Phonogram: The Singles Club #7

Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Jamie McKelvie, with Nikki Cook, Becky Cloonan, Andy Bloor, and Sean Azzopardi

This is definitely not what I expected for the end of this series. So far, each issue of The Singles Club has been showing us differing perspectives on the same night, at the same club. I'd sort of expected the last chapter to somehow pull together a number of the different threads of each character's tale, but instead, we have an almost completely wordless issue focusing on Kid-With-a-Knife, David Kohl's (previously) non-Phonomancer friend and muscle.

And it's a great issue. Kid experiments with phonomancy, pisses off some London toughs, dances, and gets the girl. It sounds like the perfect night. As usual, McKelvie's art is brilliant, and there's a cool page where all the pictures are drawn inside the lyrics to a song hook.

The back-ups are where this issue really shines though, as there is a short story featuring Indie Dave drawn by Becky Cloonan. This was a huge surprise for me, as I love Becky Cloonan. The story looks a lot like her boyfriend's issue of Northlanders, and it's awesome.

I do hope that Phonogram returns soon, and doesn't become the victim of Gillen's employment at Marvel.

Phonogram: The Singles Club #5

Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Jamie McKelvie and Dan Boultwood

I think that this volume of Phonogram has hit on the winning formula: eschew plot and focus on characterization. In this issue, the spotlight is on Laura Heaven, who was a bit of a wallflower in the first issue, and hasn't really been seen since.

Now we get a lot more insight into her character (which isn't all that nice), via a string of quotes from Long Blondes songs (which mean nothing to me).

It's a nice, well-packaged little story. The back-up works well too. It's nice to see another issue of this - I hope that the remaining two aren't too far away...

Phonogram: Rue Britannia

Written by Keron Gillen
Art by Jamie McKelvie
Seeing as I've been enjoying the new Phonogram series (when it comes out), I decided it was time to go back and read the beginning of the title. I remember picking up the first issue on the stands, and enjoying it somewhat, but for whatever reason, I chose not to pursue the title.

Strangely, I think that first issue is the strongest in this trade. Gillen created a wonderful character in David Kohl, yet in the rest of the book, he doesn't use him to his fullest extent.

The series begins with Kohl, a Phonomancer, tasked by his Goddess to figure out what is going on with the dead Britannia, who is the goddess of Britpop, so far as I can tell. From there, Kohl goes on a pretty standard fantasy quest, except that he is journeying through underground clubs and dealing with a lot of scenesterism.

The title never really lives up to its potential. In contrast, the current "Singles Club" series is much stronger, as Gillen and McKelvie focus more on character development. This reads like an attempt to update John Constantine for indie kids, and while that has merits based solely on the strength of the concept, I found it a little facile.

As an indicator of Gillen and McKelvie's strengths though, it does demonstrate that these two up-and-comers have it in them to become stars in the comics field.

Phonogram: The Singles Club #4

Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Jamie McKelvie, with David Lafuente and Charity Larrison

Gillen and McKelvie are taking some big risks with this title, and doing some interesting things. So far, each issue has been set in the same club, and the same events are being shown from different viewpoints, but not in a Rashoman style - the events over-lap more than coincide.

This issue shines the spotlight on Seth Bingo and Silent Girl, the DJs at the club. We see only their side of any conversation and/or song request, and the camera never moves from the confines of their booth - Gillen basically wrote an issue that could be very easily adapted to a very tiny stage.

As to how this issue works in regards to the entire series? I think it's a little too early to tell. I do know that when the last issue comes out, and I want to re-read the whole thing, this is the book that's going to require the most attention.

Phonogram: The Singles Club #3

Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Jamie McKelvie, w/ Leigh Gallagher and Lee O'Connor

I know, when opening an issue of Phonogram, that I'm not going to get more than about half of the musical references, and those are going to be the most common points, as I don't listen to the same music as Gillen and McKelvie (and really can't see them doing an issue on underground hip-hop). Usually it's all good though, although I felt more than a little lost in this issue.

I think the problem is that this issue, unlike the first two, requires some working knowledge of the first Phonogram series, of which I only ever read the first issue (although it's on my list of trades to get someday). I know who David Kohl is, the main character in the first series, but I'm not sure about this Aster girl.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter, because Gillen and McKelvie are so good at writing character moments, that you don't need to know who the characters are to admire their craft - it just helps it all make a little more sense.

Anyway, this is a very good title, and it's starting to look like it's getting itself back on to some sort of regular schedule. The back-ups in this issue are decent - the first somewhat helped me get caught up on the series, and the second is cute.

Phonogram: The Singles Club #2

Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Jamie McKelvie (with Emma Vieceli and Daniel Heard)

Phonogram is to music what Local was to cities. Where Wood's and Kelly's masterpiece inserted Megan, its protagonist, into a locale, and used that environment to complement the changes in her character and life, Gillen and McKelvie are using a static environment - a particular club on, it appears, a particular night, where the changing music becomes the key into a group of characters' psyches.

In this issue, Marc (or Marquis, as the protagonist of the first issue calls him) reminisces about a lost love, to a soundtrack that is melancholy only to him. I don't know anything about the music discussed in this comic (okay, I know who Kate Bush and Diamanda Galas are, but the rest is totally unfamiliar to me), but that doesn't detract from the story. Marc visualizes the girl that he met in the same club a few years before, and sees at the same time both the good and the bad times of their relationship.

The story-telling in this comic is quite complex. The layered flashbacks within the same panel reminded me of techniques used in Brian Azzarello's fondly remembered, short-lived Loveless series, and the creators here pull it off very nicely. I also like the ways in which this issue runs parallel to (and in-between) the story told in the first issue of the series.

I think that Gillen is on to something in his Proustian evocations of music and its ability to trigger memories and melancholy in people. This 'music is magic' concept is very fertile ground. The back-ups are nice additions, but ultimately aren't that memorable.

Phonogram: The Singles Club #1

Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Jamie McKelvie (with Laurenn McCubbin and Marc Ellerby)

I thought it might be worth picking this issue up. I bought the first issue of the first series, but didn't feel compelled to continue with it. I did, however, enjoy McKelvie's series Suburban Glamour earlier this year, and thought I'd give this series another chance.

There are some things that I really like here - the 'done-in-one' format strikes me as a good idea for this type of series - it gives the writer and artist the chance to really explore their concept of phonomancy - magic made through music. The colour really highlights the high quality of McKelvie's art, and I like the panel layouts that McKelvie uses.

My problem is that I'm not sure that I felt like the 'done-in-one' story really had much of an ending to it. I didn't really understand what was happening in the bathroom scene, and where exactly the friend had gotten to. And, like many people said about the first series, some of the music references are a little too insular, although I found that they didn't detract from the story.

The two back-ups were nice additions to the main comic - I like that some creators are really feeling the need to add some value to single comics - still my preferred format really.

I'm going to have to take a look at the next issue before I buy it, but I get the feeling that if it makes it home, I'm on board for the whole series.