost, or dream. He does inspire her, though, and teaches her to see things in a different way, until events cascade in a surprising fashion to an ending that leaves the reader with the question of whether it’s happy or not.

Grace’s room is a restricted environment that Alexopoulos keeps interesting by infinitely varying his portrayals of it and Grace. Her long dark hair changes in arrangement and texture with her moods. The indiscriminate time frame contributes to the feeling of uncertainty. Ashley wears a backpack and Grace has a television but the streets are paved with cobblestones and the girls wear old-fashioned dresses and hairstyles.

Although published in a manga-style format — this is a small black-and-white book, just the size of the reader’s hands — Alexopoulos’ style isn’t particularly Japanese-influenced. His open faces are typically termed cartoony, but he populates his world with plenty of detail, including costumes and setting. Most of the appeal comes from the variety of mood Alexopoulos creates in his scenes and the universality of the themes he captures: The psychological connection between spirit and body and the human need for companionship and understanding.

It sounds terribly goth, I know, or maybe emo, but it’s not annoying in either of those ways. I found it thought-provoking, one of those books I immediately read a second time to see what I’d missed and how my interpretation changed with more knowledge.

~Johanna
http://comicsworthreading.com/2007/09/04/go-with-grace