Alex Groff
Feb 2, 2004, 10:16 am
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/ind/demo3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/ind/demo3t.jpg" align=left alt="INDIE SPOTLIGHT: DEMO #3 REVIEW"></a>Reviewer: Alex groff, al_groff@yahoo.com
Quick Rating: Average
Story Title: Bad Blood
A change of pace for DEMO.
Story: Brian Wood
Art: Becky Cloonan
Letters: Ryan Yount
Published by: Larry Young and Mimi Rosenheim, AiT/Planet Lar
Brian Wood keeps talking about DEMO as a series of short films, but the more I read, the more I want to compare them to tracks on an album. The stories are not related, but they are connected, by themes, archetypes, motifs; like songs on a CD, they're coherent without having anything to do with one another. If you support this idea, then like an album, DEMO needed an opening track filled with energy and tension, which NYC provided. The next track, Emmy, took the same themes and structure and turned it the story from angst and action to quiet desperation. They're both excellent stories. However, if all the songs use the same structure, play at the same tempo, then the album starts to get monotonous. So, with DEMO #3, Wood and Cloonan change the pace in an unexpected way.
DEMO #3: Bad Blood is, fundamentally, a different kind of story than the last two stories. There's a tension here, but it's an understated kind of tension: slower, subtle, and character-driven as opposed to situation-driven. Both NYC and Emmy were stories about escaping from a situation: the characters had an incredible depth to them, but it was still the action that made things happen. Here, the story is about Samantha (Sam) Hurley, as she tries to come to grips with her parents' deaths, and with everything that went wrong because of their divorce thirteen years ago. It's a story about second chances that is led by Sam's attempt to deal with her frustrations.
Sam is at her father's funeral, seeing her half-brother Sean for the first time since she was four. The rest of the story follows them as Sean takes Sam home, and they talk about things that went wrong, and what being a family is about. No, you can stop gagging (it's a public forum, please don't embarrass yourself)— Brian Wood has not lost his edge since the last issue. When Sean tries to justify the divorce, he explains, "Our family's always been kinda f***ed up, you know that, but it's just who we are. Not everyone has to have a normal family, nor should they. Being f***ed up's ok, you know, really." The characters are still filled with angst, and we do have an [unnecessary] action scene, but Wood turns the story in another direction here. He turns it inwards, and while the focus is inward, the story works very well.
Becky Cloonan's art is hit and miss for me. On the positive side, I think her characters are getting stronger with every issue. DEMO's stories are character driven. The facial expressions and gestures are what carry the story, and Cloonan delivers. (I get a chuckle each time I look at Sam staring at the tree branch with a look of utter bewilderment.) The style here is similar to DEMO #1, but more consistent, and with a better use of black and white contrast. Now, Cloonan admits herself that she is not good at drawing cars, but that's not a serious flaw. Let's face it, capturing an exact mood on Sam's face is far more important than drawing a sleek car. Really, the only place I feel let down is the action scene.
Although the art isn't as clear as it could have been, the real let down with the action scene is the scene itself. (With apologies, I am being purposefully vague because this plot twist is a bit of a spoiler, so please bear with me.) Simply put, the whole affair felt like a deus ex machina: forced in, and out of place. After sixteen pages of solid— and I mean solid— characterization, the story makes a bizarre right hand turn and speeds to the end of the story. The plot is resolved, and Sean does explain the twist, but it still feels like a gimmick, to add tension or give the story a visual climax. Because this deals with a car, the climax is also Cloonan's work at it's most static state— but the fault here lies more with the plot itself than the art or the scripting. It's a surprising twist, but the surprise is because we've seen so much better from Brian Wood.
To be fair, in a comic about mutations it's hard to avoid some kind of action, and if you look at DEMO like an album, then Bad Blood does change the tempo and structure. The themes are developed beautiful, and the characters— as we've come to expect— are richer in 24 pages than many characters are in a hundred. Still, the resolution leaves a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth— and that's a shame when everything else works so well.
ART:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitnone.jpg
STORY:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitnone.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitnone.jpg
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aithalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitnone.jpg
Quick Rating: Average
Story Title: Bad Blood
A change of pace for DEMO.
Story: Brian Wood
Art: Becky Cloonan
Letters: Ryan Yount
Published by: Larry Young and Mimi Rosenheim, AiT/Planet Lar
Brian Wood keeps talking about DEMO as a series of short films, but the more I read, the more I want to compare them to tracks on an album. The stories are not related, but they are connected, by themes, archetypes, motifs; like songs on a CD, they're coherent without having anything to do with one another. If you support this idea, then like an album, DEMO needed an opening track filled with energy and tension, which NYC provided. The next track, Emmy, took the same themes and structure and turned it the story from angst and action to quiet desperation. They're both excellent stories. However, if all the songs use the same structure, play at the same tempo, then the album starts to get monotonous. So, with DEMO #3, Wood and Cloonan change the pace in an unexpected way.
DEMO #3: Bad Blood is, fundamentally, a different kind of story than the last two stories. There's a tension here, but it's an understated kind of tension: slower, subtle, and character-driven as opposed to situation-driven. Both NYC and Emmy were stories about escaping from a situation: the characters had an incredible depth to them, but it was still the action that made things happen. Here, the story is about Samantha (Sam) Hurley, as she tries to come to grips with her parents' deaths, and with everything that went wrong because of their divorce thirteen years ago. It's a story about second chances that is led by Sam's attempt to deal with her frustrations.
Sam is at her father's funeral, seeing her half-brother Sean for the first time since she was four. The rest of the story follows them as Sean takes Sam home, and they talk about things that went wrong, and what being a family is about. No, you can stop gagging (it's a public forum, please don't embarrass yourself)— Brian Wood has not lost his edge since the last issue. When Sean tries to justify the divorce, he explains, "Our family's always been kinda f***ed up, you know that, but it's just who we are. Not everyone has to have a normal family, nor should they. Being f***ed up's ok, you know, really." The characters are still filled with angst, and we do have an [unnecessary] action scene, but Wood turns the story in another direction here. He turns it inwards, and while the focus is inward, the story works very well.
Becky Cloonan's art is hit and miss for me. On the positive side, I think her characters are getting stronger with every issue. DEMO's stories are character driven. The facial expressions and gestures are what carry the story, and Cloonan delivers. (I get a chuckle each time I look at Sam staring at the tree branch with a look of utter bewilderment.) The style here is similar to DEMO #1, but more consistent, and with a better use of black and white contrast. Now, Cloonan admits herself that she is not good at drawing cars, but that's not a serious flaw. Let's face it, capturing an exact mood on Sam's face is far more important than drawing a sleek car. Really, the only place I feel let down is the action scene.
Although the art isn't as clear as it could have been, the real let down with the action scene is the scene itself. (With apologies, I am being purposefully vague because this plot twist is a bit of a spoiler, so please bear with me.) Simply put, the whole affair felt like a deus ex machina: forced in, and out of place. After sixteen pages of solid— and I mean solid— characterization, the story makes a bizarre right hand turn and speeds to the end of the story. The plot is resolved, and Sean does explain the twist, but it still feels like a gimmick, to add tension or give the story a visual climax. Because this deals with a car, the climax is also Cloonan's work at it's most static state— but the fault here lies more with the plot itself than the art or the scripting. It's a surprising twist, but the surprise is because we've seen so much better from Brian Wood.
To be fair, in a comic about mutations it's hard to avoid some kind of action, and if you look at DEMO like an album, then Bad Blood does change the tempo and structure. The themes are developed beautiful, and the characters— as we've come to expect— are richer in 24 pages than many characters are in a hundred. Still, the resolution leaves a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth— and that's a shame when everything else works so well.
ART:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitnone.jpg
STORY:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitnone.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitnone.jpg
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aithalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/aitnone.jpg