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By Marc Mason

April 13, 2004

DEMO #1-5
Written by Brian Wood and Drawn by Becky Cloonan
Published by AiT/Planetlar

Just when you think you know someone...

AiT impresario Larry Young changed his publishing plan a few years ago and stopped putting out standard monthly pamphlet comics. In turn, he committed to producing high-quality original graphic novels, and he's done a damned good job of it. Read the archives of this column if you don't believe me. But last Fall, Larry decided to get experimental again, and now we have DEMO, a twelve-issue mini-series from Planetlar's go-to guy, Brian Wood. And while at first, like many, I found the idea of AIT going back and putting out a series of pamphlets to be more than a bit baffling, after reading issues one through five of DEMO, I can actually see that it makes decent sense. Who knew!?

DEMO is a done-in-one anthology of stories dealing with disaffected modern youth who have special abilities or powers. That doesn't mean they put on capes and pervert suits and go try and stop crime. Far from it. Wood's scripts stay about as far from that idea as possible. Instead, the powers and abilities actually play themselves out physically to a certain extent, but mostly on a metaphorical stage.

Issue two is the real stand out in that approach. "Emmy" is the story of a young girl who stopped speaking a couple of years ago, not only because she felt alienated in her small town, but because even the act of talking was an act of destruction. She has the power to make people do whatever she says, and she reached a point where she abused that power horribly, leaving her mother a vegetable. Cloonan's art does an outstanding job of taking a very dialogue-light script and conveying the emptiness and pain inside of Emmy's soul as she tries to lead as normal of an existence as is possible for someone who can command the world to give her what she wants. However, there's always the risk that someone will upset her delicate balance of guilt and repression, and that's where the guts of Wood's story resides.

Another outstanding effort is issue five's "Girl You Want," the tale of a young girl who is both literally and (again) metaphorically shaped by the way people perceive her. Wood and Cloonan present a tale that ruminates on the nature of identity and how identity is shaped by the constructions of environment. Cloonan does some really interesting things with her art, as well. Each issue, she finds a different style to work in, attempting to set a stronger milieu for the characters. Issue five finds her drawing inspiration from such disparate sources as Paul Pope and Christine Norrie, yet it never seems ungainly or wrong. Instead, it makes for good comics.

The world of DEMO does not (as of yet) interconnect. None of the characters meet each other or team up, or any of that other nonsense, and I am working from the assumption that Wood won't do anything that cheesy in the final seven issues of the book. I'm hoping that he and Cloonan stick with their "thematic" approach to the series and continue to present interesting just-at-the-edge-of-real-life scenarios. That may allow for a couple more misses like issue four's "Stand Strong," but even then it allows for the possibility of interesting characters whose world we can see and understand. And as for the publishing plan...

DEMO's stand-alone story approach will read just fine in trade paperback form, but the individual pamphlets do allow for solid pacing and a solid read. I'd like to put out the hope that AIT will publish the complete series in a hardcover edition, using the excellent paper stock that the singles are using. Yeah, it is strange to see a pamphlet from Planetlar, but if they're going to do it, this was the right way: with something where that format works and the material is very good. Grades: Issue 1 B, Issue 2 A+, Issue 3 B+, Issue 4 B-, Issue 5 A, Series So Far: B+

Should It Be A Movie?

By its nature, the anthology is generally not something well-suited for adaptation to the silver screen. However, it is well-suited for the small screen, and DEMO is a wonderful example of that.

Some of the finest television ever produced from genre material was anthological in format. THE TWILIGHT ZONE. THE OUTER LIMITS. Concepts built around a small inner-idea and fleshed out by talented writers and directors. DEMO represents an excellent opportunity for a savvy producer to put together a nice package for a smart cable network looking for a prestige, limited episode product. I think there's way too much risk to put something like DEMO on the air for five years and destroy the subtlety of the types of tales Wood and Cloonan are telling; however, putting together a couple of thirteen episode seasons and getting them to DVD after they're finished sounds like a very nice moneymaker for the right person. Let the bidding begin!

Finishes

Readers of my good friend Chris Allen's Breakdowns column here at the Shoot saw last week that Chris is taking a brief vacation from his column. So as a small sign of respect, for the next couple of weeks, I'll be doing "finishes," some shorter reviews, to pick up a bit of the comic reviewing slack here at MPS.

• PUNISHER: THE END, written by Garth Ennis, drawn by Richard Corbin, published by Marvel Comics. Just in time for the feature film, Punisher scribe Ennis enlists Corbin to tell the tale of Frank Castle's final mission. This wonderfully strange, grim, and dark tale finds the vigilante walking a post-nuclear war wasteland, headed for the last few kills of his life, ready to rest in peace. Corbin's fantastic art lends a deep nihilism to Castle's final moments, and yet the story never seems to take its tongue out of its cheek for long. Marvel's "END" series have been seriously hit and miss, but this one ranks with HULK: THE END at the top of the scale.
• QUEEN AND COUNTRY VOLUME 5: OPERATION STORMFRONT, written by Greg Rucka, drawn by Carla Speed McNeil, published by Oni Press. Volume five finds British spy Tara Chace dealing with the death of her former lover Ed Kittering, a fellow spy; breaking in Kittering's replacement; and headed off to Soviet Georgia to investigate a rash of kidnappings of wealthy foreigners. Many people run hot and cold on QUEEN AND COUNTRY, but even when it is a tad boring and static, Rucka manages to suck me back in with interesting character moments and some stunning moments of moral bleakness. Chace's ultimate solution to retrieving the man she was sent to Georgia for was a smack upside the head in the best possible way: it reminded the reader that spies don't play by the same moral rules as everyone else, no matter how much we may want to apply our beliefs to them. Rucka still does his best work when he isn't constrained by working with another company's toys, and McNeil (FINDER) does an effective job of telling the story. This book continues to be one I look forward to reading.
• TELL ME SOMETHING, written and drawn by Jason, published by Fantagraphics Book. Norwegian comics master returns with another anthropomorphic tale of love and drama in this unusual tale. Star-crossed lovers on the run must deal with hitmen, fickle parents, and other unseen forces. I'm hard pressed to really describe the contents of this book, as not only are some of the events open to interpretation, but I don't want to spoil the book, either. What I will tell you is that this book is one that you can re-read multiple times and get something different from each time. It is a beautifully illustrated book, with wonderful production values, and a huge heart. If there's ever been the equivalent of a Charlie Chaplin film in comics, this is it.