Whispers #4

by Joshua Luna

Whispers is a really interesting, bizarre comic.  It's about a guy who develops the body to 'remote view', or project an astral form (to use a Marvel Comics explanation).  The guy has obsessive compulsive disorder, and great difficulty relating to the world around him.  He used his power to check in on people in his life, and became aware of a demonic entity inhabiting a man, causing him to do some pretty horrible things to small children.

In the last issue, he figures he can save an ex-girlfriend from a drug dealer who has been threatening her, and get rid of the serial killer at the same time, but this plan does not work as hoped in this issue.

To begin with, our man discovers that there are other demons working through people, including a guy who likes to lock up women in a tiled cell for weeks on end.  Also, the drug dealer figures out that he's involved in his downfall, and comes looking for him.

This is a pretty unique horror comic.  I don't have a good feeling for where Joshua Luna is taking the story, and that's probably the thing I like the most about it.  He's spent a lot of time building up this main character, and now he's landing him right in the middle of some very strange things.  His art, without any contribution from his brother, continues to surprise me, in the way that it can take a while to get used to someone you know well when they wear a new hairstyle.  I do wish this book would fix its scheduling issues though, as it's running pretty late, especially considering that it's a bi-monthly book to begin with.  Still, this is a very good series; I hope that enough people are checking it out.

Whispers #3

by Joshua Luna

I haven't seen very much buzz on-line for this comic, and I don't really understand why, because it's excellent.  Joshua Luna (without brother Jonathan, for a change) has put together a very interesting story about astral projection and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Sam has suddenly developed the ability to travel with his mind, and to read the thoughts of the people he visits spiritually.  He's discovered that an ex-girlfriend has become a junkie, and owes money to a violent dealer.  He's also stumbled upon a murderer who is killing children, who himself hears some sort of demonic voice.

Sam's a smart guy, and in this issue, he sets about trying to handle both issues, in a way that I didn't see coming.  I like that he's beginning to make some use of his abilities, instead of passively observing, as he did for the first two issues. 

I'm not sure exactly where Luna is going with this book, aside from the obvious escalation of things between Sam and this demonic figure, and that's what I like most about it.  I also appreciate the way in which Sam's OCD is being portrayed - it's very realistic, and logical within Sam's point of view.  This title deserves as much recognition as some of Image's other recent terrific titles.

Whispers #2

by Joshua Luna

Whispers is an odd series, not exactly like anything else that I've read before.  The comic focuses on Sam Webber, a young man who suffers from OCD, and who has just discovered that he has the ability to control his out of body experiences, or to remote view.

In the first issue, we met Sam, his ex-girlfriend, and her friends, who have no use for him.  We also traveled with him as he checked in on his estranged mother and his first girlfriend, who is having problems with a drug dealer.  In this issue, we see the end of his trip, which has him 'viewing' a demonic creature, which eats a baby (I know, grisly).

The next day, Sam decides not to worry about the demon thing, and instead goes to visit his ex, to prove that he really can have out of body experiences.  This conversation doesn't go well, as Sam just keeps coming off weirder and weirder.  Later, he meets a new neighbour, who seems quite open to his various quirks, mostly because she doesn't feel all that normal her own self.  Sam tells her everything, and the girl is supportive, but a little surprised that he is more concerned with patching up his relationship than he is protecting small children.

And here is what really sets this book apart.  Firstly, there are very few comics that attempt to address real mental illness, so I find that the portrayal of Sam is very interesting.  There are also very few comics that star unlikeable characters though, and as much as Joshua Luna is setting up Sam's problems as sympathetic, he's just not a very nice guy; his self-absorption does make him hard to care about.  It makes him kind of fascinating, though.

Luna's art looks nice here, and I find that I'm still trying to enumerate the differences between his solo work and his previous comics, which were done with his brother.  The people in this book have more expressive faces, showing fatigue and displeasure much more clearly than in the brothers' other work, but otherwise, there aren't a lot of differences.

Whispers is a very interesting comic.  You should check it out.

Whispers #1

by Joshua Luna

I've really come to enjoy the work of the Luna Brothers.  I've read their works backwards, starting with The Sword, then Girls, and not that long ago, their first series, Ultra. Long before that, I'd enjoyed their Marvel work on Spider-Woman, but they didn't write that.  Anyway, I have really grown to appreciate their pacing, original plots, and above all else, the strong characters that they fill their books with.

I don't know why Joshua Luna has struck out on his own with this new comic, but it makes things even less clear as to what Jonathan Luna contributed to their earlier work, as this is a very good comic.

Sam is a bit of a mess.  He's clearly suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (when we meet him, he's afraid to touch a door handle to enter a coffee shop), and his girlfriend has recently left him.  He knows he's not normal, but he also doesn't know what to do about it, especially when his dreams start to get very strange.

He tries to tell his ex about this, but seeing as she's in the middle of caring for her recently injured father, she's not too interested in Sam's problems.  Her friends are openly hostile to him.  What we later learn is that Sam is not dreaming, and has instead developed the ability to have out of body experiences, or project his spirit elsewhere.  When visiting people he knows in this state, he's able to read their minds, and make suggestions to them (hence the title of the series).

It's hard to know where this series is headed after only this first issue, but Luna has me intrigued.  He does a great job of providing the dread that comes with actually learning what others think of you, as Sam visits his estranged mother in a haunting scene.

Artistically, Joshua Luna working on his own brings a different look to the book than what we've seen when he works with his brother.  There is greater textures to the page.  The digital colouring effects that he uses give the book a warmer, more burnished feel.  It's strange - being so familiar with the brothers' work, this solo effort looks very familiar, but I don't think I would have accredited it to a Luna had I looked at it without reading the credits.

This series looks to have some promise - I don't know how long it's expected to last, but I'm probably going to be on board throughout.