Review by Frank Plowright

To begin this second volume Axelle Lenoir asks what’s new since Volume 1, and replies that nothing’s changed. So it’s still BFF’s Marie and Nathalie hanging out together and when the conversation dips they ask each other “what if we were…?” As we considered Volume 1 joyful and original and it was nominated for an Eisner Award, that’s good news. Except it’s not entirely true as there are changes.

At the beginning the regular two page strips continue to ask questions that spiral out into joyously ridiculous speculations, although not quite as many this time, as Lenoir wants to head in other directions. In principle that’s fine because fantasy and imagination are still paramount and the main characters are so well defined – and we include Jane here – that they’re able to slot into different material. Lenoir begins introducing this slowly via dips back into the past. We see Marie and Nathalie first meeting on the park swings when very young, one of many discussions about princesses, and a wish that they were the coolest kids in school. As an example of contrast, three very different viewpoints are given a page at a time, each remembering the first time Marie attempted to introduced Jane to Nathalie. They’re brilliantly observed.

Lenoir’s cartooning is always joyful and expressive, and a nice touch about this volume is how she constantly messes with hairstyles.

The trips back in time precede the centrepiece selection of an extended comedy fairy tale, which is as charmingly drawn as everything Lenoir illustrates, but so many jokes are obvious. We discover Lenoir has fine knack for concise ruminations around a subject, but a thirty page shaggy dog story doesn’t supply the same wit or pleasure despite remaining true to the characters.

That’s disappointing, but when Lenoir moves back to the core format for the final third of this second volume the strips are stronger than ever. There’s greater artistic imagination, as seen by the sample art, and greater creativity about the strips, which are more personal than the first volume. They’re among the best strips of the entire series, and there’s enough of them to make What If We Were Vol. 2 an essential purchase even with a saggy middle section. Sadly, according to Lenoir’s back of the book notes, there’s not likely to be any more What If We Were… for the foreseeable future, if at all.