Revolver

by Matt Kindt

I really enjoyed this graphic novel.  Aside from a short in a Myspace Dark Horse Presents collection, I'd never read any of Kindt's work, although I have picked up a couple of his books since getting this one.  He has an unusual style for Vertigo - it's much more indie, although they are increasingly moving in that direction - and is a very good writer.

Revolver is about a man, Sam, who jumps, every night at 11:11, to a different world, where things are in bad shape.  In our world, Sam is a bit of a loser - he's stuck in a dead-end job at a magazine, working for a woman he hates.  His girlfriend works there too - she got him the job - and he hates her empty materialism as much as he hates his job.

In the other world, avian flu and terrorist attacks have crippled the United States.  Many people are dead or just missing, and Sam ends up working with his boss on a newsletter which they distribute freely to try to help people.  In this world, Sam has had to kill to protect himself and his new friend (who he still hates in the regular world).

In a very short time, it becomes clear that life in the other world has more value to Sam than his regular life does.  He learns things in the normal world, and then applies that knowledge to the ruined one.  It's interesting how closely they mirror one another, while being so vastly different.  Eventually, Sam learns that he is not the only person who can jump in this way, and the book becomes even more interesting.

Kindt uses different colour schemes to indicate what world we are in, and each page has a CNN-style news-ticker scrolling across the bottom.  This doesn't add much information, but we can quickly tell from the level of triviality in the stories which world we are in.  Statistics involving flu deaths or the destruction of Seattle?  Bad world.  Information about a mindless celebrity?  Ours.

Revolver raises some interesting questions about the value of our lives in our modern world, and is also a pretty gripping read.  Recommended.