The Waiting Place

The Waiting Place is a comic book series created by Sean Kelley McKeever in 1997. Recommended by the author for young adults aged 14+,[1] the series is a teen drama which centres on the lives of a group of teenagers (and one twenty-something) living in the remote American town of Northern Plains. The theme of the series is that characters who live in such towns exist in a 'holding pattern', spending their time waiting for something to happen. McKeever has described the themes of some of his comics, including The Waiting Place, as being "Alienation; coming of age; a burning desire to get on with life."[2] The Waiting Place established McKeever as a writer of high-school stories, and paved the way for his later work for Marvel Comics on titles like Sentinel and Mary Jane.

The Waiting Place
Publication information
PublisherSlave Labor Graphics
Publication date1997 – 2002
No. of issues18
Creative team
Created bySean Kelley McKeever
Written bySean Kelley McKeever
Artist(s)Brendon & Brian Fraim (vol. 1)
Mike Norton (vol. 2)
Collected editions
Book OneISBN 0-943151-36-8

Northern Plains, where The Waiting Place is set, is based on Eagle River, Wisconsin, where Sean attended High School.

Publication history

The Waiting Place started life as a self-published comic. McKeever realised that his best chance of breaking into the comics industry was to have a complete comic to show publishers, rather than his writing on its own. He found Brendon and Brian Fraim, and together they produced three issues of The Waiting Place. At a convention they submitted a copy of the self-published comic to Slave Labor Graphics, who liked it and took it on, republishing those early issues themselves too.

Marvel editor, Tom Brevoort, was a fan of The Waiting Place and gave McKeever his first Marvel assignments on the strength of it.[3]

In 2005, Venture Management optioned The Waiting Place, believing it to have the potential to become a TV series.[4]

Characters
  • Jeffry Dietz - the main character, who moves with his parents from the suburbs, leaving behind his girlfriend Michelle.
  • Lora Halstead - a brunette senior, she believes in free love and heavy drinking.
  • Jill Patterson - a blonde, beautiful freshman, who feels the need to dress in a sexy, feminine style in order to belong.
  • Kyle Donovan - a long-haired juvenile delinquent who uses drugs.
  • Scott Forbes - a 24-year-old who works in his father's video store and still carries a torch for his high school girlfriend, Ami.
  • Ami Briggs - Scott's ex-girlfriend, who has since married a policeman and had a child.
  • Cullen Cole - the son of the town's only black family, he faces a lot of hostility.
  • Matt "the Anarchist" - an orphan, he is physically imposing, but uses the Internet and other surveillance methods to control others and make money.
  • Steven Randall - class president, very popular; secretly gay.

Collected editions

The series has been collected into a number of trade paperbacks:

TitleMaterial collectedISBN
The Waiting Place Book One The Waiting Place vol. 1 #1–6 ISBN 0-943151-36-8
The Waiting Place Book Two The Waiting Place vol. 2 #1-6 ISBN 0-943151-53-8
The Waiting Place Book Three The Waiting Place vol. 2 #7-12 ISBN 0-943151-76-7
The Waiting Place: The Definitive Edition The Waiting Place Vol. 1 #1-6
The Waiting Place Vol. 2 #1-12		 ISBN 978-1-60010-526-5

References
  1. Sean McKeever Official Site
  2. Newsarama interview with Sean McKeever, 23 February, 2003
  3. Comixtreme interview with Sean McKeever, 2 May, 2006
  4. Variety.com news article, 7 March, 2005
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