Demo is a series of twelve stand alone stories focusing on young/young-ish characters, each with a unique ability, and each faces with a life altering decision. These aren't superhero stories, they don't all for a team at the end or anything. It's well done slice of life stories with powered twists.
The series was written by Brian Wood, with fantastic art by Becky Cloonan, who I'll gush over later.
Possible Spoilers
It's tempting to try and do a rundown of the twelve issues that make up the series, sadly doing so would take a long time and I'm too lazy for that. I'll try touch on my favorite issues while babbling about the entire thing.
The series opens with a story featuring a telekinetic girl and her boyfriend, dealing with their descision to run away from home to escape her abusive mother. The girl had been heavily medicated by doctors to control her mysterious condition and as they flee from their home town we see her slowly coming off the drugs. Most of the story takes place inside a car, where she voices her concern and insecurity to her boyfriend. She's not sure what will happen, she could lose control. What she's really worried about is driving him away. That something might happen, and that he might freak and leave her. After a lovely full page shot of the girl cutting loose, the duo make it to New York and are able to begin their new life.
That's a very short and abbreviated summary, but it gets the point across, I hope. The powers are not the story, they're window dressing.
In a later issue we see a blue collar worker being forced to choose between his family, who have been there, helped him, and offer an honest yet perhaps boring life, and his friends, who constantly exploit him, use him, treat him like s**t, but at the same time offer a way to something more. You can remove the fact that he happens to be insanely strong and the point and strenght and heart of the story remains. The powers are just the sizzle, a concession to a market that foolishly favors stories about people in tights with powers.
We see it again and again throughout the series. A young girl discovers a family secret and realizes that the image of her father might not be accurate. A young man coming to terms with the suicide of his girlfriend. The powers are used to help illustrate these themes, but they are not themes themselves. If that makes any sense.. in some cases there aren't even any powers. In my personal favorite story, three life long friends working together begin to drift apart as two realize that they want and can have more from life than the overnight shift at a supermarket. No powers, just a really funny story.
Anyway. Throughout the entire series, each tale is beautifully illustrated by Becky Cloonan, who can't get enough praise for her work here. Why? Twelve different stories, twelve different styles of art. From the comical style used in "Midnight to Six" to the more delicate, airy work in "Emma," her work never fails to impress and please.
The series was originally published as twelve single issues, each with the main story than a few pages of extras that ranged from scripts, pinups, fan art, interviews, etc. The collection doesn't include the extras, but you'll still get the main stories in a lovely little package. Size wise it's a bit larger than most manga books, but small than the standard US TPB.
It's $20, black and white, and published by Ait/Planetlar.
Incidently, tracking down the individual issues would set you back about $36, so it's a damn good buy.
Have some relevant links.
BrianWood.com
Becky Cloonan at Estrigious.com
Ait/PlanetLar
(note: I might rewrite portions of this, in a hurry at the moment)
The series was written by Brian Wood, with fantastic art by Becky Cloonan, who I'll gush over later.
Possible Spoilers
It's tempting to try and do a rundown of the twelve issues that make up the series, sadly doing so would take a long time and I'm too lazy for that. I'll try touch on my favorite issues while babbling about the entire thing.
The series opens with a story featuring a telekinetic girl and her boyfriend, dealing with their descision to run away from home to escape her abusive mother. The girl had been heavily medicated by doctors to control her mysterious condition and as they flee from their home town we see her slowly coming off the drugs. Most of the story takes place inside a car, where she voices her concern and insecurity to her boyfriend. She's not sure what will happen, she could lose control. What she's really worried about is driving him away. That something might happen, and that he might freak and leave her. After a lovely full page shot of the girl cutting loose, the duo make it to New York and are able to begin their new life.
That's a very short and abbreviated summary, but it gets the point across, I hope. The powers are not the story, they're window dressing.
In a later issue we see a blue collar worker being forced to choose between his family, who have been there, helped him, and offer an honest yet perhaps boring life, and his friends, who constantly exploit him, use him, treat him like s**t, but at the same time offer a way to something more. You can remove the fact that he happens to be insanely strong and the point and strenght and heart of the story remains. The powers are just the sizzle, a concession to a market that foolishly favors stories about people in tights with powers.
We see it again and again throughout the series. A young girl discovers a family secret and realizes that the image of her father might not be accurate. A young man coming to terms with the suicide of his girlfriend. The powers are used to help illustrate these themes, but they are not themes themselves. If that makes any sense.. in some cases there aren't even any powers. In my personal favorite story, three life long friends working together begin to drift apart as two realize that they want and can have more from life than the overnight shift at a supermarket. No powers, just a really funny story.
Anyway. Throughout the entire series, each tale is beautifully illustrated by Becky Cloonan, who can't get enough praise for her work here. Why? Twelve different stories, twelve different styles of art. From the comical style used in "Midnight to Six" to the more delicate, airy work in "Emma," her work never fails to impress and please.
The series was originally published as twelve single issues, each with the main story than a few pages of extras that ranged from scripts, pinups, fan art, interviews, etc. The collection doesn't include the extras, but you'll still get the main stories in a lovely little package. Size wise it's a bit larger than most manga books, but small than the standard US TPB.
It's $20, black and white, and published by Ait/Planetlar.
Incidently, tracking down the individual issues would set you back about $36, so it's a damn good buy.
Have some relevant links.
BrianWood.com
Becky Cloonan at Estrigious.com
Ait/PlanetLar
(note: I might rewrite portions of this, in a hurry at the moment)
