Review by Frank Plowright

There was a distinctly melodramatic ending to Wish You Were Here and as Out of Bodies opens Jim McCann immediately dials back on it, which was expected. Elle Petersen has more friends than she knew, and now some are working together to foil what appears to have been an insidious plan organised by her mother for as yet unknown reasons, with the co-operation of a senior hospital doctor. Elle is in a coma, but with the ability to briefly possess and revive other comatose patients when their spirits are ready to depart.

It’s to be admired how McCann sets so much of Mind the Gap in a ward of comatose patients, yet still ensures it’s interesting. The drawback is that after three volumes there’s only so much artist over the first two chapters Sami Basri, then regular artist Rodin Esquejo can do to make things look different. Everyone is model beautiful, but scenes are beginning to look repetitive. There’s no chance of that with the art of Dan McDaid, who has a far grittier approach to flashback sequences, and while not as polished, the change of pace is welcome.

The last volume seemed to circle until the last chapter, but there’s considerable movement here. What happemed to Elle at the subway station is revealed, along with who’s responsible; the Petersen family lineage is viewed from the dying days of World War II, and then in Argentina; someone influential joins the fight back and the big purpose behind everything is revealed, and it’s wild. It also reconstitutes pretty well everything that’s happened over three volumes as just a prelude with the main event just about to kick off.

Unfortunately, at that point Mind the Gap ends in book form. McCann published two further comics, and one can still find online comments from him saying there’s merely been a delay, but since those comments are from 2014 it’s safe to say there will be no more Mind the Gap.

That’s a shame, but on the other hand what’s available over three volumes can be seen as a three act prelude pretty well complete in itself. There’s mystery and imagination, and it’s well drawn. Don’t deprive yourself.