Review by Frank Plowright
Willa is the square peg in a round hole in the small town of Stony Lonesome, quiet and contemplative in a community where everyone else broadcasts loud and frequently. Willa’s preferred means of communication is letters, and at eleven her ambition is to be Arizona’s best mailwoman. Her life turns upside down, though, when in placing a letter in a mailbox she’s assumed to be removing one, and therefore to be notorious mail thief Two Gum Tilly, who rides around on a hobby horse.
What begins as a relatively straightforward tale of a shy kid rapidly moves into a delightfully nutty adventure as Willa meets the Gumshoe Gang, runaways in a mail van driven by the elusive Susanna. They’re aiming to take down Two Gum Tilly and set stolen mail back on the way to its rightful destination. Suddenly Willa has a peer group.
Brenna Thummler builds a strange, but likeable alternate world where celebrity status is earned via deeds and advertising, and Two Gum Tilly is widely admired to the point of generating massive amounts of fanmail. The assorted personalities in the Gumshoe Gang are well defined, and a creative tale scattered as scenes within the main story creates a mythology around Two Gum Tilly herself. Amusingly, the title is reflected in a mailman constantly stepping on discarded gum, and also admirable is Thummler using the traditions of the Western to reflect the present.
The engaging wonkiness about the story also applies to the artwork, in which people don’t quite fit together, but are nevertheless charming, while the locations they occupy have the same aesthetic with interesting colour choices. It’s unconventional, but consistent and absolutely successful in sucking readers into the fantasy.
As might be expected from a graphic novel whose title is also an old term for a detective, mysteries to be solved sustain Gumshoe. Readers will figure out one about the missing mail pretty quickly, but the deeper stories about the people are gradually revealed, and they’re touching and charming.
For all the trappings of absurdity played with a straight face, Gumshoe is a coming of age story, not just about Willa finding her place, but other Gumshoe Gang members also. It stresses that running away from a problem is only a temporary solution as problems have a habit of catching up, and there’s always someone who can give a helping hand. At the same time it’s a love letter to the joy of mail. At three hundred pages this is a weighty book, but so captivating it never seems that length, and isn’t that what you want from a story?
