Demo Vol. 2 #6

Written by Brian Wood
Art by Becky Cloonan

This is a title I'm really going to miss.  I have gotten, over the last half year, used to a monthly Wood/Cloonan fix, and while Wood has two other monthly books to satisfy me, I have no idea what Cloonan is working on next (more East Coast Rising would be nice though).

The last issue of their return to Demo is thoughtful and enjoyable.  Kris and Jack have a bond that makes it impossible for them to be apart.  If they are, they both become very ill and suffer great pain.  As you can imagine, their relationship is not a happy one.  They have tried to arrange their lives so that they always remain within a safe proximity to each other, but live with little contact or intimacy.

The best of the Demo stories are grounded in relationships, and this is one of them.  That these two need to be together, and have a deep, biological love for one another, without actually liking their partner is at the heart of this story.  I imagine you can make any number of comparisons to the comics industry here - the uneasy symbiosis between mainstream comics and more artsy enterprises like this one; the unhappy codependency of comic stores with Diamond, the list can go on and on.

At the end of it all though, this is a great comic, which has come to its end.  I only hope these two perfect collaborators work together again soon.