Forgetless #1

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Scott Forbes and Marley Zarcone

Forgetless appears to have been influenced by elements of Phonogram, Local, and Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance. That's a pretty eclectic mix of comics, but it works here.

Forgetless is some kind of club night/event in New York City, and the Forgetless event in question is the last one (although people have heard that before). The comic is split between two stories, with vastly different subject matters and art styles, although both are concerned with people going to Forgetless.

The first story, drawn by Forbes (in a style that is equal parts Luna Brothers and Waltz With Bashir), concerns two smart-assed models, who post endlessly on Twitter, and who moonlight as assassins. This is the first contract for one of the girls, whose prey is planning on attending Forgetless. Therefore, they go too. There's also a guy in a koala suit.

The second story, drawn by Zarcone, is about a trio of teens living somewhere in Jersey, who are desperate to escape to New York in general, and desperate to attend the final Forgetless in particular. The only problem is that they are under-age, and under-funded. Zarcone's art reminds me a little of Cloonan and Lolos, and chronicles the kids as they go about attempting to purchase fake ID.

I'm not sure if each issue of this mini-series will be divided into these two stories, or if other tales will also be told, but I'm definitely intrigued enough to stick around for the rest of the run, and recommend this to anyone looking for something a little different.

Forgetless #2

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Jorge Coelho and Marley Zarcone

I found the first issue of Forgetless to be a really nice surprise - I had entered it with no preconceived notions, and really enjoyed it. The second issue continues to impress. Spencer is taking a Rashomon-like approach to his story, slowly piecing together the story of why the two models are looking to kill some guy at the Forgetless club night.

This time around, we get the guy, Derrick's, story. It turns out, he's a bit of a goof. He and his friend go around filming him having sex with buildings, all in an effort to gain Youtube notoriety. When his friend is hired to help hypnotize an 'ex-gay' man into hating internet porn, and Derrick discovers a strange truth about their daughter, he decides to make a new video, which leads to the act that got him in trouble in the first issue. It sounds complicated, but the story plays out quite naturally.

The second story features the same trio of Jersey teens, and their quest for false ID so they too can attend Forgetless.

This is a fun, and quite funny, title. I see that Spencer has a cop book coming out soon, Shuddertown. I think I'll have to give that a try too...

Forgetless #4

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Jorge Coelho and Marley Zarcone

I've been enjoying Forgetless from the start.  Spencer has put together a very interesting cast of characters, and the way in which each issue's lead story has focused on a different protagonist has kept my interest much more than a more linear tale of this nature would.

In this issue, we learn a lot more about the guy in the panda suit that was shot in the first issue.  It turns out that he is a famous late night television host who has a sex addiction, and who has taken to finding assignations on Craig's List.  The panda suit is to protect his identity during these encounters.  I will admit to wondering how sex could be pleasurable in a full-body furry suit, as it doesn't seem like there are zippers in the lower front region....

The back-up story continues to feature Darla and her New Jersey friends, who finally make it to Forgetless, the club night that has provided the setting or raison d'etre of the series, only to find that their fake IDs are not as effective as they had hoped.

I'm very much looking forward to the conclusion of this series next month.

Forgetless #3

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Scott Forbes and Marley Zarcone

I've been enjoying this series quite a bit. I like how Spencer is giving us a series of short, interconnected stories, and using different artists for each one.

The first story in this issue brings us back to our two model/assassins, and their strange encounter with their intended victim and the guy in a koala suit. It becomes a springboard into the girls' backstory, this time focusing on Sara, the more experienced of the two hitgirls. This story continues to use small Twitter-like postings to give us some insight into the girls' psyches.

The second story is once again about Darla and her friends, who have now made their way into New York, and are preparing to go to Forgetless. On the way, they run into other examples of the bridge and tunnel crowd, including Darla's previous best friend, causing her to experience a crisis of faith.

Both of these stories are amusingly written and enjoyable to read. I look forward to next issue's 'sex-addicted koala' story.

Forgetless #5

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Scott Forbes, Marley Zarcone, and Jorge Coelho

I've really liked this little series about an exclusive club night in New York and the people that it attracts, including two models/hit girls, a television and movie star with a sex addiction who likes to go around in a big fuzzy panda suit, a guy who makes Youtube videos of himself having sex with public buildings, and a trio of New Jersey teenagers with dreams of the big city.

The first four issues were split between two short stories, which slowly filled in the plot-lines for these different characters.  This issue has everyone meeting up, except for the Jersey kids, who basically got their own back-up throughout the series.  The lead feature is split between two artists, who have pretty different styles, although that juxtaposition is used to good effect.

Forgetless is a fun and amusing story, which is really tapped in to the zeitgeist.  The characters are prime examples of technology-addicted youth, and the pacing is quick and witty.  This would read great in trade, and is highly recommended.

All Nighter #1

by David Hahn

I picked this up on the strength of David Hahn's name, and found it to be just about exactly what I expected.  All Nighter fits in the college kid slacker genre of indie comics, alongside books like Wet Moon, New York Four, and Forgetless, among others.

The series starts Kit, a girl about to enter art school who is living on her own (with friends) for the first time, and is looking to dump her long-time on again off again boyfriend Dwayne.  They hang out at a diner locally known as the All Nighter, and Dwayne convinces her to help him on a break-in job, which is something they used to do frequently.

Most of the issue is spent introducing us to Kit, her best friend Sally-O, her family, and other roommate.  Hahn sets up a few plot elements that will provide direction going forward, such as introducing a potential roommate, and having Kit refer a few times to how she is responsible for her mother's death.  This book is interesting, and Hahn's artwork is always nice to look at, but there's not much about it that makes it stand out yet.  I'm curious enough to stick around though, and I hope it does more to differentiate itself moving forward.

The Li'l Depressed Boy #1

Written by S. Steven Struble
Art by Sina Grace

Image has got to be the most diverse comics publisher around these days.  They put out work of such variety, and I'm always interested in seeing what new titles they give a chance to.

The Li'l Depressed Boy is drawn by the person who is now writing letter columns in Walking Dead and Invincible.  That was the extent of name recognition I walked into this comic with, but it had enough of a Forgetless meets Scott Pilgrim meets Pope Hats vibe that I figured it was worth checking it out.

The Li'l Depresed Boy is about a young man (not really a boy, but it's hard to tell - it seems he lives alone, and his friends seem to be in their 20s) who I took to be a cross between the figure in Munch's painting The Scream and Caspar the Friendly Ghost, but who the text in the back of the comic calls a ragdoll (whatever), and his quiet, sad search for friendship and love.

Not a whole lot happens in the comic - LDB goes out for a bit, meets a girl, does laundry, meets the girl again, and then goes to a concert with her.  I didn't get the feeling that he was particularly depressed, so much as a little lonesome, and that seemed to end when he met the girl.  I'm sure there's more going on here though - we just have to wait and see what happens next.

The story moves at its own pace, but the art became the thing that kept me interested throughout.  Grace's art reminds me of Marley Zarcone, and a bit of Vasilis Lolos (where is that guy, anyway).  This comic has a certain charm to it, and I will be picking up the next issue.

Shuddertown #1

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Adam Geen

I pre-ordered this series based on the strength of Spencer's other current title, Forgetless, which I have been enjoying quite a bit. The two series have nothing in common beyond the author's name, but I am quite glad I picked up this comic. It's really quite good.

The first issue doesn't give us much. We figure out that the main character, police Lieutenant Isaac Harrison, who has recently been shot on the job, is in a bad place. He's got a group of murders that he doesn't know how to solve - in each case, the DNA on the scene identifies the killer as being someone already known to be dead. His closest cop friend is not willing to help him transfer into vice. There's some unexplained stuff with some pills. So basically, things do look pretty bad.

This on its own is enough of a premise for a pretty decent cop comic, but Spencer really draws me in through the running narrative we get from Harrison. It's basically an essay on lying, and how to be an effectual one. It makes me question if anything we are seeing is accurate or true, and calls out for repeated readings.

The art, by Green, works here. It's got an Alex Maleev/Michael Gaydos kind of thing going on, which I like. I'm excited about this title, and looking forward to more.

Existence 2.0/3.0

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Ron Salas and Joe Eisma

I had felt like I'd missed the boat by not buying Nick Spencer's debut mini-series Existence 2.0.  At the time that it started coming out, I obviously didn't know the man's name, and while the concept sounded interesting, the art didn't do anything to grab my attention.  By the time the sequel came along, I was starting to read some of Spencer's other books, such as Forgetless (which is awesome) and Shuddertown (which isn't, but started out very well), but I wasn't going to dive into a project in the middle.

This trade collects both the 2.0 and 3.0 stories, and it is interesting to read as an artifact of a now very popular writer's genesis.  Which, I guess, is another way of saying that it's not very good.  The first mini is pretty decent, actually.  It's about a scientist who has developed a conscious-transfer device, and when he is assassinated, he uses it to jump into his killer's body.  This works well, especially when the scientist is enjoying life in the new body.  Like he's doing with The Infinite Vacation (which is on semi-infinite hiatus, it seems), Spencer takes some time to explore some of the ramifications of this technology, and looks at it from a social and individualistic perspective.  As for how the device works, there is no explanation beyond showing people pointing a cell-phone sized device at the person they 'jump' to.

The thriller movie aspects of the first mini, which involve mafia backers, work out okay, and Spencer goes for a big emotional pay-off in the end.  Had he stopped there, this would have been a debut he could be pleased with, but for some reason, the decision was made to return to this story with the 3.0 sequel, which is awful.  The plot makes no sense.  The survivors from the first mini are being chased by henchmen for some CEO with a split personality disorder that causes him to walk around his office in women's underwear.  I honestly could not keep anything straight here, and quickly found that I didn't care.

The art in this book is problematic as well.  The 2.0 story looks better than the sequel, but not by much.  Ron Salas provides most of the art, and is joined at the end of the book by Spencer's Morning Glories collaborator Joe Eisma. Had I not read that on the cover, I never would have guessed it.  Much of this book looks rushed and poorly-rendered (except for a cool action sequence that is split between two different times at the beginning of 3.0). 

In all, this book is a disappointment.

morning glories #1

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Joe Eisma

I've said it before, but it bears repeating.  Nick Spencer is going to be the next Jonathan Hickman.  He's been showing a remarkable range across his recent Image mini-series (Forgetless, Shuddertown, and Existence 2.0 and 3.0, which I haven't read yet), and has now started this new title, which is unlike all of the others.

This first issue of morning glories is long, and the space is used to good effect to introduce a bunch of new characters who have been invited to study at Morning Glory Academy, an unconventional and secretive school, where 'things aren't what they seem'.

Each of the six main characters have enough space to establish themselves, and while they fall into some recognizable categories (emo girl, nice boy, nice scientific girl, psychopath), Spencer makes their interactions interesting and novel.  There is some strange stuff going on in the school, as we see right from the beginning when a student tries to escape, although that plotline does not get revisited (except for a glimpse through an open doorway).

Eisma's art works well here, reminding me of the look of some of the second-string Marvel X-Men books that focus on the younger students (I can't think of a single name, but I'm sure you know what I mean).

I'm not sure if this is a mini-series or if it's expected to be on-going, but I'm definitely going to be sticking around for a while, as I'm curious to see where this is going.

Blue Estate #5

Written by Viktor Kalvachev, Kosta Yanev, and Andrew Osborne
Art by Viktor Kalvachev, Toby Cypress, Nathan Fox, Paul Maybury, and Marley Zarcone

Blue Estate shifted in tone a little with this issue.  While there has always been a humorous aspect to this comic (dark, dark humour), this issue seemed to be much lighter and almost sillier, from word play (the Sudoku scene), physical humour (termites), and the silliness of bodyguards trying on wigs.  I'm not even going to talk about the garden gnomes.

I don't get it - Kalvachev and his team have been angling this to be a pretty dark story, but now I'm not so sure.  Still, it's pretty entertaining, so I'm not going anywhere.

There is a new introduction to the art team with this issue, and that is Marley Zarcone.  I first noticed Zarcone's work on Nick Spencer's Forgetless, and I was immediately impressed.  She's a talented artist whose style fit seamlessly with the others who work on this comic.