Time Under Tension by M. S. Harkness Review

It’s an eventful time in MS Harkness’ life: she’s graduating art school, she’s making comics, she’s having an affair with an MMA fighter, she’s doing a lil sex work on the side to fund it all, she’s studying to become a personal trainer, and her incarcerated molesting father is trying to make “amends”. Tense indeed.

Despite not being a fan of memoirs from people still quite young, I thought Time Under Tension was pretty good - certainly warranted given Harkness’ very unusual life! It’s also my first Harkness comic and I gather this is her third memoir (in 6 years - very productive!), so maybe I was more impressed because I’m reading about her life afresh rather than for a third time (assuming she doesn’t rehash old material). Either way, she’s a talented cartoonist.

That said, I didn’t totally understand the numerous time jumps in the first part. There’s a scene, then it’s 2 weeks prior; there’s another scene, then it’s 1 week before that; there’s a scene then it’s 2 weeks after that; then it’s 1 month before graduation and then it’s the night before graduating. These jumps didn’t add anything to the narrative or mean anything to me and I wasn’t sure why she just didn’t tell the story chronologically.

I was never bored reading the comic but parts of it are definitely more interesting than others. The artist residency in Pittsburgh and the various scenes with friends were fun, and the scenes involving sex work or mentions of her horrible childhood were jarring but in a way that kept the narrative unpredictable and compelling; the relationship with the MMA fighter and her pursuit of her personal trainer qualification were less so.

Like the best cartoonists, Harkness has her own drawing style and, while the book as a whole is never dull to look at, it does feel quite same-y for the most part. Occasionally though she’ll show off an amazing splash page like when she and her flat-mate were getting trashed and it gets very trippy (even though those pages are a nightmare to read!).

And she’s a good writer too, similarly unexpectedly throwing out a beautifully poignant line out of nowhere like “One day, I’ll remember it into something better than it ever was.” Helluva way to sum up a relationship while also saying so much by not saying any more.

The book just kinda ends - there’s a half-hearted attempt at growth but it doesn’t feel convincing, mostly because the book was just about stuff that happened to her at this point in her life - and I’m guessing the life story continues in the next one. Which is fine but, as the unevenness of this book highlights, navel-gazing has its limits and I’d like to see someone as talented as MS Harkness stretch and try for more focused fiction instead at some point.

As it is, Time Under Tension is a memoir full of dark material but Harkness is a likeable protagonist and the book never descends to self-pity - the opposite in fact. Worth checking out if you’re a fan of slice-of-life comics but don’t expect anything too deep or impressive from it.