Origin
Hillary Chan is the protagonist of issue six of the Drawn & Quarterly series, Optic Nerve.
Creation
Hillary was created by Adrian Tomine.
Character Evolution
After living for years with overbearing parents, constantly in the shadow of her sister Grace, Hillary moves away from New Jersey and leaves her family behind. But things do not quite work out as planned. She gets a job in telesales, working for a catalog company, but is fired after a series of mistakes. Hillary is socially awkward, and is disappointed when she loses her job, as she finds it so much easier to communicate by phone. In person, she struggles to speak, becoming quiet and anxious – which people tend to mistake for sadness, or disinterest. She makes friends, but quickly grows apart from them. Eventually, she begins to sink into a depression. When a local radio station announces a competition to win a trip to Hawaii, Hillary begins to fantasise about escaping to a sun drenched paradise.
Hilary attempts to enter the competition, but when she is not the lucky caller, she ends up having a conversation off-air with the DJ, Johnny Angel. Johnny invites Hillary out for a drink, and she accepts. The two meet at a bar, and Hillary sees that Johnny is a sad, washed up, and bitter. He rants at Hilary about how he used to be popular, and moderately famous, but is now a has-been – making Hillary feel sympathetic toward him. She then performs a sexual act on him in his truck, and he promises to enter her into the prize draw for the trip to Hawaii. The two never speak again. Around this time her flatmate, Lloyd, moves out to live with his partner. While strictly friends, it is revealed that Hillary and Lloyd shared an intense, three day sexual encounter when she first moved in – only for Lloyd to back away, never again showing a romantic interest in her.
Just when Hillary believes her luck cannot get any worse, her parents call to inform her that her grandmother has died of a heart attack. Soon after, Hillary meets Sam while she is making prank phone calls. He becomes interested in her because he likes her voice, and when the prank she pulls on him falls flat, he tries to find out where she is. Hillary is reluctant at first, and tells him to call back another time. After their initial conversation, Sam returns to the pay phone where he spoke to Hillary, and attempts to speak to her again. This time, he tells her that if she does not reveal her location, her will hang up and walk away. He reasons that she has the advantage, since she already knows where he is. When she agrees, and tells Sam which window is hers, he invites her down for a drink – and she accepts. The couple end up going back to Sam’s place and sleeping together, and after spending the night with each other, Hillary asks Sam if he will go with her to her grandmother’s funeral – but whether he turns up or not is left in doubt. On the morning of her grandmother’s funeral, at the end of her story, Hillary discovers that she did not win the holiday to Hawaii.
Major Story Arcs
Hillary does not appear in any major story arcs.
Powers And Abilities
Hillary is a human character with no special powers or abilities.